The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-12
THE BOY, THE BOBO-
LINK THE BUTTER
FLIES AND THE BEES
A Connecticut Fairy story.
BY c. 3. LOOMS.


/ state of Connecticut.
John Saltonstan was a poor orphan. but
he was of such a happy disposition that
his lot was not as hard as that of most
! orphans. because there was not a family
! in the village who was not glad to keep
John over night and give him two meals
| just to hear his merry laugh and his me-
lodius whistle. And he was a willing boy.
TOO, and many is the wood pile that has
grown up by the sound of his saw and
many are the weeds that have persisted
| ingioriously thanks TO his stubby fingers.
Now. when ne was years old a wicked
and mean man, whose name was Milford
! Farwell and who EARNED it, about three
miles out of Woodstock, took it into his
| wicked head that he must have a hired
hoy. And this was less because he needed
| help than because ne wanted to have some
one to hector and tease So he sought
out John and asked him if he'd like a
| nice home and oil the comforts of farm
life, and happy little John smiled one OF
! his smiles and laughed one of his laughs
! and said yes.
The next day John left the old carpenter
shop where he had been sleeping for some
time past, and walked out to Farwell's
ifiNNSF NAiiNu II HSdi OilAitN lie lOdiNl
lie TO be an uninvting looking farm of
some sixty acres. There was a big two.
story house connected with a woodshed
and carriage house, a barn and ten hen
| houses, all sadly In need of paint
That night John hod a supper of milk
and went to bed without having been sco.d-
ed, but early the next morning-at day
break-Mr Farwell came up to the attic
and called him with a rough Here, you
drowse-a-b what am 1 fedin and cloth
in you fer I'd like L know, ef II amt
ihet you may work fer me. Git up an
come out door an earn yer breakfast"
John rose and dressed, smiling all the
while at the rough words of MIR. Farwen.
for he supposed that he was testing
But Farwel never TESTED and as soon as
the boy was out of doors he heaved a
piece of earth at him and said: Il want
my ten-acre patch of corn hoed before
breakfast Eff tisn't done no breakfast
John seized the hoe and ran, laughing
to the lot, but 1 know of no boys who
could do such a Job before breakfast, un-
less breakfast were postponed several
days, and then I'm sure they could not
do II.
However, John set bravely to work, ana |
after he had done one row a bobolink |
perched on his hoe handle and began sing
ing and although the boy had never I'M |
derstood bird language before he now |
knew that the bird was saying:
Keep on laughing while you hoe,
] will do the rest, you know"
So John kept on hoeing and laughing |
and whistling and the hoe Travelled so
fast that he could hardly keep up with 1t. |
He followed 1t up with his hands on the |
handle and before you could say Jack Rob-
inson he had hoed ten long rows, and |
when Mr.. Farwell came up TO trounce him |
for not doing his task, John had finished |
uvass
grass.
Mr.. Farwell was so surprised that he
forgot to be angry, and he told the boy
to go into the house and eat his breakfast |
and be quick about 1t, as he wasn't going |
to keep him In ideness.
John had chased the hoe so hard that |
he had good appetite and he quickly |
made an end of the popcorn and milk that |
served for his breakfast.
The meal over, he wandered out into |
the kitchen to see if Inere was any one |
to talk to, for ne was a sociable little fell |
low. But there was no one. The break |
fast had not needed cooking. Mr.. Far |
well popped enough corn to last a week /
and so saved the expense of hired girl /
and he lived oil alone. Indeed, no ono |
would have dared to live with him, except |
John, who was too light-hearted to realize |
what fear was
Farwell had breakfasted as soon as he |
had risen and he now came in and found |
John i'm the kitchen. Here, I didn't tell /
you you could snoop all over my house /
If you're through with your breakfast go |
out and clear my four acre lot OF stumps |
I've been meaning to do it for years but |
I've never had the time nor the strength
Get 1t done by noon or you have no lunch,
but a whipping"
John laughed long and loud. Then he
said, IT'S easy to work for a man who
makes my work so light and who feeds
fond of pop corn and milk and thought II
better than meat any day.
He walked gaily out TO the lot where the
stumps were lying He whistled like a
thrush as he went, but when he saw the
size of the lot and the number OF oak
stumps he was troubled. However, 1t was
not like him to give up at the outset, so he
seized his hoe and bravely tackled the
first stump. He hoed the earth from
around II and then he picked up a crow
bar and tried to pry the stump Out of its
earthly bed, but the poor child might as
well have tried to throw the earth at the
sun. The stump wouldn't budge. Pot n
didn't cry or sit down i'm despair. He
simply whistled a new tune and tackled
the job again. While he labored, singing
and whistlng by turns, beautiful but
terfiy flew up to him and settled upon the
crow bar and in an instant It became as
light as a feather in his hands for, of
and If a heavy butterfly would
have made the crow bar heavier 1t would
stand to reason that a light butterfly
would make 1t lighter.
But light crow bar Is not as servicea-
BILE as a heavy one and John saw the
lightness was in the wrong place. so he
said very genuy-he was always kind 70
you please, Miss Butterfly
] think that if you'd flutter down to tie
stump Il would help me more than II does
to make the crow bar light" The butter
fly nodded her wings and few upon the
stump and In a moment II became so light
that John pulled IL out of the ground and
cast il aside as easily as If Il had been a
turnlp. So the butterfly huttered from
stump to stump, followed by John, who
first dug the earth from around them and
then yanked them out with ease, and by
eleven o'clock he had cleared the whole
field and had piled the stumps up in a
pyramid sixty feet high.
Promptly at y Mr.. Farwell came out to
the lot looking like a cross giant. He was
l. Go.