| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| The Walking-Stick Walks | [11] |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| Long-Headed Willie | [20] |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| The Walking-Stick a Talking Stick | [25] |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| Mr. Blake Agrees with the Walking-Stick | [31] |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| The Father Preaches, the Son Practices | [36] |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| Sixty-five Dollars | [39] |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| The Widow and the Fatherless | [44] |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| Sharps and Betweens | [51] |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
| The Angel Stays the Hand | [55] |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
| Tommy Puffer | [57] |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
| An Odd Party | [58] |
Mr. Blake’s Walking-Stick.
CHAPTER I.
THE WALKING-STICK WALKS.
Some men carry canes. Some men make the canes carry them. I never could tell just what Mr. Blake carried his cane for. I am sure it did not often feel his weight. For he was neither old, nor rich, nor lazy.
He was a tall, straight man, who walked as if he loved to walk, with a cheerful tread that was good to see. I am sure he didn’t carry the cane for show. It was not one of those little sickly yellow things, that some men nurse as tenderly as Miss Snooks nurses her lap-dog. It was a great black stick of solid ebony, with a box-wood head, and I think Mr. Blake carried it for company. And it had a face, like that of an old man, carved on one side of the box-wood head. Mr. Blake kept it ringing in a hearty way upon the pavement as he walked, and the boys would look up from their marbles when they heard it, and say: “There comes Mr. Blake, the minister!” And I think that nearly every invalid and poor person in Thornton knew the cheerful voice of the minister’s stout ebony stick.