Qiristmas Qn (iusoes^sk
(Copyright. 1903. by F. A. Ober. J
prevented. It was the next spring he
asked me to marry him. Dear me!
You wouldn’t think to hear me running
on that you're the first person I’ve ever
told it to. I wouldn't let Goodloe tell
it ueither, I was that afraid mother
might bear. She was growing worse
Chrirtmcu ~S~tOry by
fast, and it would have worried her
Elizabeth E. Stotv
to think I couldn't leave home and
marry like other girls. Goodloe felt
(Copyright, 1903, by Elizabeth E. Stow.]
quite worked up for a spell, but finally
OMEHOW she looked out of place he married Sally Skinner. She’s raised
among the gay throng of Christ him a big family and been a good wife.”
I fancied a sigh escaped her, but aft
mas travelers that enlivened the
dull waiting room. Whenever er a moment she went on in her cheery
way: "Well, as I was saying, the last
the station master's stentorian voice
rang through the room she started time I rode on the cars was on my
tensely, only to settle back stiff and eighteenth birthday. By pushing a
chair in front of her, mother could
alert, as before.
She was small and slightly bent. Her walk a little yet, but I got Susan Ann
decent black dress, though far from the Ruggles to look In ou her once In
latest cut, bad a nattlnesa of its own. awhile, for father couldn’t be depend
She had probably passed twoscore and ed on if he got after a new patent idee.
ten, yet there was a youthfulness about You see, he was always going after
her that had detied bard work and patents. Were they a success? Oh, my,
trouble and sorrow. I felt sure that no! He spent pretty much all mother
she had experienced all three. At last had. Her folks was pretty well off, you
know. The only one of his idees that
she glanced shyly in my direction.
“It’s tiresome waiting, is it not?” I was ever any good was a machine for
lifting mother. I don’t know what
ventured.
“Oh, no! It’s all so new and strange we'd have ever done without it It
to me, and then I’ve only an hour to turned with a crank, like a windlass,
wait” Her voice, like herself, had a so I could lift her alone, just as easy.
pleasant alertness.
“Perhnps you’re unaccustomed to
traveling." I suggested tentatively.
"This morning is the second time
since I was ten years old that I've
been on a train of cars,” she answered,
with suggestive accuracy. "I didn't
used to mind staying at home, but the
longing to go somewhere has seemed
to grow on me. Why, one time I even
thought of setting In the milk train that
makes up at our station. It backs up
and switches round for 'bout an hour,
so I could imagine I’d started for no
body knows where. I even got so far
as hoping a cinder’d blow in my eye.
like when I was a little girl ami went
to the city with father. It’s a mercy
I never told my idee. Folks would
have thought I was getting in my do
tage. I ain't tiring you, be I?” she
naked anxiously. “I don't know when
I’ve talked so much about myself.”
I hastened to reassure her. remark
Ing that home cares had doubtless pre
vented her getting away.
“How did you know?” she SHld, with
a birdlike turn of the head. “Why, I
was only eleven when 1 began making
bread and pies. I was the only child,
you see, and mother began to lie lame
then. She kept right on growing worse
and worse till finally her Joints »•’
stiffened up, just like the bones be
tween. She suffered dreadful till the
last fifteen years or so, when the sore
ness kind of left.”
“IT'S TIBESOMX WATTING, 18 IT NOT?”
“How long did you say It was since for all she was such a dead weight
you rode on the cars?" I asked.
Our doctor said we ought to have it
“.Inst forty years ago thia morning patented, but I made him promise he'd
It was on my eighteenth birthday. I never lisp it to father.
was bora the day before Christmas
“One time the doctor had a young
I'm fifty-eight today.”
doctor up from a New York hospital
“I wouldn't have thought it."
to see mother, and he thought the ma
"That’s what folks all tell me. I chine was great. 'Why.' he says, turn
should think I'd look as old as Me ing to me, 'you’ll let me get out a pat
thuselah. though somehow I don't feel ent on It, won’t you?’ 'Oh, yes,' says I,
it. I remember that day. forty years 'get out all the patents you want to
ago, just as well. ’Twas just such a and welcome.’ So he bad a photo
morning as this, the enow all a-sparkle graph took of It Afterward I felt real
and crisp underfoot. Goodloe said kind of sorry I let him do It, be was so
’twas like fairyland. It was Goodloe young and green looking.
