Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-08-27
COMMUNICATIONS.
THE KINDLY DEEDS SOCIETY.
By James NJ. Hubbard.

THE KINDLY DEEDS SOCIETY.
By James NJ. Hubbard.
Harold Palmer was so impressed with
the kindness of the school children in
making him their head gardner and so
bringing so much into his life that he
often thought, can't do some kindness
for someone same as they did for me.
But somehow the opportunity never
seemed to come, though he did lots of
kindly things both at home and at
school. The opportunity did come at
last in an entirely unexpected way. One
afternoon he rode down to the post
office on his bicycle after the mail. He
had only had it few weeks and en-
joyed going about on it immensely. 1t
was so much easier and quicker than
Harvesting a horse and driving down to
the village as he used to do when he
didn' t go afoot He brought back a
letter to his father, who after reading
it said, Your Uncle John has lost his
place. The factory where he was at
work has shut down, and he hasn't any,
thing to do. That's pretty hard, for
those boys and girls of his aren't old
enough to earn much of anything, and
its precious little ! can do to help him.
| wonder what they will do for liv-
ing" Harold wandered off, thinking of
these cousins of his, whom he had never
seen, but whom he was sure he would
like. He had no brothers or sisters or
relatives in the town, as most of the
village children had, and so sometimes
he felt rather lonesome. He climbed
little hill back of the house and sat
down on rock and looked about. A
little way off up the road was a farm
house which all of sudden riveted his
attention. No one had lived in it for
years. The farm on which it stood was
next to his fathers and was excellent
land but for long time nothing had
been raised on it but hay. The owner
was rich man who lived in New York.
He didn't feel any interest in it, though
he had been born in the farmhouse
One of the villagers had talked of buy
ing the house and pulling it down to use
the good timber for house he was
planning to build in the village. For a
long time Harold had wished to have a
family live there, so it wouldn't be
quite so lonesome for him. Now if he
wanted to have good time with some
of the boys, he had to get on his wheel.
if his father didn't want him, and ride
off a mile or more. AS he sat there
looking at the deserted farm house, it
suddenly came to his mind-why
couldn't Uncle John come up there and
live. He was born in Harold's house
and grew up there, so farm life wouldn t
be strange to him and he certainly could
make decent living on the farm. OH
how splendid it would be if his uncle
could come, and then he would have
those boys and girls so near that it
would almost be as if they lived to-
gether. Full of this idea, he went back
to the house and finding his father sit
ting on the front porch-evening chores
were done-he said as he came up,
Father, why wouldn't it be a good
thing for Uncle John to hire Mr.. Butter
worth's farm and come up here and
live?" That's good idea of yours,
Harold, and I'll think it over" He was
so impressed with it that he wrote
to his brother that very evening max
ing the suggestion and saying how much
they all wished he would come back and
live with them. Soon he got reply
from his brother saying how much he
liked the suggestion and that he had
seen Mr.. Butterworth who had told him
that he could live on the farm for a
very small rent. But the one trouble
was that he hadn't the money to bring
his family up and he didn't know how to
raise it. He'd got to leave the house
he was living in land he really didn't
know what he could do. Perhaps he
might get city job, working in the
streets, but that wasn't at all certain,
Mr.. Pollard read the letter to his wife
and Harold and said, 81 wish | could
help him some, but | haven't got the
money and | can't borrow it. The
mortgage on the farm is all that | car
carry" Harold wandered off feeling