The morning news., 1899-12-31
AMlNADAB SKELCH AND
HIS FREE LIBRARY.
The story of "a Really Good Boy
With n Defective Moral sense.

Copyright. 1890 by Charles Battel
Loomis.)
Aminadab Skelch had a defective mora
sense, but you must not blame him for Il
too harshly. What could any one exp
of boy who, having such dradful
name as skelch. had been saddlsd with
Aminadab when he was too young 70 pro-
test. OF course the boys called him DAB
or Dabhy for short, or else Amen which
was just as bad. and he is certainly en-
titled TO some consideration on that ac-
count If he had been called Gaudensius
Stewart or AlclbIades Montrose he might
have been very noble little fellow but
the name of Aminadab prepared re3p g
for the worst. And yet he was not IN =
worst by any means. He had a love for
The beautiful and he liked 10 90 little
lindnesses for people and he was generous
10 fault. His chief failing was that he
did not know the difference between mins
and thine and Il was this that led him
into the trouble that | am about 20 e.
scribe.
one day he went TO Phi phia and
while he was there he saw many fine
buildings. Now the ittle town where he
lived. up among the mountains near Plain-
field, ~ j.. did not boast of bai'ding
more pretentious than a wooden house
and so these great stone buildings seem
ed to him like fairy palaces ane he deter
mined when he returned 10 Mullinsville 10
build a handsome library and present it to
his fellow townsmen
II is proper at this point 10 say that
while Aminadab did not boast any ac-
quaintanceship with the fairies he did
have a strength that was little short Of
supernatural lie was so strong that he
could pull young saplings from the earth
with one hand and could raise 6OO-
pound bag of meal as easily as you could
handle a five-pound bag of salt. Beside
this he was remarkably handy. He was
own cousin on his mothers side TO the boy
who made a trolley car with jack knife
as his only tool,
Now If Aminadab had possessed a good
moral sense he would have gone 10 the
proprietor of some stone yard and would
have said, II want enough stone to build
a very handsome library. l have not the
money 10 pay for II to-day and / may
never have IL but II you viii trust me and
my health does not give out, l will pay you
before l die" Most any stone seller would
have given him at least enough for base
the same thing at the pane of glass fac
tory and the store where they sell planks
of wood and the nail bazar and the paint
depot. But he did none of these things
He said to himself: Here, | am going to
give my fellow townsmen a fine library
/ am going TO make II all myself and /
don't see why can't help myself to ma
terial wherever / can find it,"
Now, as you and l know, this was very
wrong, but I'm moi telling you what
ought to have happened, but what did
happen to a little New Jersey boy who
didn't know any better.
First he selected a plot of ground on
which to build the library This was next
door TO the summer residence of man
who had gone to New York for the winter
and IL was part of his land. When people
saw Aminadab digging for the founda-
tions they did not stop him for II was
none of their business and besides, for all
they knew, he had received permission
from Mr.. Hamerton the owner. As | neg
lected to say, Aminadab was an orphan
and not answerable to any one.
OF course, 10 such O strong and handy
boy the work of digging q cellar thirty by
80 feet was not a thing 10 keep him busy
long and by nightfall of the day he had
started it, it was ali ready for the mason
work
1t would not be very interesting to tell
you how he mixed his mortar and did all
the other prosy things that go to the max
ing of a house. The remarkable thing is
that he got every stone that weni into
the building of that library from the stone
walls of the adjacent country. "a stone
here aud stone there viii never be
missed" said he, and he was right oul
although they weren't missed II was wrong
in him 10 take them without asking. I'm
not standing up for Dabby by any means
There was a very thick evergreen
hedge running along the front of the
Hamerton place, and no one noticed what
was going on behind It, so Dabby was able
to give his whole strength to his task
without interruption. And 1t took great
deal Of strength, and the boy ale his meals
with a Workman's appetite. II Is no
slight task to carry off two or three fifty
pound stones for a mile or two, and set
them up in place, but he was cheerful
worker and he knew that he was building
q memorial To himSeH ana tnht MADE the
task an easy one.
An armful of planks at planning mill
here and there, taken at the noon hour
when the men were off eating their lunch
con, and few kegs of nails which he
shouldered, two at a time, and some
quick. deft work and the floors were laid.
And ne had been only al work two or three
days. | think he must have had a strong
natural taste in architec, ure, for when
the building was completed. several New
York architects said that 1t was worthy of
Richardson at his best You ought 10
know. If you don't that Richardson was
one of the greatest Of American archi-
tects. and it is pity that he is not living
to-day,
-:ie panes of glass were harder to get
and / think that the way In which Amina
dab got them was thoroughly reprehensi-
Bile. for instead of buying them or even
taking them without leave from glazer,
he sto.e a glazier's diamond and cut the
panes out Of various houses IN town, thus
letting in the cold air and putting people
to a lot OF trouble. You may say that In
tha end it gave the glazier plenty Of
work thai he would not otherwise have
had. but ] tell you that a right that
comes from a wrong Is not the right kind
of right.
Al noon OF the fourth day the boy had
finished everything but the front doors
and he was puzzled where to get them.
He wanted something handsome, but he
didn't think that he was able 20 make
doors with the few tools a his command
and he knew OF no ready-made doors tila,
would DO. SO he took day off and went
1. H.