Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1909-07-01
The Crosspatch Mans
~~~~~Fourth O. July


The Crosspatch Man was sick again,
and this time it must be pretty bad,
for all the morning Meredith had been
watching the servants spread straw
before the house and muffle the big,
shiny door-bell.
Poor man" mamma said, plying
| ly. He Is sick so often!"
"But he's Crosspatch Mani" NUT
tered Meredith stifily Then he repent
! ed and looked as shamefaced as very
little boy with very round, dimpled
| face could look. I'm sorry he's very
sick" he said, slowly. Il s'pose 1t
hurts even Crosspatch Mem
Mamma did not notice. She was
having her little noon gossip with
papa, and they were still talking about
their invalid neighbor.
1T isn't quite so bad as 1t seems, you
know" papa was saying. "He always
has the straw laid down and things
mufiled when he has one Of his worst
that it does in most cases. He is ter
ribly afflicted by noise at almost any
time"
"Noise. l should think so." That
was from Meredith who pricked up
his ears at the word Didn't he know
how the Crosspatch Man felt bout a
noise? Didn't he belong to the Rudd
Street Second? Wasn't he captain?
And OH my, the times he'd seen the
Crosspatch Man a-scowling and a-fum-
ing, when they marched past his win
dow.
"But Fourth Of July will be terri
BILE day to him-poor man" went on
mammals gentle voice. That made
Meredith start a little. He had been
thinking about Fourth O July, too,
| (Did he think much of anything else
nowadays?) He had been going over
in his mind all the glorious program
of the day. For the Rudd Street Sec
ond was going to celebrate in a worthy
manner. They were going to even
outdo themselves each year-and
hadn't they had the proud honor of
being the ncisiest street In the city
for two Fourth O Julys a-running?
Let 'em just wait till they heard this
Fourth O. July.
1t was three days off. That would
give the Crosspatch Man time to have
the straw taken up and the bell un-
muffled for his worst times" never
| lasted more than two or three days.
"Then he'll have to cotton up his
ears" mused Meredith. philosophical
ly. watching the big foreign servant
that wore a turban go back and forth
past the Crosspatch Mans window.
The house Meredith lived in and the
Crosspatch Mans house were quite
close together, so. it was easy to watch
things.
Unfortunately for an invalid with
the terrible affection called nerves" ="
Rudd Street was a regular nest of
boys. There were boys everywhere on
It. You ran against boys when you
went east, and boys ran against you
when you went west. Boys sprang up
in the most unexpected places. The
houses seemed to be running over wi h
boys. And really, there was at least
one boy-and on an average two or
three-in every house on Meredith's
side,> except in the CrossDatch Mans
house On. dear me, no. there weren't
any boys there!
On the other side Ct the street you
had to skfp the "middlest" house and
Miss Ouilhot and Miss Eromathea's-
oh. yes, and the MINISTERS house, of
course. Miss Quillot and Miss Fro
mathea were old maids. and the min
ister-oh, no, he wasn't an old maid,
but you couldn't expect him to have
boys in the house, for how could he
ever write his sermons?
So II was, as I said, an unfortunate
street to have nerves" on. And tie
Crosspatch Man had so many!
The three days in between soon
went away, and 1t was the night
the very night-before 1t! There were
only a few hours more. for OF course
you didn't have to wait till the sun
rose on Fourth of July.
Is..-adfth had drilled tha HdSd