Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1898-07-06
to the others. Howbeit II was pretty |


with the hard, unfeeling head of Mis-
cry pressed deep down into her loving
little heart. as she swayed from side to
side, grooming her plaintive lullaby.
Small wonder that the bees took up the
song and droned slumbrous accompa-
niment, or that high above her head
the enormous pines stirred through their
depths by the soft Sierra air-or heaven
knows what-let slip Pickering lights
and shadows to play over that cast iron
face, until the child, looking down up
Oh it with the quick, transforming pow
er of love, thought that it smiled
The two remaining members of the
family were less distinctive. Gloriana
pronounced as two words, Glory
Anna-being the work of her father,
who also named it, was simply a cylin-
drical roll of canvas wagon covering
grit so as to define neck and waist,
with rudely linked face-altogether a
weak, pitiable, manlike invention-and
Johnny Dear, alleged to be the rep
resentative of John Doremus, a young
storekeeper, who occasionally supplied
Mary with gratuitous sweets. Mary
never admitted this, and as we were
all gentlemen along that road we were
blind to the suggestion. Johnny Dear
was originally small, plaster phreno.
logical cast of head and bust, begged
from some shop window in the county
town, with body clearly constructed
by Mary herself. 1t was an ominous
fact that it was always dressed as boy
and was distinctly the most human
looking of all her progeny Indeed, in
spite of the faculties that were legibly
printed all over it's smooth, white, hair
less head, it was appallingly lifelike.
Left sometimes by Mary astride of
the branch of wayside tree, horsemen
had been known to dismount hurriedly
and examine it, returning with a mys-
titled smile, and it was of record that
Cuba Bill had once pulled up the pic.
neer coach at the request of the curious
and imploring passengers and then
grimly installed Johnny Dear beside
him on the box seat, publicly deliver
ing him to Mary at Big Bend, to her
wide eyed confusion and the first blush
we had ever seen on her round, chubby,
sunburned cheeks. It may seem strange
that with her great popularity and her
we'll known maternal instincts she had
not been kept fully supplied with proper
and more conventional dolls, but it was
soon recognized that she did not care
for them-left their waxen faces, roll
ing eyes and abundant hair in bitches
or stripped them to help clothe the
more extravagant creatures of her fancy
So it came that Johnny Dear's strictly
classical profile looked out from under
a girl s fashionable straw sailor hat tt
the utter obliteration of his prominen
intellectual faculties; the Amblact
twins wore bonnets, on their ninepiI
heads, and even an attempt was mad,
to fix f1axen scalp on the iron headed
Misery. But her dolls were always
creation of her own-her affection fo
them increasing with the demand upor
her imagination. This may be somewhat
inconsistent with her habit of occasion
ally abandoning them in the woods OF
in the bitches. But she had an unbound
ed confidence in the kindly maternity
of nature and trusted her children tc
the breast of the great mother as freely
as she did herself in her own mother
lessness. And this confidence was rare
ly betrayed. Rats, mice, snails, wild
cats, panthers and bears never touched
her lost waits. Even the elements were
kindly; an Amblach twin buried under
a snowdrift in high attitudes reappear
ed smilingly in the spring in all it!
wooden and painted integrity. We were
all pantheists then-and believed thi!
implicitly. 1t was only when exposed
to the milder forces of civilization thai
Mary had anything to fear. Yet ever
then when Patsey O'Connor's domestic
goat had once tried to sample" the
lost Misery he had retreated with the
loss of three front teeth, and Thomp.
with that iron headed prodigy with a
sprained hind leg and cut and swollen
pastern.
But these were the simple Arcadian
days of the road between Big Bend and
Reno, and progress and prosperity, alas,
brought changes in their wake. 1t was
already whispered that Mary ought to
be going to school and Mr.. Amplach-
still happily oblivious of the liberties
taken with his name-as trustee of the
,.oilc school at Duckville had intimat.
ID that Mary's Bohemian wanderings
were a scandal to the county She was
growing up in ignorance, a dreadful ig-
norance of everything but the chivalry,
the deep tenderness, the delicacy and
unselfishness of the rude men around
her and obliviousness of faith in any
thing but the unreasonable bounty of
nature toward her and her children. OF
course there was fierce discussion be-
tween 1.-The boys OF the road and the
few married families of the settlement
on this point, but of course progress and
"snivelization "-as the boys chose to
call it-triumphed. The projection OF
a railroad settled it. Robert Foulkes,
promoted to firemanship on division
of the hne, was made to understand
that his daughter must be educated
But the terrible question of Mary's fam
lily remained. No school would open it's
doors to that heterogeneous collection,
and Mary's little heart would have
broken over the rude disposal or heroic
burning of her children. The ingenuity
of Jack Roper suggested compromise
She was allowed to select one to take to
school with her; the others were adopt
ed by certain of her friends, and she
was to be permitted to visit them every