Morton”—a faint flush came on her
"Well, you can see, what with moth
faded cheek—“who took me on the er helpless and father patenting, there
Christmas excursion to Buffalo. We wasn't much chance for me to get
was going to the falls, but something away, but I always bad a hankering |
After Forty
years
S
to see Niagara falls. It’s a sight once
seen Btays by. they say. When our
money was more plenty I laid out to
go a number of times, but something
or other always turned up to prevent.
The first time father was took with a
crick in his back. The next time the
daughter of the woman who was com
ing to take care of mother had her leg
broke in a runaway. Once everything
seemed moving favorably. Clarlssy
Stringham had come to take care of
mother. I had my ticket there and
back, and even my lunch was put up,
for 1 was to start at 5 in the morning.
That night there come up the worst
thunderstorm you ever see and wash
ed out the track on our branch, so the
trains couldn't run for two days.
"Yes. mother died a little more than
a year ago. just a year and three
months after father. I was so thank
ful she went before me. You see, she
had been sick so long, and then she
was naturally pretty high spirited (she
said I'd just let folks run right over
me), so she used to speak out pretty
sharp, and sometimes 'twas awful
hard to please her, but I never minded,
for I knew she meant all right. Oh,
you don't know how lost I was after
she was gone. Why, there hasn’t been
a night sence I don't wake up ’bout
the hour she used to ask me to pull her
a little to one side or lower the cushion
under her knees or do something to
make her easier. Sometimes I find my
self setting right up in bed, thinking
certain she's calling me.”
She was unable to go on for a mo
ment, and though I’m called easy in
conversation I could think of no com
forting word.
“And I'm so thankful,” she contin
ued, regaining her self control, “the
money held out till she was gone. I’ve
had to let the place go. Last week
after everything was settled up I bad
just $25 left. Through it all every
body's been just as good to me as they
could be. I often wonder why, for
I’ve never had time to do anything for
them. Well, I had plans all laid to go
to work for Mrs. Jennings at a dollar
a week when one evening—It was Just
a week ago—I was setting alone feeling
pretty blue and thinking ’twosn't likely
now I'd ever see the falls, and in
stepped Dr. Brown. ‘Well,’ he says In
his offhand way, 'Miss Fannie, can you
bear good news?’
“'Why, I don't know, doctor,' says
I. 'I’ve never had much experience at
it’ You see I was feeling blue yet.
•• 'Well,’ he says, with a twinkle in
h'r -eyo,. 'I gursy. ynn'ro gn.lntr tp hive
a chance uow. I’ve just heard from
the young doctor who wanted to get a
patent on your mother’s lifting appa
ratus.'
"He gave me a letter which'had a
check in it and which said I'm to have
510 a week my If'etime, it's half the
royalty be gets for his patent on. moth
er’s machine. Well, when I realized it
wasn't a story out of a book I .never
waited to have a dress made nortnoth
lng. for fear something’d happen. And
so here I am on my way to Niagara
falls. The falls are pretty‘badly (froze
up, of course, but I ain't going tottake
any chances on not seetng ’em
Be
sides'
"Train going west!" camo In sten
torlan tones.
A warm band clasp, .and the last 1
saw of my little friend-was jt cliceiy.
expectant face lost in the (hurryin,
crowd ot Christmas travrters.,
N E Christmas
morning not
many years ago
I found myself
up a tree in
Crusoe's island.
I was hunting
meat for my
Christmas din
ner shortly aft
er daybreak
that morning,
and as the most
abundant sup
ply was prom-
bobinson cbusoe .
feed by the pec
caries. or wild
hogs, that ranged the island, I had left
camp and started out after them. It
was great fun for awhile, for I fell In
with a herd of about a dozen and had
secured two of the “varmints” when
the survivors, seeming to think that
“turn about is fair play,” began hunt
ing me. Then the situation assumed a
different aspect entirely, for the pec
cary when aroused Is one of the most
bloodthirsty of creatures and as re
vengeful as an Indian. Fortunately
for me, a great gum tree stood conven
iently near, and by means of the lianas
that swung from its branches I was
soon safe from harm and looking calm
ly down upon the little black beasts as
they raged around the trunk. But a
peccary, as Is well known, can enter
tain only one idea at a time, and the
idea that possessed the shallow brains
of my friends below was how to effect
my destruction. After rooting around
awhile they all sat down In an attitude
of expectation and patiently waited for
me to descend. And they would sit
there, I felt sure, knowing peccary na
ture as I did, until they starved me to
death rather than allow me to escape.
