Newspaper Page Text
6 (682 T H ? 1
Our Boys
FIVE LITTLE BROTHERS
I Five little brothers set out together
To journey the livelong day,
In a curious carriage all made of leather
They hurried away, away!
n Kl . U
v/Uf wife uiv/tuci ouu uircc 4 uiic oiuaut
And one wee fellow, no size at all.
The carriage was dark and none too roomy,
And they could not move about;
The five little brothers grew very gloomy
And the wee one began to pout,
Till the biggest one whispered, "What do you say?
Let's leave the carriage and run away!"
So out they scampered, the five together,
And off and away they sped?
When somebody found the carriage of leather.
Oh, my, how she shook her bead!
Twas her little boy's shoe, as every one knows,
And the five little brothers were five little toes.
?Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
DOWN IN MUGG ALLEY. .
"Say, Fatty, you wasn't up to the brick yesterday,"
began Tony.
"Couldn't get there. Them extrys was put
out at two."
"Well, you missed your life. What the pink
lady handed out to the bunch yesterday was
a-plenty," announced Tony.
"About what?"
"I dunno whether I can get the thing
straight or not. She's handin' out some treeinendous
things lately, Fatty. Of course, she's
got us boys by the neck, 'cause she knows and
we don't."
"I'm kind o' glad she's got us, Tony, for we
need to know a whole lot of things, I reckon.
But what was the racket yesterday?"
"Well, it was like this. A man some place?
T A/\w k '1 inxfrt ^uroa ovAiinrl kpro anvwhprps
X UUIX X 1/ 1ICTX W ?* UO ai vuu\? ^ ?. ..v. VW)
and she didn't tell his name?but, anyway, he
had a hundred sheep, a hundred sheep, Fatty.
Gee, ain't that a lot? You mind them woolly
things we saw last summer on that Fresh Air
business out to Mr. Brown's?back in that
green field where the little crick was always
a-singin' all day long?"
Fatty nodded his head vigorously. "Of
course I do, Tony. You don't s'pose I'd forgot
that. I was thinkin' maybe he was the man
the pink lady was talkin' about."
"No, I don't think she meant him, 'cause he
wouldn't hardly be in that book she gets the
stories out of. Well, the man had a hundred
sheep, and they was goin' along, and all to
once he saw that one was gone. And now,
what dp you think he doest"
"I dunno. Lets the thing go, I s'pose."
Tony straightened up. "Not much, pard!
He leaves them ninety-nine that was left, and
he starts hack to find that one that had got
lost," announced Tony. "That's what he
doest"
"Pshaw! It wouldn't pay him to leave ninety-nine
sheep in the road, and go after one,
and waste all that time. Pshaw!"
"Well, but Fatty, it was his sheep, and?
and he knew it couldn t never hnrt its way
haek, and it would jest starve and die away
out there in the cold and dark. I thought it
was kind o' nice for him to go and hunt for
the poor thing."
"Oh, yes!" admitted Fatty. "Of course,
it's his business, and I don't say it wasn't nice,
hut it "wasn't much sense?good, down-right
sense, is what T meant?seems to me."
"That sheep went away out into the mountains,
Fatty, and the man after it pell-mell.
L
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE ft <
and Girls
tnn a ? |
He hunted and hunted, and all the tin <? ^,e
fool thing was goin' farther and farther away.
Ain't that queer, pard? 'Twas an awful hard
job for the man, the pink lady said."
"1 s'pect the sheep didn't have no cinch either,
Tony.'*
"You're right there, Fatty. The pink lady
said that sheep was the beateneet sight you
ever laid your eyes on. It got tangled up in
the briers and thorns, and the dogs chased it,
and its feet got all cut up and sore on the
sharp stones, and it was all bloody and bruised,
and jest about battered to pieces."
"Well, hurry up, Tony. Did he find it?"
"Sure, he found it all right, and what do
you think, Fatty! It was so weak and wobbly
that it couldn't walk, and the man jest laid it
on his shoulder like you do a baby, you know,
like this, and carried it home. Seems to me
he'd be a nice man. I'd like to see that man,
Fatty."
"You'd think he'd been so out of patience
with the thing for runnin' away and gettin'
lost, he'd jest made it walk whether it could
or not."
"No, no, Fatty, you ain't onto the idea someway.
The pink lady said things in between
that I can't remember, but if you'd heard her,
you wouldn't think the man would do that.
You see, Fatty, it was his sheep, and you
mustn't fnr?ot thof Un'/l 1 1?' '
_ ? v* iic u icu ii>, aiiu ienaea
to it ever since it was a little thing, and?he
liked it. Why, pard, he wouldn't have lost
that sheep for nothin'. I wish't you'd been
there, 'cause you ketch on better'n I do."
"Was that all, Tony!"
"All! Well, I guess not. That's only the
headlines. I got that part pretty half straight.
