Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1876 — WHY LETTICE SYMPATHIZED WITH MR. BREMER. [ARTICLE]

WHY LETTICE SYMPATHIZED WITH MR. BREMER.

Lettice liad been sick all through the spring and early summer, but when the weather became hot and dry the cough and pain in her side left her, faint streaks of color began to flash up into her thin cheeks, ana she grew able to take a ride with her father every morning, and during each ride she found many commonplace incidents to weave into thrilling stories for her little brother Fred. One morning, as they were driving slowly along a beautiful lane, Lettice was much amused by counting a number of cattle crossing a- brook on a narrow plank. “There! Twenty-one!” she cried,clapping her hands. “ What a clumsy old fellow that last one was. I surely thought he’d tumble into the water. I hope they will all do it over again when we come back. I must tell Fred all about it.” “ That reminds me of poor little Fredrika Bremer,” replied her father, delighted to see his “languid lady” display so much interest. “ One day she and her sisters were watching some bullocks that had been let out to drink at a pond. When they came to a certain place where the gates had been taken down they all appeared seized with a dancing lit, and began to jump and prance, kicking their hind legs in the air. The children were amazed at such conduct in the quiet creatures, and when their father came home that evening Charlotte went into the library and told him of the wonderful behavior of the bullocks. He was amused and interested, and wondered very much what could have influenced them. Presently in came another child and told the same story. The father listened but said nothing. Then a third came in, repeating what the others had said. The father

fmid no attention. And, last of all, poor ittlo repressed, irrepressible Fredrika made her appearance, saying, ‘ Do you know, papa, that the bullocks —’ But she was interrupted with, ‘This is the fourth time I have heard that story. Now there must be an end of it.’ ” “ How cross and unkind he was!” exclaimed Lettice. “He might have listened to just one more. I have no patience with him!” “ But it was something of a bore for him, you see,” said Mr. Houghton. “ Why,” suddenly turning his attention to the horse, “ Ned has almost lost that fore shoe* We must drive slowly. I will watch the shoe while you keep a sharp lookout for a blacksmith’s shop. 1 think there is one near.” Lettice sat erect, her bright eyes searching for she scarcely knew what, until her father said: “There it is,” as they turned a corner close upon a small unpainted building surrounded by broken wagons. Through a smoky doorway they saw a man bending over a forge, drawing a long red iron from the fire; but he threw the iron on the anvil and came to the door at the sound of Mr. Houghton’s voice. “ Loose shoe, eh?” he inquired, running his fingers through his curly gray hair. “Do it for you in five minutes ; will that suit you, eh ? Better take the horse out, eh? Your little gal looks beat out; better go in the house and stay with my women folks, eh? Powerful hot place this shop is to set in, eh ?” “ It will only be for a few minutes,” assured her father, helping her down. “ Perhaps you will find something to amuse you.” Lettice slowly crossed the dusty road, and knocked at the door of the little red house opposite the shop. “ May I please stay here until our horse is shoo?” she asked, as a tiny old lady appeared. “Yes, come in,” answered the old lady, in a strikingly gentle tone. “ How thin you are! Have you been sick ? Just set in this rocking chair and put your feet on this little bench, and I’ll get you a glass of our spring water. No such water as ours to be found for miles around.”

Lettice leaned wearily back among the faded green cushions of the chair, while the ola lady stretched up to the highest shelf of a closet for a glass, and left the room, moving so noiselessly that the child was almost startled. , The room was so small and bare that Lettice had made a study of everything it contained before the old lady returned with the glass of water and followed by a little brown dog. “ What a cunning little dog it is,” she said, after she had drank the water, and the dog came whining and jumping around her chair. “Yes,” assented the old lady, seating herself, and commencing to darn a pair of coarse socks. “And what do you think he did last toight? It was the queerest thing, for we never let him go up-stairs; but Jimmy had something like a tetcb of cholery, and he was took all of a suddent in the evening, though what he had been eating to hurt him no one knows. For his breakfast he only eat cakes—we was out of buckwheat, so we made them of rye and Indian; we raise them over night — two quarts—-” “But what did the little brown dog do ?’ ‘ inquired Lettice. “Well, you see Jimmy ’most had the cholery, and we was at our wits’ end. We put him ip hot water, and we put mustard en him, and gave him ginger and par-

