The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-02-28

darkness shall fear him. he shall be
a lawmaker and the friend Of God and
of many people. and great men shall
bow to his judgment and ne SHALL"
She began shaking her head
thoughtfully and did not finish the
sentence, and by and by the notion
came to me that some unpleasant WIS.,
ion must have halted her pencil.
Aunt Deel brought some luncheon
wrapped In paper and the old woman
took 1t and went away. My aunt fold
ed the sheets and put them In her
trunk and we thought no more of
them until-but we shall know soor
what reminded us of the prophet
woman.
The autumn passed swiftly. went
to the village one Saturday with Un-
Gle Peabody in high hope Of seeing
the Dunkelbergs, but at their door
we learned that they had gone UP
the river on picnic. What blow
1t was to me! Tears flowed down
my cheeks and / chung to my uncle's
hand and walked back to the main
street of the village. A squad Of small
boys jeered and stuck out their
tongues at me. 1t was pity for my
sorrows. no doubt. that led Uncle Pea.
body to take me to the tavern for
dinner, where they were assuaged By
cakes and jellles and chicken pie.
AT Christmas l got a picture-book
and forty raisins and three sticks of
candy with red stripes on them and q
jew's-harp. That was the Christmas
we went down to Aunt Liza's to
spend the day and l helped myself to
two pieces of cake when the plate
was passed and cried because they all
laughed at my greediness. 1t was the
day when Aunt Liza's boy, Truman.
got q silver watch and chain and her
daughter Mary a gold ring, and when
all the relatives were invited to come
and be convinced, once and for all,
Of Uncle Roswell's prosperity, and
be. filled with envy and reconclled
with jelly and preserves and roast
turkey with sage dressing and mlnce
and chicken pie. What an amount of
preparation we had made for the jour-
ney, and how long we had talked about
it!
In the spring my uncle hired man
to work for us-a noisy. brawny,
sharp-featured fellow with keen gray
eyes, Of the name of Dug Draper.
Aunt Deel hated him. l feared him
but regarded him with great hope
because he had funny way of wink
ing at me with one eye across the
table and, further, because he could
sing and did sing while he worked
songs that ratified from his lips in
way that amused me greatly. Then,
too, he could rip out words that had
new and wonderful sound in them.
l made up my mind that he was like
~ to become a valuable asset when l
heard Aunt Deel saw to my Uncle Pea
body:
you'll have to send that loafer
away, right now, ayes, guess you
will"
"Why?"
Because this boy has learnt to
swear like pirate-ayes-7he hasr
Uncle Peabody didn't know it but
1 myself had begun to suspect it, and
that hour the man was sent away
and I remember that he left in anger
with number of those new words
flying from his lips. A forced march
to the upper room followed that event.
Uncle Peabody explained that it was
wicked to swear--that boys who did
it had very bad luck, and mine came
in a moment. / never had more of
it come along in the same length of
time.
After ! ceased to play with the
Wills boy Uncle Peabody used to
say, often, it was q pity that hadn't
somebody Of my own age for COM
pany. Every day felt sorry that the
Wills boy had turned out so badly,
and l doubt not the cat and the shep-
herd dog and the chickens and Uncle
Peabody also regretted his failures,
especially the dog and Uncle Peabody,
who bore all sorts of indignities for
my sake.
One day when Uncle Peabody went
for the mail he brought Amos Grim
shaw to visit me. He was four years
older than Ia freckled, red-haired
boy with q large mouth and thin lips.
He wore silver watch and chain,
which strongly recommended him In
my view and enabled me to endure
his air Of condescension.
He let me feel it and look it all
over and l slyly touched the chain
with my tongue just to see If 1t had
any taste to it, and Amos told me
that his father had given it to him and
that it always kept him "hnd o
scairt."
"Why"
"For fear I'll break er lose It an
git licked" he answered.
He took a little yellow paper-cov-
cred book from his pocket and began
to read to himself.
"What's thatT" I ventured to ask
by and by.
"a story" he answered. 81 met a
ragged OIL woman In the road t'other
day an she give me lot of 'em and
showed me the pictures an i got to
readin' 'em. Don't you tell anybody