The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1906-12-27
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Nv KENNETH HARRIS

The freckled boy with the large
bump on his forehead wriggled in the
clutch of the large woman who wore
the black straw hat trimmed with
brown velvet and Concord grapes.
"'Tain't nothin'" he said. "The skin
amt skassly peeled"
you pore young one!" exclaimed
the woman in horrorstricken tones.
How in the name O. massy did you
come to do that? Does it hurt you,
johnny"
Nav" replied the freckled boy,
contemptuously. Amt nothin' to hurt.
"You might git blood pizen in it,"
said the woman. Here, let me put
this yer hankchief around it to keep
the cold out. My land! What mis-
chief boys does!"
The freckled boy broke away from
her and hurried through the store.
The large woman waddled slowly
after him, anxiety written in capital
letters on her kindly face.
AS she passed out of the store Par
sons broke into smothered guffaW,
and the little tailor winked at Wash
ington Hancock.
She's all right" said Hancock.
Some women is jest nachelly that
way. She's a-going over to Mis- Ber-
rvs now to try to scare her into
conniption fit, but she won't; Miss
Berry's got too many of 'em to scare
easy. Johnnys little brother busted
through the swing doors in the hay
NOW last summer, an went kitln end
over-end Is foot to the ground, an lit
settin'. His mother seen him from
the porch, where she wus a-washin' 1,
but she didn't let on, SOS you'd notice
it. In about a mint the young one
picked hisself up an begun to cry.
"'You Beemis! hollers Mis- Berry.
You quit that bawlin right away; you
hear me? If you git cuttin' up them
didoes ag'in I'll take a switch to you
an frail you outen your hide. Some
O these days you'll git hurried, mark
my words, actin like that. Go up an
pull them doors shet.'
"Thatll do to tell" said the store
keeper.
IF 'twarnt so l wouldn't tell it,"
said Hancock with a virtuous express
sion. she amt like Milt Sowashs
woman You know Milt, don't you,
Sol?"
Baker shook his head.
1T was over on Gooseneck," supple
mented Hancock. "Rufe knows him if
you don't. Mighty poor stick Milt is,
too, but his wife seems to think he's
about all right. Mills wife jest match
ely wus that there kind o woman
Jest like Mrs. Berry amt. Shed allus
go about pityin' everybody an every
thin, but with Milt she wus more So
If Milt come in from the field an said
he wus plum tuckered out she'd fly
around like a hen on hot griddle to
bring him a rockin' cheer out on the
porch an it wus, Why, Milt, you pore
man! 1t makes me feel real bad 30
think O. you workin the way you do.
Sho, You jest look it, too. Let me git
a piller fer your haid,' an sech as
that
Zone time when they wus a-thrash-
in Milt pushed bundle too clost to
Cicero Perkins, who wus cuttin', an
he got one of his fingers cut. TWAIN
much, but if you could have heerd
the fuss his wife made you'd have
thought his head was cut off. After
she'd got his finger tied up even she'd
still keep a-pityin' him an askin' him
If it didn't hurt him.
"'Ain't that too bad' she'd say.
Jest to think O. you bein carved up
hathaway! You shorely do have the
wust luck of any man l ever knew;
you shorely do! Milt honey, tell me
if | can't do suthin fer you. / hate
to see you sufferin' an me standin'
around an holdin my hands. My. 1t
must hurt you powerful bad! A quar-
ter of an inch more an it would have
cut you clear to the bone, an there
you set maxim nothin' of it,
"Milt kind O. liked it," pursued Han
cock. He'd tell her to quit fusSin' ,
but he kind O. liked it all the same.
He does yet"
Does he get it," asked the store
keeper.
Il hain't been up Gooseneck way
for five years or more" replied Han.
cock. "Mebbe he gifts it. There was
one time, though, when she wus
weighed in the balance an found lack
in. That wus one day when the Farm
ers an Drovers' bank failed an Milt
lost $3.50 he had in it an as he come
back from town his horses got to act
in up an fin'ly run away an busted
up the wagon an threw Milt out an
put his ankle out o jint an fin ly
missed the bridge over Gooseneck
crick an drowned themselves. He
wus settin' by the side o the road
when his hired man come along ridin'
lickety split to find him an tell him
that the barn had burned down while
he wus tryin' to doctor the Hereford
bull what had got into the corn an
foundered hisself. The hired man
went to neighbours an got Milt
home an his wife met him at the
gate"
"Too much fer her to do jestice to-
s'pose?" ventured Baker.
well, she done her best" said
Hancock. That wus about three
o'clock in the afternoon an she KEEP