Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1900-07-05

| TIE Crippled Mouse.
And How 1t Was Released
! From Its Trap.
BY w. r. ROSE.
BY W. r. ROSE.

1t was a dingy little house and stood
perhaps 100 feet from the highway. A
weed covered pathway led to it, and mid
way was a well. The great surgeon had
caught sight of the well box and was
coming up the pathway. He was a con-
noisseur in water drinking and keenly
alive to the possibilities of discoveries
along this line of investigation. He drew
up the ancient bucket and dipped his
pocket cup into it. The water was excel
lent. The surgeon sampled it with a smile
of qualification. Then he drank four cups
in rapid succession. AS he finished the
last he looked toward the house. He
meant TO remember it. That water was
too good to lose track of.
1t was just an uncouth, one story
building, sadly in need of paint with
door and window in front and a single
chimney from which a lazy line of blush
smoke wavered. For a moment the sur
geon saw no sign of life, and then his
eye caught sight of a face that appeared
a moment at the window. 1t was a white
little face, the face of a child. 1t disap-
peared and came again-just a quick
vision of baby features and fluffy blond
hair-and then was gone.
"a shy little girl" thought the surgeon,
as he waved his hand toward the house.
A slender hand fluttered above the sill as
he turned away.
The great surgeon had come down to
Williamson at the earnest solicitation
of the capitalist whose summer palace
crowned the piny ridge above the little
town. The capitalist was a sick man.
For the present he needed constant atten-
tion-and attention of the most skilled
character. The great surgeon was deep
ly interested in his case. Besides, he felt
that he needed a change himself, and he
knew there wasn't a better place to re-
coup than that famous resinous region.
So he was for an indefinite time guest as
well as physician at the palace on the
ridge.
The surgeon was a great walker. There
was, to his way of thinking, no gymnas-
tics TO compare with this natural exer-
else of the legs. The horses placed so
freely at his disposal had no attraction
for him. His delight was to wander
away across the ridges and along unfre-
quented roads, breathing in the aromatic
air, and shutting his feet in the pine
needles, and then to come loping back at
brisk pace with his body glowing and q
mighty appetite.
He had enjoyed the road over the hill
by the lonely home, and he had enjoyed
the water from the well, and the next
afternoon be went that way again. The
dingy little house seemed even more un-
attractive than it had appeared the day
before. The surgeon looked toward it as
he drank. Again the little face appeared
at the window. This time it did not van
ish. On the contrary, the little head nod
ded' as the fluffy curls shook. The sur
geon nodded back and went a few PAGES
nearer and smiled and nodded again.
Then the little face beamed all over, and
the big blue eyes shut and closed rapidly,
finally resolving themselves into two star
ing circles. while the little mouth became
perfect .. Then the tense lines relax
ed, smile rippled across the child's
face and the thin hands closed into bony
fists that shook themselves at the sur
geon in mock defiance.
The surgeon hadn't made faces" for
many years, but now he let his unaccus.
toned features twist themselves into gro
tesque shapes that filed the child audi
ence with waves of delight. He had
come so close to the dingy house that his
head was just on level with the lower
panes in the window.
''Hello," ne said to the face within.
a thin little hand motioned downward
as a muffied voice said something he
could not understand. But he obeyed
the motion and looked beneath the sill,
and there was an opening a few inches
long and perhaps two inches wide, and
through this slit four clawlilze fingers
protruded.
81 see you," said a thin voice through
the opening, II see you stealth our wa
ter
''Pm very sorry" said the great sur
geon with his mouth close to the slit.
you're just sorry cause saw you,"
cried the thin voice, with a laughing
break in it. "You knew well enough it
was six glasses for a cent"
The surgeon fumbled in his pocket and
brought forth a bright new dime and
thrust it through the opening.
''That's cents for water and cents
for fine," he grayely announced.
The child laughed merrily.
81 ort to send you right straight to
jaili' she cried and laughed again; then
she suddenly added, ''Tm Martha John
son, goin on o."
anu III uODeFl MefeullHs going Oh
"a, said the great surgeon.
The child looked at him through the
glass and gravely bowed; then the blond
curls ducked down and the thin voice
came through the opening;
''How do you doY
"Pretty WELL thank you," replied the
surgeon. "And how do you do?"
II amt able to be out yet" laughed
the child ''But can sit up an eat"
"And why can't you go out?"
Cause dad locks me in. Dad is tn
blacksmith down to the village, an when
he goes away in tn mornin he locks ev-
erything up with me inside An so / just
stay here an take care O. things-all 'cept
tn water. Folks will steal that"
"And are you not very lonesome?" In
quired the surgeon.
81 guess | amt" said the child 81
got my picture books an my dollies, an
ran sew an darn some. an once In a long
while somebody goes by. like you. An
then I'm always thinkin pretty soon dad
dy will come home, an pretty soon, too.
it viii be Sunday. an then daddy viii be
home all day An when it's most time
for him to some | boil tn kittle an lay