WOES OF A CHILDLESS MAN.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 25, 13 January 1877, Page 3

WOES OF A CHILDLESS MAN.

("Danbury News.") Sharp has been married nearly a decade, and although both he and his wife would have given more any day within the eight years to be the parents of a son or daughter than many New England farmers are willing to pay for a pure Jersey cow, their home is still childless. A man who works Jb the shop with Sharp bought a baby carriage, one day recently, and as he had some business to attend to m a distant part of the city, after quitting work, he asked Sharp' to wheel the carriage home for him. Sharp had not got far on his way when a man came up and, giving him & dig in' the ribs, exclaimed : "Can it be possible that after so long a time you have become .a father ? Let me look at you ?"...■ After the man had satisfied his curiosity, Sharp tightened his grip on the handle of the carriage and started of£ at a rapid pace, when another man came up to him and said — " And so the thing is done at last ! ah ! ha! ha! good boy! goodjboy!"- And he gave him a slap on tKe back that nearly knocked him off his feet. Sharp foresaw with horror what was ahead of him, but it was too late now to retrace his steps. He was turning round the corner into Munroe street when he came within an inch of colliding with a fat man who yelled — "Needn't run me down if you do. feel so good. Babies are not such rare things with some men." Hereupon Sharp pulled his hat down over .his face, m hopes not to be again recognised, when, shortly, another man came along, and giving his hat a yank up from his eyes, said — , "There, hold your head up like a man ! Why, it's nothing to be ashamed of I'm sure. You ought to be the happiest man m Lynn." Sharp was trying to negotiate with a boy to carry the wagon' to the owner's house, when two fellow workmen came along, arm m arm," and one of them said— ' " Kept it mighty private, didn't you P What! is, there more than one of them?". The other said — " Why didn't you buy a carriage with a top to it ? They'll get wet when it rains, won't they ?". ♦ Sharp cut through a back street, and was inwardly cursing himself for being a lackey for other people, when he met a little man, who, sharply eyeing the carriage, said. — " Well, there, I never thought that of you, Sharp.' I should have thought you would a want a new carriage for the first one, and not gone and bought that old, second-handed thing." " Haven't bought it. 'Tisn't mine," said Sharp, with some difficulty, for he was vexed almost beyond endurance. "Oh, you haven't ? only taking it home to let your wife look at it ? > Well, Aow, look here,' Sharp,". said^the little man, squeezing his arm gently* " I've got one at home ; it's a little put of repair" but it's better than that and got tour wheels, and I'll sell it cheap. What do you say ?'! ■■■■.. Sharp had such a bunch m his throat that he couldn't say a word, but he could have struck a blow just then that would have felled a Cardiff giant to the ground. ■ '- - ■ ■ • Sharp gdt within sight of his destination and was congratulating himself that his troubles were at an end, when .two neighbours came along and said, simultaneously : . , "Why haven't you told us of this before ? .Come, come down ! " andvbef ore he could make any reply they had dragged him and the , carriage into Earle's saloon. As they stood sipping .to the little one's health, the father was asked. . . • ".;■ "How old it was? if it was a boy. Or girl? and how the mother was? " .: Sharp tried to explain the-carriage-wasn't his, and that Tie hadn't any use for one, but this only cost him another drink all round. He left the carriage," and m the evening, when the owner came to. find out where it was, Sharp told him, when he went and got it, Sharp is naturally ac : commodating, but the next time he wheels home a baby carriage for a friend he will be older than he is now, and as bald-headed as a china nest-egg.