The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-06-15

other side, the wooden bicycle between
He got fence rail to make sure Of the
dog; but 1t was unnecessary; the heavy
wooden wheel had broken the rabid
animals back.
When the squire turned TO Csrroty
he found that youth, dusty and bloody
from bleeding nose, preparing to re.
mount.
"I'm going after the doctor, squire,
for Jack Ginter; he's hurt" Carroty
said, apologetically. 81 wouldn't have
come this way riding this, if it had
been for anything else. thought you
wouldn't mind, since it is for the doc
tor in hurry"
He started off too quickly to hear
what the squire said.
A couple of afternoons later Carroty
was pulling weeds in the garden when
the squire drove up in spring wagon
and commenced to unload something
that glittered and shone in the sun
light.
"Though l don't take much stock in
these new tangled machines, it seems
to me any one who can do what you
did with wooden one, ought n have
one of the BEST" the squire said, in his
loud, hearty voice. "Little Johnny's
father sent this up for me to give to
the boy that rode over a mad dog"
Before Carroty fully realized what
was happening, the wagon had driven
off, and he was alone with handsome
new safety bicycle of well known
make and the latest model, leaning
against the garden fence.
"Will have to keep it?" Carroty
asked, when his father reached home.
~ saw the squire on my way up,
and l think he will be hurt if you
DON'T" his father replied.
The next morning Carroty took the
new bicycle apart. The wonderful
mechanism fascinated him, The perfect
adjustment, the beauty, the lightness,
the strength! He studied il and finger
ed it with rapture. Then he got out
the Through by Daylight and stood
them side by side, the clumsly, wood
en-, homemade affair and the graceful,
trim machine of glittering steel and
shining black enamel, polished wood
end, smooth gray rubber. His frecked
face flushed as he remembered how
proud he had felt of that wooden thing,
how nearly perfect he had considered
it, how he gloried in the thought that
he had made it.
"Come on!" Aren't you ever going
to try it?" cried Jakey, who had been
writhing with impotence during the
examination and the rebuilding.
"You can ride the new one. Pm
not going back on Through by Day
light, just yet" Carroty replied.
The squire saw the two riders go
down the hill. Jakey's plump legs be-
strobe the new bicycle; Carroty, erect,
bareheaded, his red hair streaming out
like the tail of comet, rode the old
wooden wheel.
well, if he isnt't queer one!"
calculated the squire.
His opinion of Carroty's queerness
would have received further confrma.
ton could he have witnessed what fol.
lowed.
A mile from townsville lies dark
pond, surrounded with hemlock trees
and bright with white pond lilies. The
center of the pool is dark and still and
deep, so deep that the people say it 10
bottomless, and the name is Deep Pond.
Carroty pushed his wheel along the
path to the pond, and Jakey, as was his
habit, followed without asking ques-
items.
When they reached the bank and
Carroty placed the Through by Day
light in the fat-bottomed boat, then
stepped in himself, Jakey could keep
still no longer.
"For the lands sake, Carroty, what
are you going to do?" he exclaimed.
"You stay there and watch me-" said
Carroty, sternly.
He rowed out to the middle and
stopped. Twice he stopped and lifted
the wheel, only to drop it again. At
last, with the air and gesture of one
who nerves himself to a mighty effort,
he raised it until he was able to push it
over the edge of the boat into the
water.
The Through by Daylight went down
like lead, and the dark pond closed over
it without a ripple. Carroty rowed
swiftly to the shore and, leaping out,
walked away without backward look.
Jakey fastened the boat and followed
his brother in sympathetic silence until
they reached the road at the edge of
woods. Them he pushed forward the
glittering bicycle.
"Here, Carroty-here you arel" he
said.
Carroty shook his head.
You go on and take ride" he said.
~ don't feel like riding to-day. Ny
my stomach hurts me. I'll try it to-
morrow.
Jakey whirled off gayly; and Caro-
ty climbed the hill, going through the
fields 80 the squire would not see him.
He went to his workshop and looked
in al the door.
"Some day, maybe, III make some
thing else," he said to himself, -New
York Independent.