I had only a few rounds of ammuni
tion suited to their needs, but I killed
three more before It was exhausted
and peppered the hide* of several oth
ers bo thnt If they ever had entertained
the idea of leaving they abandoned ft
entirely. I had not a morsel of food
about me. The limbs I sat astride of
were not so soft as they might have
been if they had been made to order,
and I was getting uncomfortable when
I noticed a commotion in the herd.
The leader of the band, a grisly old
tusker with recurved fangs like Turk
ish scimitera, suddenly stood up and
’«nii'fed the air; then he uttered a
“whoof” of rage and despair, struck a
2:10 gait and disappeared in the jungle,
followed by all the survivors. 1 was
saved by a black man and a dog.
It may or may not be true that the
peccary has as intense a dislike for
the black man as be has for a dog.
but anyway the combination proved
effective In this Instance. The man
who appeared at. this juncture was the
while me done cut up an’ skin dese
bawgs—one, two, three, fo', fl be. Golly, .
massa, we done gut 'nuff meat fo* de
Christmus dinnuii, aln’ we? Not to
menshun dis yere bag wiv two dozen
fine fat crapauds in um, sah.”
I’appy Ned set to work drossing (or.
to be exact, undressing) the peccaries,
being careful not to taint the flesh with
(be contents of the peculiar musk gland
which the species carries on its back,
and while he is thus engaged seems a
good opi>ortunity for me to make my
explanation as to the exact location of
Crusoe's island.
It Is not, as ninety-nine persons in a
hundred think, the island of Juan Fer
nandez, on the southwest coast of
South America, but it is a good many
miles nearer the coast of our own Unit
ed States, in the southeastern part of
the Caribbean sea. I will not waste
any time, either the reader’s or my
own. in argument, but respectfully re ;
fer the earnest Inquirer to old Crusoe
himself. Robinson Crusoe, Esq., mar
iner, of Bristol. England, whose adven
tures were first written out and pub
lished by Daniel De Foe in 1710, was
somewhere in latitude 11 degrees north
of the equator when be was wrecked—
that is, of course, assuming there ever
A PECCARY.
was an entity called “Crusoe” in the
flesh. But, whether he ever existed or
not, that is where De Foe placed his
hero when he had him wrecked on the
coast of his island. To quote the
words of Crusoe himself, just before it
happened, “The master made an ob
servation as well as he could and found
that he was In about 11 degrees of
north latitude, bo that we were gotten
beyond the coast of Guiana and beyond
the river Amazones. toward the Orino
co, commonly called the Great river.”
Now, that would be evidence suffi
cient for any sailor, but let Crusoe fur
ther explain, as he does well along in
his narrative, when be first circum
navigates his Island kingdom: “The
land which I perceived to the west and
southwest was the great island of
Trinidad, on the north point of the
mouth of the river Orinoco.”
Trinidad, as everybody knows, is off
the north coast of South America and
with me back to
our but. Hang
ing three of the
pigs up in a
palm tree to
await bls re-
turn Pappy
Ned shouldered
the other two
and the sack of
crapauds and
toted the load
to camp, which
was distant but
a mile or so,
and I followed
after with my
gun. As Tobago is a tropical island the
meat would not keep a groat while, and
we roally bad much more than we could
eat, but I’appy Ned said he knew of
some black people over on the other
side of the forest who would devour
what there was left provided he could
get word to them in time.
There never was a more beautiful
situation for a hut than the site of
mine on a hilltop above the forest line,
with views of tropical woods and Bhln-
ing shore, and, as the weather that
Christmas day was simply perfect. I
ordered my man to make our "spread"
in the open, beneath the cocoa palms,
sheltered from the blazing sun by the
golden rooftrees only. So he set the
table out of doors and lost no time in
getting at the cooking, which was done
over an open fire. Pappy Ned wiib as
adept at preparing exquisite dishes
from next to nothing as any Parisian
chef that ever lived. We had a garden
filled with such plants ■>« the manioc,
tanla, sweet potato, u..owroot, yam,
etc., not to mention corn and mountain
rice. From a wild grove of coffee trees
I obtained the fragrant berry for my
morning beverage; also cacao, or choco
late, from another copse on the border'
of the forest, while the cocoa palms
above and around my hut held a de
licious cool drink in their unripe nuts.
