Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-07-30

cast ROSe6ud Meredith, SAID KICK
ey witheringly, it would serve you
right for putting that toad in the plate
if your hand would get all over warts!
I'm sure I hope it will" She rescued
the fallen piece of bark and an
nounced: ''The collection this after
lars and seven cents. And now, chill
dren, we will skip the catechism and
I will tell you a story"
Her auditors hunched themselves
nearer, double row of attentive white
and black faces, as Hickey with a pre-
Iiminary bass cough, began in a drawl-
ing tone whose mimicTy called forth
giggles Of ecstasy.
There were once two little sisters
who went to Sunday-school and loved
their teacher ve-e-ery much. They
were always good and attentive-not
like that little niger over there! The
one with his thumb in his mouth! One
was little Mary and the other was
little Susy. They had a mighty rich
uncle who lived in Richmond, and
once he came to see them and gave
them each dollar. And they were
ve-e-ery glad. 1t wasn't a mean old
paper dollar, all dirt and creases; nor
a battered Whitley silver dollar; but
it was bright round gold dollar, right
out of the mint. Little Mary and little
Susy could hardly sleep that night for
thinking of what they could buy with
those gold dollars.
EARLY next morning they went
downtown, hand in hand, to the store,
and little Susy bought bag of goober-
peas, and sticks and sticks Of striped
candy, and timber jack, and a gold
ring, and wax doll with silk dress
on that could open and shut its eyes"
HUH" said the captious Cozy.
You can't buy wax doll for dollar.
My littlest, Httlest one cost three, and
she didn't have a stitch to her back!"
Shut up!" said Hickey briefly
Dolls were cheaper then" She looked
at the row of little negroes, google
eyed at the vision of such Iargess.
What do you think little Mary did
with her gold dollar? She loved dolls
and candy, too, but she had heard
about the poo-oo-r heather. There was
a tear in her eye, but she took the dol
lar home, and next day when she went
to Sunday-school, she dropped it in
the missionary-box.
Little children, what do you reckon
became Of that dollar? 1t bought a
! big satcheIfuI of tracts for a mission
airy. He had been poor man with
six children and a wife with a bone
felon on her right hand-not a child
old enough to wash dishes and all of
them young enough to fall in the fire
so he had to go and be a missionary.
He was going to Alabam-to a canni-
bal island, and he took the tracts and
sailed away in a ship that landed him
on the shore. And when the heather
cannibals saw him they we're ve-e-ery
glad, for there hadn't been any ship
wrecked sailors for a long time, and
they were ve-e-ery hungry. So they
tied up the missionary and gathered
a lot of wood to make a fire and cook
| him.
But is had rained and rained and
rained for so long that the wood was
all wet, and it wouldn't burn, and they
all cried because they were SO hungry.
And then they happened to find the
satcheIful of tracts, and the tracts
were ve-e-ery dry. They took them
and stuck them under the wet wood,
and the tracts burned and the wood
caught fire and they cooked the mis-
sionary and ate him.
''Now, little children, which do you
think did the most good with her dol
lar-little Susy or little Mary?"
The front row sniggered, and sigh
came from the colored ranks. Dem
ar can bals," gasped a dusky infant
breathlessly. "-dey done eat up all
dat candy and dem goober-peas, too %
CTO BE CONZINUEDD