Laddie: A True Blue Story

ryor'

be joy if

that hol

grief if no

of heav

yet?" asked my big sister Lucy of mother. Lucy was home

a w

hey en

sn't ment

n't you f

d I?" ask

ct when they are together. If he kisses her

wait until Sally tell

they would let me take the baby. Of course they wouldn't! Mother took it herself. She was rockin

trus,

er rid

phring

er power in

rhyme that way and the words wouldn't fit the notes; it was just, "Trot, trot,

to that little red, pug-

oll when there's a live baby in the house? I didn't care much for my playhouse since I had seen one so much finer that Laddie had made for the Princess. Of course I knew moss wouldn't take root in our orchard as it did in the woods, neither would willow cuttings or the red flowers. Finally, I decided to go huntin

af, loaded my gun with portulaca powder, rammed in a tiger lily bullet, laid the weapon across my shoulder, and stepped high and lightly as Laddie does when he's in the Big Woods hunti

ap. Then I looked. It was the Princess' father, tall, and gray, and grim, riding a big black

" I said when

that you are on the chase wit

ed, getting my brea

oticed he didn't seem to

und, and what game are you

jungle over there. I am going

"crown of glory," when it is found in the way of the Lord. Mahlon Pryor had enough crown of glory for three men, but maybe his wasn't exactly glory, because he wasn't in the way of the Lord. He was in a way of his own. He must have had much confide

tle curious about your ammunition. J

lily bullets on the tigers, and fo

ard him a mile, d

ounds fox hunting," he said. "It's great spo

and this is one of them: He got off his horse, tied it to the fence, and climbed over after me. He went on asking questions and of course I had to tell

em to be many tre

ne of these birds, yellow as orange peel, with velvet black wings, weaves a nest like that, and over on that big branch, high up, one just as bright red as the other is yellow, and the same black wings, builds a cradle for his babi

so?" he asked, and I though

and he kept wolves, bears, Indians, and Gypsies from her, and shot things for food. Ye

Laddie s

roudly. "He won't try to do anything at all

addie," he said

rry about the li

all," he

p and let Governor Ogles

felt good on his forehead. I fished Dick Oglesby from the ammunition in my apron pocket, and held him toward

t I only play with her on Sunday when I dare not do much else. I like Dick the best because he fits my apron pocket. Father wanted me to change his name and call him Oliver P. Mort

did

t one named Mo

a baby when it wants you to take it, and his plump little feet and the white shirt with red stripes all a piece of him as he was

stands still and the water swims

hen I got some apple butter on the governor giving him a bite of my bread, and put him in the wash bowl to soak. He was two and a half inches tall; b

nd watch you'll have more to l

a shiner and some more chub. They nibbled at his hands and toes, and then went flashing away, and from under the stone came backing a big crayfish and seized the

it hopping along, but when it was opposite us, I pinged it in the side, it jumped up and turned a somersault with surprise, and squealed a funny little squeal,-well, I wondered if Mr. Pryor's people didn't hear him, and think he had gone crazy as Paddy Ryan. I never did hear any one laugh so. I thought if he enjoyed it like that, I'd let him shoot one. I do May sometimes; so we went to a

pered. "It won'

ike I showed him, so he reached ou

o that!"

away! It's getti

you suppose I really would hurt a poor little mus

ing things, such little bits of helpless creatures too. I thought he'd better be got from the jungle, so I invited him to see the place at the foot of the hill below our orchard where some men thought they had discovered

re had been a shovel, I am quite sure he would have gone to digging. He kept p

ain. He didn't seem to be the same man when we went back to the road. I pulled some sweet marsh grass and gave his horse b

ather but one

os really belongs to Laddie, and

e one soon, you

rry up and marry off, so the expen

you are the

welve,"

wn the road

you have twelve childr

cities around, and some of the girls are married. Mother says she has on

one who rides the little black pony and she is a pict

e's as pretty as

either," he repli

mounted

that house," he said, "without hearing som

ess mothe

is it al

alive, that we have things to do th

said M

r hearts are full of," I told

old time

nnot keep

ok his

about all the other things religion is good for, there i

and hard, but he only tur

g morning I've had this side England. I should be delighted if

pen the door

ive, he looked so sad I couldn't help thinking he was sorry t

on-hunting some time with the Princess, after she h

y daughter contemplated visiting your

nvited her l

d: "O-o-o-h!" Some way it se

she looked so lonely. I pulled my mother's sleeve and led her to your girl and made them shake hands, and then mother HAD to ask her to come to dinner with us. She always invites every one she meets coming down the aisle; she coul

ad and he seemed to grow whiter,

she left. Perhaps she does feel herself a stranger. It was very kind of yo

father wil

f something had hit him

hen, too, father's people were from England, and he says real Englishmen

ee I had made him angry enough to burst. Mother always tells me not to repeat things; but I'm not smart enough to know what