After she got that all told, then she said she'd
explain. And when she begun to explain, I
couldn't get head nor tail to the thing. I got
all mixed up, and my head felt like one of
them whirling fans in the stores that's run by
lightnin'. Now listen, Fatty. She said we was
all lost sheep."
Fatty rolled his eyes deliberately as he turned
toward his companion, "Lost sheep! Well,
if that ain't the limit! Whew, Tony, I wish't
I'd been there! I'd told the pink lady she'd
better dream that over again."
"iso, you wouldn't, Fatty. You'd jest listened
with both ears. She said we was lost,
and a man had come from somewhere away off
to hunt us. We belong to him, and we got
lost somehow, and he loves us, and when he
finds us, Fatty, he'll be tickled to pieces. She
didn't say jest them words, but that's the sense.
And he'll carry us when we're tired, and he'll
feed us, and he'll give us a nice home, and
all because we're his, and he loves us. That'd
be nice, wouldn't it, pardt" asked Tony,
twisting his cap and looking wistfully at
Fatty.
"I can't think of nothin' much nicer, Tony,
and that's honest. But don't worry your head
about such a thing. It's not for the like of us,
Tony. He won't bother to hunt us, I reckon.
We ain't worth much."
"The pink lady said so, Fatty. She's always
been on the square so far."
"Well, I?I'm afraid she's got mixed on
that."
"Say, Fatty, if that kind of a man is lookin'
for us, T don't want to get no farther away.
Maybe he'd miss us if we'd keep on goin' like
that sheep. You and me ain't got no folks nor
1
5 u T R [June 26, 1912
nobody that likes us, and seems to me it'd be
tine to be hunted up and?and loved some. I'd
like to be found by somebody, wouldn't you,
pard?"
"That's an awful fine idea, Tony, but it looks
hazy to me. What's the man's name that's
lookin' for us boys?"
"Well, it's that same man the pink lady's
always talkin' about. The one she calls the
'Lord.' I never could find out jest who he
is, but she says he's the one that's come to look
for folks that have got lost, and she seems sure
he's on the hunt for all of us boys in the class.
I asked her once who the 'Lord' was, and she
gulped, and looked like something hit her, and
she said: 'Why, Tony, he?he's God, God in
TIno.-nr. J U 1 >
uvai^u, h\jli v yyju iwiuw i vju, yes,' says 1,
'sure!' I didn't want her to know I was so
dumb, but it didn't put me next, 'cause 1
didn't know who he was no more'n the other
one."
"I reckon Heaven's that place with them
pearly gates and gold streets and harps and
things like that, Tony, that the pink lady tells
us about."
"Maybe, Fatty; but say, what are we goin'
to do about this man that's huntin' us. Where
d'ye reckon he'd be lookin'f"
"I dunno, Tony. I don't think he's ever
been down in Mugg Alley. I never run up
against a man like that down here, unless it's
that one that puts his hands on our shoulders
sometimes, there on the corner. Mind? And
gives out them tracts that we make kite-tails
of. He looks like he might be that kind. 1
see him pick up an old man the other day and
help him walk, and another time he took off
his coat and give it to that good-for-nothin'
rn n - -
iuiii rmuey. iou don t reckon he could be
the man the pink lady means, Tony."
Tony thought a moment. "She didn't say
nothin' about him givin' out tracts, but "
"We got to get the thing settled up some
way," wont on Fatty. "I see that by your
eye. You won't be good for anything 'til you
know. But I?I'm afraid the pink lady overdone
herself this time, pard. I?I wish 'twas
true, though."
"I reckon she don't mean we're lost exactly
like the sheep, but maybe worse ways. 1
couldn't get much sense to that part, as I said,
only that we was lost, and that some great
man Was llUntin' US. Tint thnn thn ninlr lnrlv
said he'd find us some way, no matter how long
it took, 'cause we're his. See?"
"I s'pose the sure way'd be to ask the pink
lady herself," decided Fatty. "She startod
the racket, and she's the one to settle the
thing."
"Yes, but it'll be a week 'fore we see her
again, and I hate to wait that long. I'm afraid
we're gettin' farther away all the time. If we
knew where that man was, we could sort o' be
on the look-out, and when he come in sight,
we could start for him."
"Um?well, I?I dunno. It's ahead of me,
Tony. If it wasn't that the pink lady said it,
I'd call the whole thing bosh; but of course,
when she says so?well, I?I can't seem to
ketch on tight enough to hold. I don't see
li A... .... 1 J L 1 * /? ? ?
nuw wc cuuiu neip nun nna us, Tony."
"I thought maybe it'd be something lik(!
this. You mind the time Gyp got lost and y()"
and me went around Mugg Alley whistlin' f?r
dear life to find him. We saw him once, hut
things was so noisy he didn't hear us whistle.
But when we got close enough so's he heard,
how he did turn around and make for us.
Kememnerf Well, I was thinkin' maybe if *c
was watehin' and keepin' our ears open all the
time, why, when we did hear the man hiintin
us, we could turn straight avmnd, and make