egoric, and the doctor live* a long way off, and there was no one to send, for John had the asthmy, and father ” “80 you sent the dog for the doctor V’ ’ asked Lettice. “No; oh, no, we should ndt think of such a thing,” returned the gentle old voice'. “ Well, you sec, after we put him in the hot water we wanted to wrap him up warm, and so Ainandy went up to the garret chamber for a quilt—we have a nice parcel of quilts, for I’ve plecened fifty-three in my day—let me see, the first one I plecened was when——” “Did the dog bring down the quilt?” again interrupted Lettice. L “Oh, po,” replied the old lady, softly, shaking her head, “but he followed Amandy up-stairs, and she never thought of him when she came out of the room, and we was all so frightened we never missed him, and thought nothing of it till Jimmy was better this morning and Amandy went to put the quilt away, and as sure as you live there was Fido a-wag-fing his tail when Amandy opened the oor, and he must have been there all night.” A disappointed “Oh!” was all the reply that Lettice could make.

“ Slo you like Flido,” repeated a thick voice as a very old man opened a bedroom door so close to her chair that Lettice gave a little start. “ 810 you like Flido,” he continued, shambling up to an arm-chair and seating himself with difficulty. “ Flido is a wise dog an’ a tunning dog an’ a funny dog. An’ Flido went up-stairs last night, an’ he followed ’Mandy up-stairs, an’ ’Mandy went upstairs for a quilt, and Jimmy was sick an’ had to have a quilt, an’ Flido followed ’Mandy up-stairs, an’ ’Mandy shet Flido in, and Flido stayed there all night till ’Mandy opened the door in’e morning and then ’Mandy saw Flido waggin’ his tail. Yes, Flido is a tunning dog an’ a wise dog an’ a funny dog.” “Oh!” shivered Lettice, glancing out of the window to see if the horse were nearly ready. “ Here I am, home at last, almost sweltered!” shouted a large, round voice, and the door was violently opened to admit a stout young W'oman who immediately seated herself on two chairs and began fanning herself with her apron. “It’s Amandy ,” whispered the gentle old lady, just as if she were unlocking a cabinet of rare jewels. “ So you are waiting for your horse?” questioned Amanda. “And how fond Fido is of you! I ski. Ibe jealous soon. You never in your life saw an jibing as cunning as he is. Jimmy was taken sick last night and what were we to do, so far from the doctor and never having any one sick like that before, we didn’t Know, and you never in your life saw such a distressed household. But I had heard tell of putting folks in hot water, so I ran upstairs for a quilt (but I shouldn’t have believed the dog followed me if I had not seen him there this morning), and so I ran down quick, and when I went to put the quilt away this morning you never in your life, ever, saw a dog so happy as he was, standing there wagging his tail when I opened the door.” As she ended her story Amanda nodded toward Lettice, who could only reply with a faint, half-indignant “ Oh!” “ So you are home, ’Man’,” screamed & shrill voice from the kitchen, and a moment after a slight, red-cheeked girl appeared in the doorway. “Who’ve you got here?” she asked, her bold brown eyes traveling over Lettice’s attire inch by inch. “So she is waiting for the horse, all dressed up so gay; but she likes Fido.” The girl seated herself on the floor and began to play with the dog. “ Where do you suppose he stayed last night? the duck, the diamond—” she began, to Lettice’s consternation. “ That little wretch Jimmy had to go and eat cucumbers till he got us all in a precious fright, and while ’Man’ ran up-stairs fora quilt he just picked after her and we never knew a breath about it till ’Man’ went up this morning to put away the quilt, and there he stood wagging his tail. Now wasn’t that a cunning trick?” “ I don’t know,” replied Lettice angrily, ready to shriek with nervousness. Just then a small boy appeared in the kitchen doorway eating a large cucumber. “ Come here, good dog, poor fellow !” he called. “ Say, Sis, he’s the funniest dog you ever saw. Last night I was sick ” But Lettice sprang from the chair in terror and rushed from the house with her fingers in her ears. The horse was reharncssed and her father waiting to assist her to her seat in the carriage. “ The time did not seem long to you ?” he asked, as they turned the corner which hid house and shop from their view. ‘ 1 But how pale you are! Are you faint ? Was their house too close? Here, take the bottle of hartshorn.” ‘ ‘ I—sympathize —with^Mr—Bremer,” came faintly from the clfid’s white lips. “What do j-ou mean# Asked her father, anxiously. “ I feel better,” sighed Lettice, the color rushing violently into her face as she sniffed the hartshorn. And before the ride was over she had s', far recovered as to tell the whole story to her father, which made him laugh so heartily that the tears ran down his checks. — Ella A. Drinkwater, in Christian Union.