Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
Wo
2
LITTLE B. B.
+ By P. T. RAYMOND,
CHAPTER 1.
A MIXED UP AFFAIR.
About twenty miles back of Wilkesbarre,
Pennsylvania, in a lonely spot among the
mountains, there is a small coal mining
town called Quaker Run.
ome say that it was so named because,
being all rocks and bushes and up hill and
down daie, even a Quaker would run away
from it, but be that as it may, it certainly
is about the last place on earth where any
one would think of expecting to make
money, and yet one of the richest “coal
barons” in Pennsylvanta was born
reared in Quaker Run and laid the founda-
tion to his vast wealth by mining coal in
. this very spot.
it Mr, Cunningham seldom or never
‘came to Quaker Run now, He had a grand
house in Philadelphia and another at Cape
May and another still away up in the Alle
gheny Mountains, of which more later.
The operatives in the mine knew little of
the man, but a great deal about his meth-
ods, and one of his peculiarities was paying
“tne lowest” wages and keeping the money
back at that, and in Taig everybody
trade at the store controlled by the Grand
Central Coal Co., which was simply Mr.
Cunningham under another name.
Another of his peculiarities was that
when he wanted a piece of land to add to
his already extensive possessions, if he
could not pet Control of it by fair means, he
would by
Many a Touse had tumbled in through
being undermined unlawfully, Some who
would not sell out had been burned out and
there were ugly stories afloat about certain
stubborn owners who wouldn't sell to the
conipany in old times, when it first started,
who had been found dead in their beds, but
some said this was only wild talk, .
Taken altogether Quaker Run had run a
Bteady stream of dollars into Mr. Cun-
ningham'’s p for years, but -every-.
body else connected with it had been pretty
well run into the grou
f you wanted to work for a dollar a day
and spend your money at the company’s
store, Quaker Run was a good place to come
to, but it anted to be independent
and paddle your own canos it was a first-
rate place to run away f from as fast as you
possibly could,
t the lower end of Malin street, in
Quaker Run, not a great way fron{ the big
coal breaker, stood the Eagle House, an old
time country tavern, where Jack Noble’s
father made an honest living for many
years.
But Jack Noble's father was now dead
and so was his mother, and as there never
were any brothers or sisters or cousins or
aunts.in the family, it so happened that on
a certain day in April Jack found himself
alone with the hotel on his hands and a
mortgage on the hotel big enough to knock
it over, and Jack was only a boy
eighteen,
Three months before he had buried his
father and since then Jack had been strug-
. gling with one old servant trying to run the
house for the benefit of a few drummers
and others who had business with the coal
company.
It was hard work and didn’t pay, bills
were running up and nothing coming in,
and, to make the prospect more gloomy, the
company was trying to persuade Jack to
sell out his equity in the property for the
paltry sum of $300, whereas it was easily
worth a thousand, Mr. Harkness, the law-
yer, sai
Jack was willing to take $500 at the
company would not ralse their o!
They wanted to tear the house down and
start a new coal drift under the land. They
would willingly have paid $1,500 for the
equity In the property, but they knew the
poor boy’s situation and felt that it was
only a question of time when they could
push him to the wall, and yet Jack had
fought them bravely ever since his father’s
death and was fighting still, when on the
particular April morning in question Mr.
Dick Merling, the young Philadelphia dude
who acted as superintendent for the com-
pany, drove up to the hotel in a fine two-
seated road. season drawn by a spanking
team of hor!
“Hello, there, Jack! Come out, I want to
speak to you,” called Merling, seeing Jack
Standing in the doorw;
you want to peak to me I am right
“here, Mr. Merling,” replied Jack, with quiet
dignity,
dignit:
“Ye os, “put I can’t leave my horses. ”
‘And I can't leave my
“The deuce you can’t, Is that the way to
treat a gentleman? Send me some one to
hold the team and I’ll come to you if you
are so stiff.”
“You needn't trouble yourself, ” sale Jack,
walking down to the
to do business with you and you know it
very well.” :
“Oh, indeed! Now, look here, Jack
Noble, you had better take my advice and
drop this, I've got $300 at the office wait-
ing for you any time you want {t. We have
mn’t want |.
had enough of this fencing and Mr. Cun-
HAPPY. DAYS.
scribed on page 16.
“Happy Days” Gift Coupon.
To the 100 Readers who send us the greatest num-
ber of these Coupons cut from “Happy Days,” between
the numbers 273 and 284, inclusive, we will send to
each a SOLID GOLD FILLED WATCH as de-
Do not send us any Coupons until we notify you
in No. 284 of “Happy Days.”
Full Directions are printed on Page 16.
