Jerry by Walter Aimwell

Jerry had not been in town twenty-four hours before he found that he was / decidedly a "lion,"-an object of general interest and attention. In the / house, he could not stir without being followed by Emily and Harriet, / who talked, thought, and dreamed of nothing but their wonderful brother / Jerry. Their fondness was almost annoying to him. He was the hero, too, / of all the town gossip. Everybody in that little community knew Jerry / Preston, and his history,-how he grew up an idle and wayward boy, how he / ran away to sea, and how he was shipwrecked, and, as everybody supposed, / lost. And now almost everybody had heard of his sudden return. The good / doctor distributed the news at several distant points, and from these / it rapidly spread over all Brookdale. Jerry had several visitors the / morning after his return, who came to satisfy themselves that the report / was true. With these he chatted away the whole forenoon, relating his / marvellous adventures and hair-breadth escapes. It was planting-time, / and everybody was busy, otherwise his callers would probably have been / more numerous.

Old Mr. Jenkins, who was Mrs. Preston's man-of-all-work during the / absence of her husband, was among the early callers. He lived in a little / red house, a quarter of a mile distant, and usually came over every / morning to take care of the cattle, and do any work that Mrs. Preston / desired. He was in too great a hurry, this morning, to hear or tell any / long stories, and seemed only to be thinking how he could turn Jerry's / arrival to some practical account.