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Show A CHILD'S STORY By H.B.C.? "Mamma, I think it's a shame that I can never have anything like other girls; there is Mamie Phelps, with a new maroon velvet and silk dress, and the loveliest hat to match, while I must wear my old clothes; and I think [unreadable line] on comparing your clothes with those of other girls who were at church last Sunday, I thought you looked richly? and fashionably dressed as any of them; to be sure, you have not had a new church hat for three months, and the dress you wore you have had about as long; but I do not think either of them are out of style. You must remember, my child, we are paying out a great deal for your education. Only think of the amount we have paid your music-teacher, beside your other school bills." "Well, I don't care for that; I must dress whether I go to school or not, and I will not go to church again until I have a different dress," Said Katie, with a pout. Mrs. Giles made no reply to this unreasonable outburst, but went about hr work in a very thoughtful mood. "Have I been bringing up my daughter for a mere butterfly of fashion," thought she, "when not thirty years ago I was taught to believe it almost a sin, to wear a bow on my bonnet? Brought up, as I was, in the strictest Methodist way, strange it is I could so far have departed from it! I would not be now just as I was then, but I fear the example I have set my daughter has not been what it should. My mind has been too much taken up with fashion and the vanities of this life. I have thought too little of the poor and suffering, and I am now reaping the fruits of my folly. I must strike into a different course, that my child may not grow up wholly selfish and vain. I will this afternoon take her and go to see my brother's boy, a poor dwarf, and see if we will not both be benefited thereby." Katie was very willing to accompany her mother, feeling no misgivings as to her clothes, for they were going into the country, where there would be no one to criticize her looks. The family who was to visit consisted of her uncle and his boy, twenty-one years old, the latter being a dwarf and hunchback. Katie, however, knew this only by hearsay, for she never had seen her cousin, and she was sure she should hardly know her uncle, for she never had seen him more than three or four times, and remembered him only as a poor old man who called at her father's occasionally when he came to the city. And it had been a long time since he had called, for he knew they felt greatly superior to him, and he did not want to mortify them by his plain looks. As the distance was only seven miles to his place, Katie and her mother were driven there in a short time. As they neared the little old brown house, nearly enveloped in bushes and trees, their eyes soon rested on the strangest little figure, which hardly looked like a human being, partly reclining on the floor of the little piazza. "What a horrid looking creature!" said Katie. "How glad I am I do not look like that!" "This is Jimmy, I suppose. I have not seen him for a dozen years, and he is, as you say, Katie, a hideous looking object, and you may well be thankful you are not so ill shaped." By this time they had reached the steps. "This is Jimmy, I suppose," said Mrs. Giles, reaching out her hand to the dwarf. "Dad's out in the garden," was the only response, for he was very deaf, and had forgotten, if he had ever learned, how to treat strangers civilly. Supposing that the old gentleman would soon come into the house, Katie and her mother sat down on some broken-backed chairs that were in close proximity to Jimmy, amusing themselves by looking at some pictures, as he called them, that he, with pencil still in hand, had just been drawing on some course white paper. The "pictures" consisted of a few crooked lines which he called mountains, the fences and trees, a few cross marks; the houses were made in the form of a square box, with more cross marks for windows. These, the poor, simple boy called nice pictures, and Katie and her mother looked them over with apparent admiration, though they would have been ready to laugh at his enthusiasm over them, had it not been for the pity they felt. Some he had touched with paint, and those he thought were "more nice" than the others, though his paints were no good, and he wanted some better ones, he declared. Katie told him she would send him a box of nice new paints, and some pictures to paint from. It was a long time before she could make him understand her intentions, but when he did, his face, for the first time, lighted up with a cheerful expression. Thinking by this time he was entertaining them nicely, he took them into the house, crawling or hopping along ahead, after the style of a toad, Mrs. Giles thought - for he could not walk, having had a paralytic shock a year previous - and then, from a huge bundle of keys suspended from his neck, he unlocked a little melodeon, and, setting himself before it, on a high-backed chair, began to pound upon the rusty, old keys, everyone of which was out of tune, using every finger at a time. When he asked Katie to play, although it was in a cross? guttural tone, for he knew no other way of speaking, she sat down to the instrument, and became very sober in thinking of the afflicted boy, to whom life, it seemed, to her, must be a burden. With Difficulty she got a little music out of the old instrument and Jimmy thought it very nice, judging from the attention he paid, as he sat, or partly reclined, on the floor near by. He was now looking more comical than before, for he had donned a soldier's cap and some old regimentals, partly of his own construction, as woolen yarn of various colors constituted a part of their adornment. Katie did not notice the change in his attire until she rose from the instrument, and had not