Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville
On a bench
beside the pump an old woman sat shelling peas. Her form was thin but
erect and her hair snowy white. She moved with alertness, and as the
girl dismounted and approached her she raised her head and turned a
pleasant face with deep-set, sightless gray eyes upon her visitor.
"Good morning, Ethel, dear," she said. "I knew the pony's whinney.
You're up early today."
"Good morning, Nora," responded the schoolteacher, advancing to kiss the
withered cheek. "Are you pretty well?"
"In body, dear. In mind both Tom 'n' me's pretty bad. I s'pose we
couldn't 'a 'spected to stay here in peace forever; but the blow's come
suddin-like, an' it hurts us."
"Where is Tom?"
"In the barn, lookin' over all the won'erful things the rich nabob has
sent here. He says most things has strips o' wood nailed over 'em; but
some hasn't; an' Tom looks 'em over keerful an' then tells me 'bout 'em.
He's gone to take another look at a won'erful new cook-stove, so's he
kin describe it to me right pertickler."
"Is he worried, Nora?"
"We's both worried, Ethel. Our time's come, an' no mistake. Peggy McNutt
says as he had real orders to turn Hucks out if he was a married man;
an' there's no disclaimin' he's married, is there? Peggy's a kind man,
an' tol' us to keep stayin' 'til the nabobs arrove. Then I guess we'll
git our walkin'-papers, mighty quick."
"I'm not sure of that," said the girl, thoughtfully. "They must be
hard-hearted, indeed, to turn you out into the world; and you are both
capable people, and would serve the city folks faithfully and well."
"It's my eyes," replied the other, in a simple, matter-of-fact tone.
"Hucks might wait on the nabobs all right, but they won't tol'rate a
blind woman a minute, I'm sure. An' Hucks 'd ruther be with me in the
poor-house than to let me go alone."
"Right y' air, Nora girl!" cried a merry voice, and as the blind woman
looked up with a smile Ethel turned around to face "Old Hucks."
A tall man, but much bent at the shoulders and limping in one leg from
an old hurt aggravated by rheumatism.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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