Daily American telegraph., 1852-07-10
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH
From the National IRA
solomon Pepperolps Thanksgiving.

solomon Pepperelps Thanksgiving.
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The woman impatiently pushed child from
her knee as she spoke, and perhaps she would
have added more, but, feeble and broken as he
was, there was contempt, a scorn, in that old
mans eye, that cowed her at once and, NUT
tering something about folks giving themselves
"airs," she turned away, while the woman they
had called Mabel rose, and opened the door
for the old man to pass, with as much respect
as, when child, she had swung back the gate
for him in front of her fathers house, which
gave access to part of the ColoneFs farm,
and received the unfailing guerdon Of a hand
full of pennies
When he again entered tMillys chamber, the
little pale face with its lips blue and stffening
with cold, looked out from the ragged cover
ing and then, seeing he brought no fuel was
turned away with heavy sigh and a moan,
which her brave child-heart could rot repress
The old man went up to the bed, and hung
over her, saying caressngly, as he smoothed
her hair" Don't tremble SO, darling! The
warm weather'll come before long It can't
be so cold always"
She made no reply. He drew one of the
little shrunken hands from beneath the cover
ing; it was cold as death. A strange, wild ex-
preston cleaned in his eyes" Fire, frew he
said, with a laugh, why shouldn't we have a
fire, as well as other folks2 There is wood
enough, and to spare!" And casting his rest
less, peering glance on every side of him, he
stole down stairs, and out into the wintry twi-
light.
We are sorry to say tit was wrong, we
know, especially in one who had been, in his
day, accounted one of the best justices in the
county-but, a few moments afterwards, he was
detected by two of Squire Pepperells men,
staggering off with a rail which he had taken
from that gentleman's fence True, it was
an old, worm-eaten, messy thing, which he had
laid with his own hands years before, when
those broad acres had owned him master, and
he had kept his Thanksgiving festival in the
same house where the Squire had that day
feasted his son-when that gentleman was only
Sol. Pepperell, "a cute hand at a bargain, =
whom he had often befriended, retailer Of
groceries and liquors, and in whose little store
at the corner he had gradually learned to lin.
ger, until it was openly reported that he was
not always able to get away
What need is there to trace his downward
path To tell of the gentle pleadings of his
wife, and her ceaseless prayers, of which the
angels alone kept count--of the shame which
bowed down the heads of his two noble boys,
and made them welcome Death as a friend,
when he came to call them to the silent land.
How the heart-broken mother, with one long,
lingering look at the face of little Milly, her
darling, followed them, while he wept tears of
bitter repentance, and made many silent vow
to touch the accursed cup no more-vows for
gotten, alas! when the hand of Sol. Pepperell
pressed upon him the friendly glass; with
| uordc IF oopdnlapoa apd oup,pothu uoxu bf
| went on, binding closer and closer the chains o.
the demon about him. until his neglect anc
harshness drove little Milly to seek home and
shelter in the arms of one who proved himself
villain and in virtue of bonds and acceptan.
ces, which his enfeebled brain could neither un-
derstand nor dispute, his whole property, with
the exception of a mere pittance passed into
the hands of Solomon Pepperel, and he
into the street.
There were, at that time, plenty of people
who did not hesitate to say that Sol. Pepperell
had behaved little better than q cheat in this
drink, and then taken advantage of his situa-
ton. They even went farther and threatened
to investigate the affair; but the long attack
of fever that followed the old mans election
from the house of his fathers, though it left
him quite free from his besetting sin, impaired
his mind to such a degree that it was impossi.
BILE to hope for any assistance from him; and
besides, Just about that time Squire Norton,
his warmest friend, died very suddenly; and
the others, having very salutary fear of law
suits before their eyes, let the matter drop, and
contented themselves with placing the old man
to board with kind-hearted old Widow Will
son. And to their credit be it said, that when
his pittauce was exhausted, they paid the
weekly stipend to the widow out of their own
pockets; for they were people of the old stamp,
and could not forget that he was the last of a
race whose history was interviewer with that
of the place, and whose name had ever stood
first on the records of church and town and
moreover, that the lot where the parsonage
stood had been given to the Society by the
Colonel's father, and the four massive silver
cups belonging to the communion service had
been the gift of his maiden sister, Miss Polly.
So when Milly's little orphan girl was sent
by her mothers dying wish to her old home,
and they saw how the old man clung to her,
often in his wandering way speaking of her as
his own Milly, they had not the heart to part
them and let her stay, the more willingly, as
Widow Wilson had become much attached to
the quiet little thing, and assured them that
Colonel Lee had seemed much more rational
since the child had come. On one point he was
never rational-his property-he was always
expecting to be reinstated in his rights, and
would talk to the wondering child for hours,
about what they would dowhen they got back
their own again.
But, one by one, these kind old family friends
dropped into their graves. AT last Widow
Wilson went, too, and there arose new set Of
town officers, who knew not Joseph" and the
old man and little Milly were finally sent to the
alms-house.
Perhaps he thought of all these things when
old Bill Sims took the rail from his shoulder,
calling him an old thief and rascal, and threat
ening him with Squire PepperelPs heavy ven-