Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-06-11
THAT BOY NEXT DOOR.
"A Story OF the City--Where We Do MOI Know
Our NeighbOrS.

mo letteAs?" asked the old lady.
wiping her hands on her apron. and,
pushing her spectacles up over her
forehead.
The boy, who had just gone to the
door in answer to the postman's whis-
tie, shook his head, despondently.
Nothing but the Russellville
Times" he said. ct think everybody
has forgotten that we are alive"
The old lady began washing the
dishes again, and the pretty. dark-halr-
ed girl, younger than the boy, dried
them and put them into the safe.
cts awfully lonely in city. isn't
it?" the girl said with sigh. Now
at Russelville we knew everybody, and
everybody cared what became of every
body else, but in city nobody cares.
] think a city is so heartless, Grand
ma. I wish we never had come away
from Russelville, don't you, Fred?"
81 wish we had stayed there, or that
we could make some friends here re-
piled the boy moodily
Nonsense, children" said the busy
old lady; 81 know veryswell what comes
of mixing up with everybody that
comes along. In little towns it's diff
ferent, for there you know all the folks,
and they all know you, but you must
not make all kinds of friends that you
don't know anything about"
She spoke a little sharply, for the
subject was one on which the old lady
and her young charges had disagreed
before; but as they made no reply she
went on presently, with little laugh.
t.You are just like your father when
he was young. If he got started on
ANYTHING, he never did know when to
stop. If I were to give you two your
way you would have this house filled
with all kinds of children, till l could
not walk for them"
''But, grandma, that does seem to be
a nice boy, next door," ventured Fred
again.
What do you know about him,
Fred? You don't know a. thing in the
world about him or his folks. You
must let them alone, / tell you"
And then Grandma Sullivan sat down
with the children, and read the Russell
vile paper hungarily, even to the adj
yertisements, and wondered why they
did not hear from their old friends,
to whom they had always written SO
regularly.
"If we could only hear from your
Uncle William" she said lanxiously, cit
would not seem so bad. .He and his
Used = $50 regularly, and
after getting iecteis from him all these
years l have come to feel as if l had
5 known him always, instead of never
having seen him. 1t has been about
six months since we heard a word
from any of them. I know it was be-
fore we left Russelville.''
Fred and his sister looked up sud-
denly, and found that there were tears
in the bright old eyes behind the
glasses and they realized all at once
that she had been lonely, as well as
they. Then how brave they both were,
all at once. FREQ. was quite sure that
his coming to the city was going to be
the making of his fortune; and where
else would Annie have had an oppor-
tunity to learn drawing and singing in
ths public schools?
After that the time moved very
swiftly to Fred, who was really getting
on with his work. He had taken such
pains in the little things he had to do,
that the gentleman in the Office where
he was employed had begun to show
an interest in him. They had even
given him a small increase of salary,
a very small one, indeed, but it was