



Produced by Annie R. McGuire








[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]

Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

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PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1896. FIVE CENTS A
COPY.

VOL. XVIII.--NO. 895. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.

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[Illustration]

JOHN HENRY.

BY MARY E. WILKINS.


Two days before Christmas John Henry sat on the top rail of the fence
which separated the seven-acre lot from the oat-field. There were five
rails in the fence, on account of two cows addicted to jumping being
kept in the seven-acre lot, and consequently John Henry was perched at
quite a dizzy height from the ground. His mother would have been
exceedingly nervous had she seen him there. He was her only child; his
two older brothers had died in infancy; he had himself been very
delicate, and it had been hard work to rear him. The neighbors said that
Martha Anne Lewis had brought up John Henry wrap