Pappy Ned dried and grated the cassa
va tubers, making “farlne,” from which
he cooked great cakes more than a foot
across. The juice of the cassava is
poisonous in its crude state, but it Is
converted into a palatable substance by
heat and formB the basis of the noted
“cassareep,” or pepper pot. We always
bad a pepper pot on hand as a stand
by, into which we threw the odd pieces
of meat left over after ordinary re
pasts, and a goodly amount of the pec
cary flesh was thus disposed of. the
cassareep acting as a preservative as
well as condiment. But pepper pot
was a poor man’s makeshift. Pappy
Ned always declared, and the day be
fore he had walked the beach for sea
turtle eggs, several score of which he
had brought back to camp, together
with a fine fish he had caught on the
shore.
After working three or four hours
HRr
p.-i-i?-' A
/ZU
/■>
THE
only other in that forest save myself,
my sable servitor. Pappy Ned. He had
been out all night hunting crapauds.
or forest frogs, and was on his wsy
back to our camp with a backload of
hatrachians, the legs of which weje to
ue set.ed up !r- s style which only
Pappy Ned knew to perfection.
“Goramighty, massa!” he exclaimed
in astonishment. “Was dat yo’ gun
goln’ off pam! pam! lak yo’ shootin' a
reg'munt ob sogers? Ki. but it's lucky
ole Pappy Ned come ’long, hey? Dem
bawgs dene know Pappy Ned an' Jes'
cl’ar out when dey hear um a-comin’
along wiv dis yer dawg. Dey don' lak
niggers, an' dey don' lak dawgs nutber,
but dey’se death on de buckra man.”
“Well, pappy, the buckra man, as you
call me, has brought death to the pec
carles this time, and they've good rea
son for not liking me. I fancy. But
you came along Just In the nick of
time, old friend, and I owe you another
reward for saving my life a second
time.” He had nursed me through a
fever a few months before.
“Ob. me massa. dat ain’ nnffin'. Me
only too glad to serve me good massa.
fo' shuab. Yo’ jes act down an' rest.
8UHVTV0B8
BEGAN
HUNTING
is one of the finest British possessions
in the West Indies. The only other is
land which fully answer» the descrip
tion given by Crusoe in relation of lo
cation to Trinidad is that of Tobago,
from which Sir Walter Raleigh prob
ably derived the name of the “weed"
we call tobacco.
I long held the theory that this was
Crusoe's island, and In order to prove
it went down there on a bunting and
exploring expedition, afterward writ
ing a book about my adventures which
gives all the evidence, even if It does
not suuk-iently establish the facts. At
any rate, I “played Crusoe" for months
in Tobago, the island of the ancient
mariner's adventures, built a liwt of
palm leaves in the forest and for a
time lived as good old Robinson lived.
With the exception that I did not have
any goats; neither did I tempt an at
tack of rheumatism by residing in a
cave. I even had my poll parrot, my
hammock under the palms and my
“Man Friday,” only the latter was not
a Carlb, like Cruaoe’s factotum, but a
black man. honest and faithful old
Pappy Ned. who soon finished skinning
those peccaries and was ready to go
ME.
over the open Are Tappy Ned came to
announce, “Dlnnab done ready, sah.”
at the Mine time handing me n
“cashew cocktail’’ made from tbfc juk’J
of an aromatic fruit brewed with rum
and stirred to effervescence with a
“swizzle stick.”
The vrxnd repast of the day opened
with gumbo soup, followed by' 'fish,
frogs' legs and turtles' eggs, while in
the center of the table was peccary
roast, flanked by a nicely browned
guinea bird and a native wild turkey,
with a vast assortment of vegetables
from my garden. There were no drinks
artificially cooled. Ice being an unob
tainable luxury in Crusoe's island, but
there were tropical fruits in abun
dance-pines. guavas, mangoes, oranges
and custard apples—all of which bad
been plucked within a* stone's throw of
my hut.
One thing only was lacking—a good
ly company—to enjoy that Christmas
feast in Crusoe's Island. Ilut we were
content, for. as Pappy Ned observed,
“De good Ooramlghty done gib us all
we want, mo’ dan we need and a heap
sight mo’ dan we desarve.”
FREDERICK A. OBER.