Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1899-05-27
"A MOTHER OF FIVE
BY BRET HARTE.


her own age was barely 9. Two of these
children were twins, and she generally
alluded to them as "Mr. Amplach's
children, 2 referring to an exceedingly
respectable gentleman in the next set
Element, who / have reason to believe
has never set eyes on her or them. The
twins were quite naturally alike-hav-
ing been in a previous state Of existence
two ninepins-and were still somewhat
vague and irrelevate below their shout
ders in their long clothes, but were also
firm and globular about the head, and
there were not wanting those who pro-
fessed to seq in this an unmistakable re-
semblanoe to their reputed father. The
other children were dolls of different
ages, sex and condition, but the twins
may be said to have been distinctly her
own conception. Yet such was her adj
mirable and impartial maternity that
she never made any difference between
them. "The Amplach children" was
a description rather than a distinction.
She was herself the motherless child of
Robert Foulkes, a hardworking but
somewhat %improvident teamster on the
express route between Big Bend and
Reno. His daily ayocation, when she
was not accompanying him in the wag-
on, led to an occasional dispersion Of
herself and her progeny along the road
and at wayside stations between those
places. But the family was generally
collected together by rough but kindly
hands already familiar with the han
ding of her children. / have a very vivid
recollection of Jim Carter %trampling
into a saloon after a five mile walk
through a snowdrift with an Amplach
twin in his pocket. "Somethin ought to
be done, T" he growled, 'to make Mary
a little more careful o. them Amplach
children. | picked up one outer the
snow a mile beyond Big Bend" "God
bless my souli" said a casual passenger,
looking up hastily. Il didn't know that
Mr.. Amplach was married. " Jim wink
ed diabolieally at him over bis glass.
mo more did l, " he responded gloom
lily, "but You can't tell anything about
the ways o. them respectable, psalm
singin jaybirds. Having thus dis
posed of Amplaoh's character, later on
when he was alone with Mary, or
Meary. as she chose to pronounce it,
the rascal worked upon her feelings
with an account of the infant Amplach'
suiferings in the snowdrift and its az.
onized whisperings for "Meary, Meary"
until real tears stood in Mary's blue
eyes. "Let this be a lesson to you" he
concluded, drawing the ninepin dexter
ously from his pocket, "for it took nigh
a quart of the best forty rod whisky
to bring that child &c" Not only did
Mary firmly believe him, but for weeks
afterward Julian Amplach, this un-
happy twin, was kept in "A somnolent
attitude in the cart and was believed to
have contracted dissipated habits from
the effects Of this heroic treatment.
Her numerous family was achieved
in only two years and was in succession
to her first, which was brought from
Sacramento at considerable expense by
q Mr.. William Dodd, also a teamster,
on her seventh birthday. This, by one
of those rare inventions known only to
u child's vocabulary, she at once called
Misery - probably a combination of
missy" as she herself was formally
termed by strangers, and Missouri, !"
her native state. 1t was an excessively
large doll at first-Mr. Dodd wishing to
get the worth of his money-but time
and perhaps an excess Of maternal care
remedied the defect, and it lost flesh
and certain unemployed parts of its
limbs very rapidly. 1t was further re-
duced i'll bulk by falling under the
wagon and having the whole train pass
over it, but singularly enough its great
est attenuation was in the head and
shoulders, the complexion peeling off
as a solid layer, followed by the disap-
pearance of distinct strata of its extraor-
binary composition. This continued I'M
til the head and shoulders were much
too small for even it's reduced frame,
and all the devices Of childish millinery
"a shawl secured with tacks and we'll
hammered in and a hat which tilted
backward and forward and never APP
peared mt the same a~ngle-failed to re-
store symmetry, until one dreadful
morning after an imprudent bath the
whole upper structure disappeared,
leaving two hideous iron prongs stand
ing erect from the spinal column. Even
an imaginative child like Mary could
not accept this sort of thing as a head.
Later in the day Jack Roper, the black
smith at the Crossing, was concerned
at the p~laintive appearance before his
forge of a little girl clad in a bright
blue pinafore of the same color as her
eyes, carrying her monstrous offspring
in her arms. Jack recognized her and
instantly OWNED the situation. You
haven't" he suggested kindly, "got
another head at home, somethin left
over?" Mary shook her head sadly.
Even her prolific maternity was not
equal TO the creation of children in de-
tail. Nor anything like a head?'' he
persisted sympathetically. Mary's low
ing eyes filed with tears. mo nuffen. 4"
lyon couldn't, - he continued thought
fully, fuse her the other side up? We
p,iDbf Uaf a ffa vair ~ LEGS Outpr them