The Wooden Man

​He was a man that had a most distinguished appearance but not in a positive sense. He was called the wooden man because he had a wooden arm and a wooden leg. 

​One must remember that the wooden man existed during the 1890s so wooden legs and arms were one of the only options for amputees. As for his other leg and arm he didn't have them as he was unable to afford other pieces of wooden appendages. The wooden man had been a victim of a series of farming accidents. As a child he had lost his right arm when he was sawing a tree with his father and the saw slipped out of the groove and cut his arm off. He still had a partial arm but it was nothing but a stub. Then a couple of years later he dropped a piece of heavy farm equipment on his right foot. The foot was crushed and the infection took hold in a matter of a couple of days before the wooden man knew it his whole leg was black and only days after, unfortunately, it was amputated. 

A couple of years later his bad luck continued as he was walking through the woods and he didn't know that his father had set up bear traps. The wooden man was hobbling through the bush when he stepped on the pedal of the bear trap and it snapped shut on his leg. He was found two days later almost dead and his foot was mangled by the trap. Again infection had set in and two weeks later just as the infection seemed to be getting better it took a turn for the worst and he lost his other leg. Now confined to a chair his parents were able to save their pennies and afford a wooden leg so at least he could move around. But within three weeks of getting his new leg and foot he had another horrible accident as he tripped and fell into the stove when the door was opened and his arm got trapped. He could not pull it out and sadly he lost his other arm three days later. So there he sat in a chair with only one wooden leg, but within a month his parents had begged for money and purchased him another wooden appendage, in the form of an arm. He also had a crutch which allowed him some mobility. 

But then three years later tragedy struck again as both of his parents were killed as their wagon drove off a cliff. But quickly people turned away, unwilling to help as nobody wanted the wooden man. He was forced to roam the streets of the big city with a wooden arm and wooden leg and a crutch. But over time the wood on his leg and arm began to moisten and rotted away. Then the wood started to splinter and one cold evening as he clopped through the alleys his wooden arm and leg fell off and he fell to the ground helpless. He started to scream for help but the people walked by...