The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-09-15
"JRsr LET IT HURT ~

nessee mountains and came upon q
log cabin on a sunny slope. The
only evidences of prosperity were tc
be found in a brood of towheaded lit
tie children who were scampering
about the door yard. The Oldest was
lad of IL or I3. He told us his
own name to our query. and then we
asked him that of little shaver of 5
Or 6, who was tagging him around
like shadow.
His name? He amt got no name.
We just call him Monkey. That $
his name-just Monkey and he is
mean p
''What does ne do 7"
'Bothers Bothers dad and mann
and all the young ones and me. He
bothers me when I work and when
play
"Doyou have to work 7"
"Woik? Well, I should say. !
cut all the wood that's cut for this
here place."
He wasa worker. sure enough, but
when he heard the guns go off he
went off with them. He followed us
over hill and vale, through forest and
clearing, through stubble fields and
bramble patches. AS he emerged
from one of these tangled masses OF
blackberry bushes which are SO COM
mon in that region, 1 noticed that his
little bare shins from his knee to his
ankle were just streaming with blood.
"Whew p said I sympathetically.
"That's nothin'.' -
Don't it hurt?"
"Hurt? You bet it hurts p
''But what are you going to do
about it?"
"Do? I amt a-goin' to do moth
in but jest let it hurt l''
Now, that is just the kind of stuff
that makes men
''Jest let it hurt" /" Don't squeal,
don't kick, don't put up your lip ;
but '.jest let it hurt" tits not such
a bad education as some others for a
boy to go stumbling barefooted around
a farm or through country village.
I pity the boy who has never done it.
Some of the little shavers one sees
around our streets almost seem to
have been born with their shoes on.
The thumps and scratches which
barefooted boys have to take are good
for them in the long run, although
they are no fun at the time. When
little fellow is out after quail or
speckled trout and gets about FIVE
miles from his mother and her arnica,
and then tears the hide off his legs or
knocks the nail off his toe, the very
best thing he can do is to 'Jest let
it hurt ~
And, for that matter, it is the best
thing boy. after be 0EqpH-tah4
'caE do in most of the troubles of life.
There are just about so many stones
and bramble patches lying along the
pathway of every mans life, and
whoever he is, he must go through
them barefooted At least 1 have
never heard of any kind of a protector
that is stone-proof and bramble- proof,
although l have been looking for
them industriously ever since l lost
the first toenail. And the sharpest
and most careful man cannot dodge
them all +! Emergencies will come
when he who has been used to creep
ing carefully around the thorny places
will have to push recklessly through,
and he who has been always looking,
down for stones will have to look up
and wildly take his chance. Scratch
ed and bruised he will be, and the
only question Of any importance is
how is he going to take it?
Some of us set UP mighty howl oi
complaint. Some of us settle down
into state of sullen and silent rebel,
lion. Some of us go whining around
for other peoples court plaster and
arnica.
But now and then you see some lit
tie Spartan like my Tennessee noun.
taineer grown to manhood, who
straightens himself up, puts on {
cheerful smile and "jest let it hurt =
These are the kind of people we ad
mire and love to tie to. 1t will bt
many day before forget the sigh
of those legs and the stern-set bu
cheerful face of the little Tennessean