Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-12-14

Till it covered the hotse tops, pretty near
And starved tne sheep and fr1ze the deer
And haven't you ever heard tell OF that
The storm set in as great surprise
And the flakes, of most renarFa5t.
size,
They came a-futtering out Of the skies
Till they filled the fields and levcleG t..
lanes
And drifted against the window panas
And banked the houses srus. and r:sat
Till they shut aut just ;bnut slll the l!s,t
And folks burned ca.4,,.cs day ANA night
To hear this story as pne sh4U.d.
IT must be thoroughly understood
That Deacon Pratt Wss OF ~ itan stock.
With q faith as iNed the Inlymou9.,
Rock,
And he never had met d Force or shoes
That swerved his will tie laeHest Erite
For black is black and H.lit1 Is white
And wrong is wrong and right i right"
Said the Deacon @l<eep that thought ii,
And you'll find yoer way by day or
night"
Enough in all things else 50 circumspect
The Deacon owned ole grave defect;
5ut where is the man who is quite cor
rect?
"ris more than a mortal dare expect
And some are candid enough to say
IT is better that men are made that way
For somewhere meaHuess must get out.
And one good weakness. without q doubt,
Makes the rest Of the moral structure
stout
Ne loved tobacco, the Deacon did,
Ald never was found without his quid.
Put he tried his best to keep it hid,
For the Deacon clearly reasoned that
The sly, keen-ayed Jehosaph
On seeing the sire lake his chew
Might some time dare to try it, too.
Which the Deacon vowed would never
do;
So the boy made TO understand
He would have his packet soundly tanned
II ever he dared to taste or touct,
The thing the Deacon loved so much;
And as far as Toe world had seen or
heard,
The Deacon never broke his word.
AS I was saying, the snow came down
Till the Deacon, who'd planned to drive
to town
That very day. was quite shut in,
And, as a punishment for his sin,
He hadn't so much as a single chew,
So what in the world was the man to do?
He was all of a tremble; his nerves, ere
long
Were quite unstrung and the world
seemed wrong.
The outward sign OF an inward grace
0shat sometimes shone on the Deacon's
face
Seemed gone forever, and in its place
Was a sorry look of deep dismay,
And those who got in the Deacon's way
Were quite surprised at the things he'd
say;
And once he kicked a the old house cat
IN fact. did several things like that,
Which didn't appear exactly right
In who posed a SNninp ljerbt
The Deacon, in seeking a substitute
For the noXious weed, chewed burdocf
root
And cinnamon. lieorice, sassafras,
Cloves, boneset, peppermint-alas.
He'd have willingly chewed a pitchpins
Or anything else, no matter what
Sweet, sour bitter cold or hot
If only it would have touched the spot"
The snow kept coming more and more.
Till the Deacon, / fear he almost sWore
For he fumed and fretted and said, by
George.
This is worse than the suffering at VAL
ley Forge:
For. though I've plenty of food and
clothes,
There's something dearer than both Of
Boys are their fathers born again,
And precept Is forgotten when
Example fills the eyes of men.
Like sire like son, the youth had
learned
To use the weed he should have spurned
Down in his heart the Deacon's boy
Well knew he held the KEYS to joy
But, ah! he dare not rouse the ire,
The fierce, the allconsumiag fire,
The layingon-of hands desire
OF that stern Pur!anc sire
BY saying to him. You shall share
My Stock since ! have some to spare"
The Deacon verged upon collapse
When wondrous thing occurred, per-
haps
Twas sent in answer to his pryaer
For when he rose up from his chair
o joyous spectacle! lying where
He was sure TO see it. now what do you
think
The Deacon saw, and quick as a wink
Slipped into his pocket? Twas a twist
ct tobacco half as big as his fist!
And the Deacon saying his last Amen"
Gave one swift glance at che boy and
BY reason of instinct, clearly knew
The truth, and knew that his boy did,
too!
DID he trounce that youngster Ions and
AS a stiff-necked true blue Puritan
should?
All, no! His drawn face beamed and
smiled
In a way that meant "God bless you,
child!
AS his trembling knees resought the floor
And he said: Let us all give thanks
once u,ore!"
And that is how, 20 I have heard,
That the Deacon cainA to break his word
Boston GlebA4
Overlooked a Detail.