“HAPPY DAYS ”
WATCH COUPON
Bend us 6 of these Coupons cut
from any numbers of “ITAPPY
. DAYS,” ‘with % cents in money
_or postage stamps," and we will
send you the watch’, by return
registered mail.
ningham is tired of it. This is the last
call.”
“The last call before what?” demanded
Jack, “Speak it out, Mr. Merling. As long
as I can keep my interest paid this prop-
erty is mine, What do you mean to
“You'll find out. No use for a boy like
you to buck against the Grand Central Coal
Co, -You might as well butt your head
against a stone wal
“So you say.”
“Do you decline the offer?”
“First, last and all the time. Five hun-
dred dollars is my price and not a cent
$s." .
“You'll regret it.”
“I'll take niy chances.’ .
“Oh, the bear!. The bear! The bear’s
loose!” shouted a dozen voices down. the
street.
The crowd of children had began to col-
lect when Dick Merling first opened con-
versation with Jack,
e brown bear, with a muzzle on his
nose, had come around the corner by the
breaker led by a little boy not more than
eight years old, who was dressed in a
shabby red uniform with a zouave’s cap on
his head and a little trumpet in his hand.
- Now-such a thing as a traveling bear
was all but ‘unknown in Quaker Run and
the “small boy” of the town came out in
full force.
While he was talking with Dick Merling
Jack saw what wi
why there was no, man with the bear, but
did not give the matter much thought, until
now X, yet bruin had
was run-
ning along the street, followed by the mob
of children, while th
“Oh, Bobo! Oh, B
as well as the crowd would permit and
blowing his little horn.
“Blast that brute! He'll scare my team!”
cried Merling, and he started to turn.
B e mischief was already done, for
the horses began to rear and plunge and
somehow Merling managed to drop the
ns.
To complicate matters, two young ladies
on bicycles suddenly came spinning around
“between the devil and the deep sea,” so to
n
9
eak.
The bear was coming toward them on
one side and Dick Merling’s runaway team
on the other, and, to make matters still
worse, the ladies screamed and slipped off
their wheels so clumsily that they both fell
to the ground.
There was really no danger from the bear,
who stopped and stood up on its hind legs
looking in mild astonishment at the ex-
citement he had caused, but in an instant,
the horses would have been upon the girls’
if Jack had not boldly Teaped | in front of
them and seized the bridle rein, crowding
the horses back on their haunches, exercis-
ing that wonderful strength of arm for
which he was noted all over town.
“Quick! Save yourself, miss! T can hold
them,” cried Jack, when suddenly Pick
Merling brought the whip down about h
head. peow
t Zo tay horses, Let go, you fool!”
“You Beate! Oh! Oh! How dare you!”
screamed the girl, springing to her feet.
“ How dare you beat the boy who has saved
my Hfe!
CHAPTER Il.
THE BOY WITH THE BEAR,
Poke kept his hold on the horses against
all
Meanwhile the little boy recovered the
rope attached to the bear’s muzzle and led
the beast oe, into the hotel yard, followed
by the crowd.
Dick Merling put up his whip and
jumped out, pushing Jack roughly away
and taking the horses’ heads, for one of the
pole straps had broken and he could not
proceed.
“Perhaps you don't know who you are
talking to, miss," he said, sulkily, as the
girl, accompanied by her friend, stepped
up alongside of Jack, who was wiping the
blood from his face,
And let us say right here that if it had
not been for the presence of the*two girls
Dick Merling would have found himself
with a sore head in just about two seconds,
but Jack was too much a gentleman to get
up a fight with two pretty girls on his
hands, so he just raised his hat politely
and was about to retire when the gir
whom he had rescued laid her hand upon
his arm.
“Wait a minute,” she said, with flashing
=~ I shail certainly in-
form him of what has occurres
Dick Merling almost fainte
Jack could not repress a smile as he
bowed again, sayin;
“It was nothing, miss. I am glad to have
been of service to you, but really it was
nothing at all.”
“Oh—aw-—pardon me! ITI didn’t know
you, Miss Cunningham,” began Merling,
with his hat off now and his face almost as
red poor Jack’s. “I was just on my way to
the station to meet you, ia am Mr. Merling.
i got the stelegray
“Stop!” cried “Miss I Dolly, stamping her
little foot impressively. “IT am glad to meet
ou, Mr, Merling, under “eireumstances
which show me just Nhat sort of a coward-
ly brute you are. have letters for you
which I will deliver later at the office. My
father shall hear all about your. conduct,
too, sir. No, do not speak to me. I do not
wish to know you at all.”
She sprang upon her wheel and rode off,
followed by her friend, leaving Dick Mer-
ling about as badly scared as it was pos:
sible for a young man to
“You'll pay for this, Jack Noble!” he
hissed, “I'll make you eat crow yet.”