I took Bobby under my arm, hunted father, and told him all abou

e and wanted to fight. He hadn't time to fight Bobby because he was busy chasing every wild jay from our orchard. By the time he

el space, where mother fed the big chickens and kept the hens in coops with little ones. She had to have them close enough that the big hawks were afraid to come to earth, or they would take more chickens than they could pay for, by cleaning rabbits, snakes, and mice from the fields. Then came a double row of p

seed to some one halfway across the state. At each end of the peach row was an enormous big pear tree; not far from one the chicken house stood on the path to the barn, and beside the other the smoke house with the dog kennel a yard away. Father said there was a distinct relationship between a smoke house and a dog kennel, and bulldogs were best. Just

In the middle were the apple; selected trees, planted, trimmed, and cultivated like human beings. The apples were so big and fine they were picked by hand, wrapped in paper, packed in barrels, and all we could not use at home went to J. B. White in Fort W

es were small, bright red with yellow stripes, crisp, juicy and sweet enough to b

was worn away and the trunk was smooth and shiny. The birds loved to nest among the branches, and under the peach tree in the fence corner opposite was a big bed of my mother's favourite wild flowers, blue-eyed Marys. They had dainty stems from six to eight inches high and delicate heads of bloom made up of little flowers, two petals up, blue, two turning down, white. Perhaps you don't know about anything prettier than that. There were maiden-hair ferns among th

skimming down that hill and halfway across the meadow on it. In the very place we slid across, in summer lay the cowslip bed. The world is full of beautiful spots, but I doubt if any of them ever were prettier than that. Father called it swale. We didn't sink deep, but all summer there was water standing there. The grass was long and very sweet, there were ferns and

t the same time the cowslips were most golden, the marsh was blue with flags, pink with smart weed, white and yellow with dodder, yellow with marsh buttercups having ragged fros

t quiet, and heard the music and studied the pictures, it made you feel as if you had to put it into words. I often had meeting all by myself, unless Bobby and Hezekiah were along, and I tried to tell God what I thought about things. Probably He was so busy making

that minute I knew mother was humm

read that swee

s was her

tle children as l

to have been w

n killed in the war, when they had been married only six weeks, which hadn't given her time to grow tired of him if he hadn't been "all her f

ed him in h

d him in

rt I thought

was my

r pie always tasted salty from her tears, and he'd take a bite and s

r-meeting. We never could learn his speeches, because he read and studied so much it kept his head so full, he made a new one eve

door of

thy cha

es shall te

hat shall

sun gro

Stars

aves of th

unf

uld hear it and I had known it was about me, as she must have known he meant her, I

on the o

the roll

ish waggle

oles two

f of the Mingoes," or any one of the fifty others. He could make your hair stand a little straighter than any one else; the best teachers we ever had, or even Laddie, c

ed into, had stood in that corner. It was all gone now; but a flowerbed of tiny, purple iris, not so tall as the grass, spread there, and some striped grass in the shadiest places, and among the flowers a lark brooded every spring.

sed the top of the

llow, everything ever found in an Indiana thicket; grass under foot, and many wild flowers and ferns wherever the cattle and horses didn't trample them, and bigger, wilder birds, many having names I didn't know. On the left, across the lane, was a large cornfield, with trees here and there, and down the valley I could see the Big Creek coming from the west, the Big Hill with the church on top, and always the white gra

