River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-08-31
Grcndfuther's
AWdk ening


life upon which a man past 80, accord
ing to Scripture, must feel that he has
no reasonable sort of claim.
Ever since the death Of Grandmother
Williams, Mrs. Cyrus had been abso-
lutte ruler upon the immense farm, but
the fact that the title deeds for all
those rolling acres and well-stocked
barns still stood in the name of the
bent old man was a ranking thorn in
that ladys peace of mind.
Not that he interfered in the slight
est with her arrangements or failed to.
sign papers when told when and where
to sign, or asked embarrassing ques-
tions about household expenses which
were stretched to cover son Edwards
college bills, but it seemed such tire
come thing his hanging on to the frayed
threads which connected him with
earth and earths affairs
Ever since the death of Maggie, his
wife, Grandfather Williams had
seemed in something of dream out of
which his faded eyes had looked indif
ferently at the world in which he still
played shadowy part
Toward Mrs. Cyrus his manner
seemed to convey a perpetual apology
which she considered nothing more than
her rightful due, particularly since he
had shown the questionable taste to re-
cover from an attack of lung fever in his
eighty-fourth year, despite the fact that,
with the doctors word as her authority,
she had gone so far as to make all ar
4eyF T,r al 10 finn
1t was the spring after this unpleas-
ant occurrence that Jimmy came to be
chore boy upon the farm.
Jimmy was without visible relations.
He was homely little fellow with an
ever present unappeased appetite and
talent for doing all sorts of unpleas-
ant tasks that other people didn't like
to do about the house and barn.
Jimmy did not resent the fact that,
under the reign of the sharp-tongued,
hard working Mrs. Williams, he had
over much to do, and not quite enough
to eat, and scarcely anything to wear.
He had never been used to much con-
sideration, and the heart which beat
inside his narrow chest was filled with
permit of the existence there Of any
ranking resentment against his unre-
lenting mistress.
At first he did not see much of
Grandfather Williams, but gradually,
he began to notice the old man, and
tried to show in little ways the timid
compassion he felt for one who, in his
ignorance of worldly matters, he con-
sidered almost as unfortunate as him
self
1t was he who discovered the mystic
rious hiding places of the steel-rimmed
glasses, and it was he who often thrust
into the kitchen stove an extra stick of
wood when grandfather crept out from
the frozen splendor of the family sit
ting-room in search of the heat needed
by his enfeebled system.
Not that Jimmy deliberately planned
being attentive to the silent old man.
In what he did he was merely inspired
by the same instinct which made him
take time from his hurried journeys
about the poultry yards to set droop-
ing chicken where the bright sun could
beat down upon its bedraggled feathers
or to throw a specially attractive bit of
garbage in the way of poor-spirited
hen hanging upon the outskirts of
barnyard feast.
For a long time he never guessed
that Grandfather Williams noticed his
timid efforts to throw a little more of
comfort into his cherries life and then
came the great day when a secret COM
radeship sprang up between them.
First it was only small bag of rath-
er ancient peppermint drops laid dur
ing his absence upon the three-legged
stool beside his narrow bed, but, in
time such treasures collected in the
tiny attic bedroom as to make Jimmy
the richest boy in the country round.
An actual pocketknife with only one
blade, the same with which Grandfather
Williams had once whitfield feebly as
he sat summing himself during the warm
spring days, tin box in which he had
once kept the tobacco for which he no
longer had the taste, a long, stout string
which Jimmy meant to use for fish
line, and numberless other treasures be-
sides an actual piece of money; care
fully polished. and, what seemed to
Jimmy, an especially large quarter of a
dollar.
Oh, Jimmy needed no ones pity now.
besides, he and Grandfather Williams
often talked together. Such nice, little
talks as grandfather leaned against the
pasture bars while Jimmy did the milk
ing which fell to his lot upon the great.
busy farm. Jimmy would then tell how,
some day, he meant to be hired man
and get SIS month and have a suit
of Sunday clothes and a red tie like
Henry Bates, and grandfather would
tell Jimmy endless stories of how he
and Maggie had come to the farm when
they both were young. and what q
smart housekeeper Maggie was. ana
what a cute little chap "Cy' had been.
That Cy, who was now so wonderful
q man that Jimmy scarce dared lift his
eyes to his hard, set face.
Perhaps nJthing else would ever have
come of this intercourse between the
two stray sheep in the Williams fold
but for the circus, the wonderful circus,
advertisements for which had been
adjoining the landscape for weeks dur
ing the eventful summer The MORN
ing of circus day. grandfather, feeling a
sense of loneliness upon him. wandered
half aimlessly. but with unerring in
stinct into the back yard where Jimmy
sat Smelling peas. Jimmy did not