Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 16 — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

eee SS Fis The Young Wandering Jew; OR, Plotting for a Legacy. BY OLL COOMES. CHAPTER L VAGABOND JOE, THE village school was in session in the little frontier settlement of Fort Dodge. Behind the = re “ deep onarxed with raps official;” Cyrus C. Carpenter pre- sided with that calm, PANY, Se nity which in after years distin- guished him in the gubernatorial chair of the State. The school numbered about twenty scholars—boys and girls— ranging all the way from the child in his A, B, C’s, to the lad and lass of seventeen, and even older. Most of the scholars were the children of ple who had re- cently moved in from the Eastern States; consequently they were d of some education when ape came. or a youth of the border, Mave Conrille was considered a pretty fair scholar, having attained to McGuffey’s Third er, Ray’s . First Arithmetic, and the study of Pinneo and Mitchell. He was a youth of eighteen, though he really looked and appeared older; and some always believed he was. Mave was in the employ of ‘* Newbold & Carew, Land-Agents and Speculators,” as a kind of an office boy and clerk. As land- agents in those days were gen- erally regarded as ‘‘ claim-jump- ers,” and swindlers in general, Newbold & Carew were. not .as highly respected by the grown people of the settlement as was - consistent with a successful busi- ness. And, naturally enough, the reflections cast by the parents upon the firm, were plainly be- trayed in the feelings of their chil- dren toward Mave Conrille. It is true, the boy was not to blame for what his employers did; but then he was by nature a cross and domineering fellow amon his schoolmates, and made no ef- fort to gain the good-will and con- fidence of any of them, except Myrtle Gray, a blue-eyed, flaxen- haired little maiden of some six- teen summers, and the idol of every boyish heart in the school. The first month of the school had passed with nothing to break the monotonous routine of daily study. This was unusual for a frontier school. The teacher had not been turned out by unruly boys, as was oustomary in those days. Mave ’ ; ' = PPplel | | | Lt! a ni I ih rth Hi Pret!) | Ray a. i) \\ +), it 441 I} IT { ‘i Mi bh ’ Nile SnaROmmani ali TEIA aN? PAA RATREDTARRAAT REREAD TIT Hii \ i Kt | hill i | | HA ! _.. BEADLE_AND. ADAMS, PUBLISHER |. Conrille had su “Vagabond Joe,” iy | | HUTTE a int! ot tt tl et tt a! i al aS a Copyrighted in 1877, by BEADLE AND ADAMs. No. 98 WILLIAM STREET, NEWYORK...” f fen. den acite some of his ma ut they never co m r up courage Snaenls to make the atromph In fact, ae Was | something in the face of the modest pedagogue of an awesome..power calculated to command fear and respect in the most obstinate and rebellious natures. The Monday morning of the fifth week, how- ever, promised a change in the hitherto unvary- ing routine of mental labor. The scholars ex- _ pected some real, live fun, in the acquisition to | their number, of an_ eccentric young enius familiarly known as Vagabond. Joe, the Young Wandering Jew. He wasa trapper -boy of some seventeen years of age, and was notorious for his kind, pleasant and rollicking spirit, and odd, VAGABOND JOE. —_ le 5, ue = mls) | Nui : nl Ki if IM We Ui = | am 4 N A I, Vg lone Msllenlflealllee N// A j j / 4A et sl | (am a re 7. : 13) . ad! | a _— ' i i? ‘ ‘, A meme tema tieaeeet EE e 10 Cents. whimsical and inimitable acquired expressions by association with hunters and gets. ome, but pagabend Joe: liad no particular wandered about from place to place—stopping awhile at one place and then another—always welcomed and petted wherever he went, unti he had finally obtained the name of Vagabond Joe, the Young Wandering Jew... This was all the name he knew anything about. If he ever had any other, he had never heard it mentioned. His parentage was a dead secret to him, that he, =e any of those interested in him, could un- raye Joe was naturally industrious and ambitious for one situated as he was. He had, by hard work and economy, laid up a snu little sum of money from the sale of peltries. He was bright and intelligent, and evinced. a di ition to rise above the level of that class to which his name might be more properly ap- lied. All who knew him lowad im; and it was not strange that the better class of people took an interest in the young vagabond’s welfare. And the result of this interest was in their inducing him to attend school. Joe was now making his home with an old hunter’s family living some five miles from the settle- ment up the river; and as long as the skating remained good, Joe mised to be ctual in his at- ndance at school, for by this means he could make the trip very 4 eri? ee And so his coming was eagerly watched for by the scholars who had repaired to school earlier than usual that Monday morning. They stood upon the bluff overlooking the Des Moines with their anxious, eager eyes turned up the stream; and when at length a lithe figure glided into view around the bend“ of the river, a cry of mingled de- light and excitement burst from their lips. ‘That’s. bim! .that’s . him!” shouted a little, tow-headed fel- low, fairly dancing with delight. ‘Yes, that’s Joe,” added an- other. “What of it?’ asked Mave Con- rille, sullenly, as if jealous of the interest centering in Vagabond Joe. ‘You make as much fuss over that young vagabond’s com- ing as though it were President Franklin Pierce.” _ ‘Well, I den’t care,” replied little tow-head; ‘‘ Joe’sa jolly good feller, and that’s more than you are.” . ‘See here; don’t sass me, boy or I'll euff your ears like blazes,” replied Mave, turning upon the boy. e Do it, if you dare, and I'll tell the teacher; he’ll make you toe the chalk-line.” Mave Conrille, enraged beyond endurance, started toward the boy, when the blue-eyed Myrtle Gray interposed, saying: ECOMMIC OOO KS.) 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