. "We will open service this morning by singing the thirty-f

e high and squeally

that love

our joys

song of sw

urround th

said: "Brother Hastings, w

our church prayed, but I liked Brother Hastings' best, because it had the biggest words in it. I loved words that filled yo

er: We come before

the dust, implor

to forgive our

liding, and lo

d a worm would never be anything except a worm, but we could study and improve ourselves, help others, make great machines, paint pictures, write books, and go to an extent that must almost amaze the Almighty Himself. He said that if Brother Hastings had done more plowing in his time, and had a little closer

m now amon

y to yo

by, on spl

me high a

the kind that have wings and fly. Brother Hastings mixed him up by saying "worms of the dust" when he should have said worms of the leaves. Those that go into little round cases in earth or spin coco

didn't matter. Then Hezekiah crowded over for some, so I had to pretend I was Mrs. Daniels feeding her children caraway cake, like she always did in meeting. If I had been the mother of children who couldn't have gone without things to eat in church I'd have kept them at home. Mrs. Daniels always had the carpet gre

d to stroke Bobby a little and pat Hezekiah once in a while, to keep them fro

to sing for every one, butterflies enough to go around, and so many flowers we can't always keep the cattle and horses from tramping down and even devouring beautiful ones, like Daniel thought the lions would devour him-but they didn't. Wouldn't it be a good idea, O Lord, for You to shut the cows' mouths and save the cow

h it ran a l

the cows w

down among

w upon t

ce; they merely rested among them, and goodness knows, that's enough

to lie benea

ed by th

e noontide

y were ha

it would have been a good idea while You were at it, if You would have made all of them enough alike that they would all work. Perhaps it isn't polite of me to ask more of You than You saw fit to do; and then, again, it may be that there are some things impossible, even to You. If there is anything at all, seems as if making Isaac Thomas work would be it. Father says that man would rather starve and see his wife and children hungry than to take off his coat, roll up his sleeves, and plow corn; so it was good enough for him when Leon said, 'Go to the

howered and flowered upon men who work, or whose people worked and left them so much money they don't need to, and yet a sadder face I never saw, or a crosser one. He looks like he was going to hit people, and he does hit his horse an awful crack. It's n

testify. So we are going to beseech Thee, O Lord, to lay Thy mighty hand upon the man who got mad this beautiful morning and make him feel Thy might, until he will know for himself and not another, that You are not a myth. Teach him to have a pleasant countenance, an open door, and to hold his temper. H

e too; because I liked him heaps when he was lion hunting, and I wanted to go with him again the worst way. I had seen him sail right over the fences on his big black horse, and when he did it in England, wearing a red coat, and the dogs flew over thick around him, it must have looked grand, but it was

cause I knew no one was sick. Dr. Fenner always stopped when he passed, if he had a minute, and if he hadn't, mother sent some one to the gate with buttermilk and slices of bread and butter, and jelly an inch thick. When

hadn't told me. He was always seeing something to make danger signals about. He never let me run on a snake, or a hawk get one of the chickens, or Paddy Ryan come too close. I only wanted to know if they had gone and listened, and then I intended to run strai

unt for her,"

autiful spirit; but if she would have protested at any time, it would have been then. Instead, she lived happily, naturally, and enjoyed herself as she never had before. She was in the fields, the woods, and the garden constantly, which accounts for this child's outdoor tendencies. Then you must remember that both of you were at top notch intellectuall

e doubts if she can ever teach h

y to force those things on her. Turn her loose out of doors; give her good bo

t force me to sew, and do housework; and mother didn't mind the Almighty any better than she did the doctor. There was nothing in this world I disliked so much as being kept indoors, and made to hem cap and apron strings so particularly that I had to count t

me so happy I wondered if I couldn't stretch out my arms and wave them and fly. I sat on the pulpit wishing I had feathers. It made me pretty blue to have to stay o

thy bower i

is eve

no sorrow

er in t

ch couldn't sing, but they DID; and when all of them were going at the tops of their voices, it was just grand. So maybe the turkey buzza

fly, I'd fl

with joy

visit o'e

ns of th

and started. I was bumped in fifty places when I rolled into the cowslip bed at the foot of the steep hi

nner had said. That would be the greatest

house, and read too. I was wondering if I ever would go at all, when I thought of something else. Dr. Fenner had said to give me plenty of good books. I was wild for some that were already promised me. Well, what would they amount to if I couldn't understand them when I

e. I stood on the pulpit and looked a long time in every direction, into the sky the longest of all. It was settled. I must go; I might as well start and have it over. I couldn't look anywhere, right there at home, and not see more things I didn't know about than I did. When mother showed me in the city, I wouldn't be snapped up like hot cakes;