“And I'll be pleased to break your head
any time you want to be accommodated,”
retorted Jack, and then he turned his back
on the fellow and walked up into the yard,
where the boy with the bear stood by the
steps, holding on to the rope and staring
at the crowd of children who stood gaping
at the big, shaggy brute.
Jack gave the little fellow ten cents an
went into the house to wash the blood off
was in no mood to watch-the bear’s
tricks and he thought the owner would
come ee and va take bruin ‘and the boy
away, bu @ came out again the bo:
with the bear was still ther 6 © boy
“Come, you had better travel on, sonny,”
said Jack. “Where's your father? Hasn't
he come
aly a papa is dead, ” said the boy, in a
manly voice, ‘0 is Mateo, He
Has the ice, was killed
“Who is Mateo? What d ”
asked Vo is io yd. mean?
fateo, he’s the oss,"
“tte was killed by the
ad man. He beat me, he ‘peat poor Bobo,
When he we ined by the ti
wynen he ws ry rain me run
“Hellot” cried ‘Jack,
replied the boy.
“This is interest-
ing. Is Bobo the bear’s name?”
“ Bobo; he is ittered
the boy. Good Bobo! He 's too ured todo
his tricks. He is hungry, too, r Bobo
wants something to eat: then
soldier and climb
ie bear rub his muzzle against
0 are you—what’: ”
asked Jacke ‘8 your” name?
“I'm Little B. B.,”
Jack knew afterward
for baby and that
meant.
“And aren’t you hun:
BR.” eked Jack, kindly: arr
“Oh, I'm hun,
replied the boy, and
that bebe is French
was what the child
too, Little B.
money, but Bobo is tired and hungry, He
won't do his tricks now.
As he said this the poor little chap, who
had been on the verge of breaking oyt all
along, threw his arms about the bear's neck
and burst into tears.
Jack's sympathies | vere aroused at once,
Here was a boy in a worse fix than
was and one whom he could help, so he at
about doing it at once with the fame energy
that he did everything he underto
Jack was all alone in the house ‘ that day,
for the single servant whom he kept had
got a better place and walked off without
notice, leaving the boy to act as cook,
waiter, stableman and everything else,
there had been any guests, but there were
none that day except the boy with the bear.
So Jack drove away the (children and took
Little B. B. and Bobo in
The bear was tied up in the deserted bar-
room, closed now since the death of, Jack’s
father, while Little B. B. was given all he
could eat in the kitchen, Bobo getting his
share first, for, until the bear had lapped up
two big basins of bread and milk Little B.
B, would not eat a thing.
The day passed and ‘Jack still retained
his strange guests.
B was sound asleep in the barroom,
with Little B. B. lying against him in the
same condition, .
Whenever Jack approached Bobo would
growl ominously, but the child never
stirre
ight came on, it was time to go to bet,
but still Little B. B, and the bear slept on,
with no signs of awakening; it was hard to
tell which was. the most thoroughly. tired
out, ee boy or the bear.
t ten o'clock Jack | (losed up the house
and went to ded him:
e had grown used tO the situation now
and he determined to leave Little B. B. and
the bear where they were until morning,
turn them over to the poor master, prob
was a sympathetic fellow.
He had questioned the boy further and felt
convinced that his simple story was true.
He seemed to have been wandering about
ittle B. B. without
friends and the bear on his hands.
“I almost wish I was in his place,”
thought Jack, as he crawled in under the
covers, “I am just as poor as Little B. B.
to-night, for all the money I have in the -
world is one dollar and everybody. in town
down on me for what I o T’d a good
eight rather be in Little Be Be 's shoes and
Oh, how
shake Quaker Eun forever!
ing left here for I've
takes up with the “company’s offer in spite
ff what Mr. Harkness says.”
It was a queer notion, perhaps, but one
which had been growing on Jack for some
ime. Iie was only a boy and he was
heartily tired of the life he was leading;
in short, he was just about ready to make
up his mind to run away
Jack went to sleep and dreamed that he
was traveling around the country with
ttle B. B. and the Somehow it
seemed to him that in course of their wal-
derings they came to Quaker Run and that
Bobo was doing tricks | in front of the old
hotel, when all at once he was suddenly
ice by feeling something cold against
sprang quprieht, put out his hand in
the. “ark a it came in contact with a-
great hairy neat, at the same Lime the si-
lence was broken by
“Don't be afraid!” spoke a thildish voice.
“It is only me, Little B, B. and Bobo. You
must get up right away, bad m
etalrg “they” build fire, Bobo scare them
CHAPTER III.
CILARGED WITIE A TERRIBLE CRIME.
Jack sprang out of bed, tumbling over the
bear, who clutched him in its huge paws,
F
Li