Jimmy's father, a forlorn, worn-looking old man, just then entered the room, she must again have laughed, in spite of her resolutions to the contrary. "You have come to a pretty poor place," said the old gentleman, addressing Mrs. Giles, "but I am glad to see you once more, sister, and hope you are well." "Yes, Amos," she replied, with tears in her eyes, "but I fear you are not, judging by your looks." "I am almost through with the toils and sufferings of this life, Mary, and were it not for that boy, I would not [unreadable line] when he said this that Katie thought she should burst into tears; she came close to her mother, and said: "How I do pity poor old uncle! I should have thought you would have come sooner to see him." "And I should have thought so, too," she said, aloud. "You will forgive me, I know, Amos, for so neglecting you." "Oh, yes, Mary, I could not expect you to think much about me; you have had too many affairs of your own to think about there in your grand home in the city. I have had a pretty hard time to get along, with Jimmy and myself to look after, but I have a small income from my fruit. Come out to my orchard with me." He then started, Mrs. Giles and Katie following, while poor Jimmy had to be left in the house. The trees did truly hang very full of fruit, and there were a great many of them, but apples were very plenty everywhere that year, and he said he would have to sell them at a low price. "And how you will have to work to gather them, and you look hardly able to walk around!" said his sister. The she thought of her husband, robust and hearty, with nothing to do but to ponder over his newspapers from day to day, and walk about the streets; for his interest money would support them all handsomely, and really there was no necessity for his exerting himself to any great extent. So she said, "Brother, it you must realize less for your fruit this year, I will make it up to you; you shall want for nothing, or Jimmy, either." "No, indeed, you shall not, uncle," spoke up Katie, who up to this time had kept silent. "And, mamma," she whispered, "I will go without a new hat and suit, just to get poor Jimmy some better clothes." "Then you are a good girl," her mother answered, "and our visit here has not been in vain." Still she had not, as yet, much faith that Katie would be willing to exercise so much self-denial. But when Katie took the money her father gave her, and bought a suit of new clothes with it for Jimmy, instead of using it for her own purposes, she gave her daughter credit for being more generous than she had supposed. Katie was so fond of fine things for her own personal adornment that she had a great struggle with self before she concluded to do it; but her sympathy for Jimmy finally triumphed, so she bought the clothes, and went day after and presented them to him. It was a hard matter to find garments to fit the poor little dwarf, but she succeeded very well, and gratitude of both himself and father was sufficient to repay her for all they cost her. Katie also carried drawing-paper, pencils, paints, a lot of pictures, etc., for Jimmy, and a great many nice things to eat that her mother sent them. She knew they must live very poorly, with no one to cook for them, so she promised to fetch or send them a good supply of cooked food every week. Her uncle then grasped her hand and said: "I thank you a thousand times for your kind offer, and I know you and your mother, too, will both be rewarded for your kindness to those so unfortunate as Jimmy and me." "You have seen a great deal of trouble, haven't you, uncle? And pray how came Jimmy to be as he is?" "If you will sit down beside me, dear child, I will give you a little history of my life, and also tell you why Jimmy is a dwarf." "I will be pleased to listen to you, uncle." I bought the farm I am now living on," he commenced, "when your aunt was living, and had just got it paid for when she died, leaving me with three little children, and as Jimmy was the youngest the two oldest had the most of the care of him. One day, as the little girl was carrying him in her arms, she dropped him, hitting his spine on the corner of a sharp stone, and he soon after began to grow out of shape; and there is now, the victim of that fall. Not long after the accident I brought home a new mother for him, and she proved a hard one. Indeed, no words can describe the abuse she practiced on that boy, striking him on the ears until he became deaf, and flogging and starving him until he is the pitiable, almost unsightly object that he is. I tried hard for a number of years to get her to leave the house, finally succeeding about two years ago, and we have got along far better since. I am not able to do a great deal, and our income is small, so we have had to live rather poorly; but we have, at least, enjoyed a little peace since she left us." "Why did you not come and tell us what hard times you were having?" asked Katie. "We might have helped you a great deal." "You know, Miss Katie, your mother is only my half sister, and could not feel the interest in me, I thought, that she would feel for an own brother; besides, I knew that you were living in good style, and did not suppose you would care to claim relationship with such poor, miserable objects as Jimmy and me." "We would have been glad to help you, and will not see you suffer now that we have found out your condition." "You have already made us very happy with what you have done for us," said the old man, with tears in his eyes; and as she was then about to leave he followed her to the carriage, thanking her over and over again for her kindness to them. After this Katie, although giving sufficient attention to the matter of dress, interested herself in subjects of greater importance, and others than her uncle and the unfortunate dwarf had reason to bless her for her kindness. |