"All
the Dickeys needed was to be bolstered up," one woman in the village
said; and the Dickey boy was being bolstered up in the Rose family.
They called him Dickey, using his last name for his first, which was
Willy. Mrs. Rose straightened herself unconsciously when she found that
out. "We can't have two Willies in the family, anyhow," said she; "we'll
have to call you Dickey."
Once the Dickey boy's married sister came to see him, and Mrs. Rose
treated her with such stiff politeness that the girl, who was fair and
pretty and gaudily dressed, told her husband when she got home that she
would never go into _that_ woman's house again. Occasionally Mrs. Rose,
who felt a duty in the matter, took Dickey to visit his little brothers
and sisters at the almshouse. She even bought some peppermint-candy for
him to take them. He really had many a little extra kindness shown him;
sometimes Miss Elvira gave him a penny, and once Mr. Hiram Fairbanks
gave him a sweet-apple tree--that was really quite a magnificent gift.
Mrs. Rose could hardly believe it when Willy told her. "Well, I must say
I never thought Hiram would do such a thing as that, close as he is,"
said she. "I was terribly taken aback when he gave that tree to Willy,
but this beats all. Why, odd years it might bring in twenty dollars!"
"Uncle Hiram gave it to him," Willy repeated. "I was a-showin' Dickey my
apple-tree, and Uncle Hiram he picked out another one, and he give it
to him.
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