The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-08-23

well, here goes r he said, light
ing cigar and settling himself in an
easy attitude.
when I was a little cub twelve
years old, my mother died, and the
next thing I knew, my father had
married again. He didn't consult
me-you understand. The woman
might have suited his taste but she
didn't suit mine little bit. I stood
her for year, and then one night I
just pulled out. So far as 1 know,
even my father never took the trou-
BILE to hunt me up. walked north
ward from Cincinnati until I saw the
first signs of morning, and then, tired
and cold, I crawled under a cock of
hay and fell asleep. I'll bet the
world never looked bigger and emp
tier and more unhospitable to any
man that ever breathed than it did to
me in the gray light. I felt like a
little fly on the great, pale, dead face
of the universe. It makes me shud-
der yet It was almost noon when
I woke, stiff, hungry, and scared.
At first / wished I hadn't come.
Then I remembered how I'd been
abused, and gritted my teeth. I've
always found that gritting my teeth
has moral value. I don't know
just why. It's like whistling-which
screws your courage up, I s'pose.
After that I crawled out into the
highway and walked on. There was
a farmhouse little way down the
road, and l thought I'd stop and ask
for something to eat but when I got
to it, my heart failed me. Such lit
tie cusses as / was lose heart mighty
easy, stranger. I've always felt for
'em. You have to feel yiM folks be-
fore you can feel for 'em. Well, 1
passed the door and then looked back.
In the garden there was little bare
headed and barefooted girl about my
own age. She was looking at me,
and our eyes met. When they met,
something seemed to flash inside me
like an electric spark. I've felt it
often-when women looked at me.
S'pose you have, eh?"
"Yes."
1T thought so. Well, she smiled
and I smiled, and I forgot all about
being tired and miserable, and climb
ed right over the fence and went
straight toward her. She was pick
ing roses off of bush, and when I
got close, we stood and looked at each
other minute, and then she smiled
again and so did I. "Do you live
here?' says 1. And she said she did.
DO you think your ma would give me
some bread?' says I. Are you hun
gry?' says she. Awful, says I. You
ought to have seen her face That
little tow-headed girl (she wasn't as
old as I was) seemed to see right
through the whole business. Women
are queer about that-you know.
Stone walls are nothtmgi They can
see plumb through them-and tllen,.
again, they can't seem to see through
French plate-glass window. Let's
go and see,' she said, and I followed
her into the kitchen. Ma says she
to kind looking woman (I remember
wishing my old governor had chosen
one like her, } ma, this boy is hun
cry. Can he have some bread and
butter and little sugar?' I didn't
ask for butter and sugar, but only for
bread says 1. That made her smile,
and she looked in nice way at the
little girl, and then said to me, Who
are you?' And I told her plump
and fair about my stepmother. Was
she cross and did she whip you?'
she asked, and I told her she did.
Are you good boy? Do you love
God and say your prayers?' she said +;
and hung my head and looked down
and scratched my ankle with my toe.
You ought to-, she said, and went
right into the pantry and cut off four
great slices of bread, and put butter
and sugar on them, and ate them
like wolf. Lord but they tasted
good. I've never tasted anything
like them since. Poor dear 7 she said
when she saw me eat, and just bent
over and kissed me. That kiss broke
me, and put my head down on the
table and cried. She patted it kind
ly, and when I looked up I saw two
tears on the little girls cheeks"
The old man paused to blow ring
of smoke-and his nose. "After I
had eaten enough" he continued,
"the woman made me tell my whole
story and seemed to believe me. And
when her husband came in to dinner,
she made me tell it again and he didn't
believe me. Iknew he didn't, though
he didn' say so. He wasn't the same
kind as his wife; but he wasn't bad.
He'd seen more of life, / suppose.
Sometimes think the more we see
of it the less we know about it. Any
way, after dinner I helped the woman
duo tuC l1tlAC gin WdSA u T. tAS OioASoJ
and then she and / went out to play.
I'll never forget that afternoon. 1t
seemed forever and it didn't seem a
minute. We went into the garden
and picked flowers and then into the
barn and hunted eggs and then into
a meadow where she had a play
house in some elderberry bushes, and
she served dinner on some cracked
dishes. remember hearing mead
ow-lark sing, just as we stepped out
side to go home. had heard mil
lions before, and never thought much
about them; but somehow or other
that ones song went down into me
and made me tremble. Why do you
s'pose that was I reckon there are
times when the strings in US are key
ed up mighty high and the hand that
strikes them at the right moment
makes them jingle. Anyway, I've
never heard meadow-lark sing since
that day without being in that meadow
and feeling that little girl beside me.