TOMMY. (For the Witness.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2631, 17 September 1902, Page 74

TOMMY. (For the Witness.)

By Arch. "JM. M'Nicol,

Tommy was no mortal good. A very slight acquaintance with him would have convinced you" of the fact. He wasn't much to look at — what there was of him. There was a city-arab, cigarette-stunted look about Mm. Scarcely the sort of boy that you would examine on the Shorter Catechism or the Ten Commandments. There are two ways of doing a thing — a right and a wrong way — and Tommy, if he did it at all, did it the wrong way. You could be gentle and forbearing with him, you could swear at him, you coiild kick him ; but, when you had used the last alternative, a queer twinkle would creep into his blue eyes, and somehow you felt sorry for him. When he had fairly tried your patience, Tommy had a way of looking at you as much as to say, "Well, I know that it's wrong, and that I'm lpzy, but don't blame me ; I can't help it ; I was bom that 'way. " Tommy was employed by Farmer Deans as a cowboy, washer-up boy, general odds-and-ends boy. He had a habit of never being about when he was wanted, and if he did happen to be* about you didn't want him. Now, that sort of thing gets wearisome, and Farmer Deans, who had the use of Tommy's services, at the rate of five shillings a week, found that he was getting the worst of the bargain, and gave Tommy the sack. That was in the morning. In the afternoon Farmer Deans and his men went to erect a fence. Three of the farm horsesJean, and Prince, and Old Ben — were yoked in the dray, and carted the men and materials to the scene of operations. Tommy followed behind, and was sent to do something that scarcely needed doing in order to get him out of the road. The men set to work. Deep, square holes were sunk in the ground, into which the broadleaf posts were placed. After Farmer Deans, with the practised eye of a craftsman, had brought the posts into line, the loose earth was shovelled back into the holes and rammed tight. When the strainers had been stayed and the wires tightened, the row of broadleaf s looked like a long thin line of ligid sentinels guarding the property of their owner. But the work was not allowed to go on uninterrupted. During the afternoon Farmer Deans's wife and little boy and three girls arrived with the lunch, and the men stopped work to partake of the good things provided). After the men had finished, Farmer Deans helped his wife and family into the dray, and told them to wait there until the men were ready to go home. This was great fun for the children, but the horses did not seem to relish the dray being turned into a nursery room. The young bay mare Jean, in the lead, sniffed the air and pawed the ground, and asked Prinoe what he thought about it ; while Prince plainly demonstrated that it was against his giain. Farmer Deans's wife saw danger, and a>-ked her husband if it was quite safe, and he haid, "Whoa, Jean^ steady, lass," and assured his wife that it was quite safe. But it wasn't quite safe. The young bay mare Jean tossed her head in the air, and said that she had had quite enough of it, and Prince tossed his head in the air and said that he also had had enough of it, and Old Ben *n the shafts tossed his head in the air and said that he was quite full up of it, which was not surprising, considering the fact that the children had been religiously pulling his tail. The mother stopped them, but she stopped them too late, for her piercing scream awakened the men to the fiict ihit j&gjjjgs!§t. bM-Gkwedj yu^iakiiL

possession of the dray. Farmer Deans heard the deadsning ring of the hoofs, and knew that when the first obstacle appeared* there would be a crash, something would go, and his heart went out to his wife in grim agony. The men lost their wits and) did nothing : there was nothing to do. And while" these six able-bodied men were! ' standing helpless, paralysed with fear, j Tommy — brave little Tommy — was rescuing^ the woman on his own. He made a wild spring at the back door of the dray, caught it, scrambled in, tumbled over the top of the woman, clutched the reins, and thus delivered him* self: "Whoa, Jean; whoa, my lass! Steady, [ boys! Damn you, will you stop!" j But tliey didn't stop ; they kept going, and paid no atiention to Tommy. It ig doubtful if they heard him. If they did, they gave no signs of it. The only thing for Tommy to do was to stand there with the reins in* his hands, and keep the team, as well as he could, in the middle of the road, and avoid any obstacle that might come in their way. While he was doing this, he began to feel a little sorry that he, bad got ths sack. After a while a little bit of white muslin drew out from the huddled heap and crept, up beside the boy. It was Flo, Farmer JJeans's eldest .gM. " I'm here, Tommy," she murmured, and made an attempt to help him. to hold the" reins. Tommy felt that she was there. A wild gust of wind lifted a wave of her long hair and splashed it in his face. That' made Tommy grip the reins tighter, and his fingers touched tha soft girlish hand, and a. strange glow entered his little sin-stained soul, and stayed there and grew, until it became a consuming fire. Then Tommy felt very, very sorry that he had got the sack. The team kept pelting on. Right ahead of them tbtre arose a small hillock thi-ough which a cutting had been made. A bright idea struck the boy. Could they pull the team off the road and make them gallop up that tussocky hill? Tommy was quite satisfied that by the time they reached the top they would not gallop much farther. In order to bring more pressure to bear, Tommy took t a turn with the rein round the front bar of the dray, and told his companion of his intention. " Stick to it, Flo," he cried ; " stick to it like mud to a cartwheel. Come 'ere, Jean! Whoa, come 'ere ! " A little harder, boy; Mp him, girl. The young bay mare Jeecn, with the bit between her, teeth, began to feel the strain. Four little hands give a sudden wrench to the rein, and the team ha/c swerved from the road, and are 'at it, full gallop, tooth and nail, knocking, thumping, bumping up the' tusiocky hill. ' Leaving the reins to Flo, Tommy grasped the long whip from the bottom of the dray. Swish, swish, swish. "Come up 'ere now, Jean." Swish, swish, swish. "I'll shift yes." Swish, swish, swish. "Get up,, there, you blue devils." " Tommy ! " said Flo. "What?" said Tommy. " You shouldn't swear, 1 ' said Flo. ' Thsy got to the top, but they got no farther. Great mists of vapour rose from the heaving sides of the horses like clouds oi steam. By the time the men arrived, Tommy had his clncges safely deposited on Ihe ground. oSom-sbody said he was a "little .brick," and that was about the most ever he heard about ii;. In the part of the world that Tommy belonged to such things happen very often, and nobody is much the wiser. Nobody gets a reward, and the fact of their having deserved one is seldom mentioned. It is all in the day's work. But Tommy got his reward. He got it a. long time after. It was announced in all the papers, and read something like this : — • " On tne 7th, at the residence of the bride's parents, by the Rev. James Blank, Florence (Flo), eldest daughter of John Deans, farmer, to — Tommy-"

— With a clear sky, the temperature 1000 ft above the earth is six degrees lower than ah the surface; with a cloudy sky four only. ■