86 Sucker Days. 



mind suddenly shifted it to an impulse 

 to give his fish to poor forlorn Uncle 

 Bennett, whose bent back and meagre 

 rheumatic legs tried all day long and 

 all night long to find one soft spot in 

 the lonely cabin down by the blacksmith 

 shop. His wife dead, his only son a 

 drunkard, his little hoard spent, it was 

 with a bowed head that he accepted a bit 

 of help from the town, and an occasional 

 gift of a bushel of potatoes or a peck of 

 turnips from some prosperous neighbor. 

 He could not go to the poorhouse over 

 the hill, where old Sperry's wife, and the 

 blind colored cooper, and the crazy Dutch- 

 man, and Mr. Bradley's worn-out hired 

 man, freed from the care of providing for 

 the immediate necessities of life, had risen 

 to a social position far superior to that of 

 the man whose pride forced him flat 

 against the earth. His poor old heavy 

 heart would lift for the moment and some- 

 thing like light would shine through his 

 sad blue eyes whenever we boys went in 

 to see him, carrying from home a kind 

 word and a batch of fallen sponge-cake 



