The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-09-24
Selling old Things.

Sell that old table? No; I'll not sell it! It's
only u pine table, that's true and it cost but
eighteen shillings, twenty-five years ago, but your
ten dollar bill is no temptation And Ill not
swap it, either, for the prettiest mahogany or
cherry table that you bring me. If it has plain
turned legs, instead Of IL pillar in the middle,
with lions claws, and if the marble top is only
vanished paper, still, | will not sell or swap it.
Ii has been TO me q very profitable investment.
From the day It came home it has been earning
dividends and increasing its own capital. My
children made 4 playhouse and drank tea in their
top cups under it, Tor which | thank the four
legs, and when they got tired of it that way,
they turned il upside down, and made q four
post bedstead with curtains. or pulled it round
the carpet for a sleigh. Then they climbed on
it for an observatory and | never counted the
glorious rOmps they had round it. And alsO all
along Tor twenty-five years 1t has paid its divi-
dends of happiness t. my family circle. These
dividends could never be separated from it until
Its value Is not told IN money. 1t has had its
quiet use, also; for nobody could tell it from a
round table of agate and cornelian, with ITS
salrlUn bOrdered green cover.
Nothing lasts forever. The top of the table
was loOsened by the hard use it got, 80 | took q
punch, drove in the eight penny nails below tile
surface, adGed IL few screws. puttied them over,
and pasted marble-paper checkers over the top.
Then it was a really handsome table. Ii has had
hard usage since, but bears it all and the checkers
want renewing, which will make it worth more
yet.
My watch is thirty years old. 1t is one of
those thick silver levers which some poor wits
call b. turnips.' IL has been several times sug-
gested To- me that | might exchange it for Il thin
modern gold watch, which wears easier in the
pocket. When | do, you may set me down for
u barbarian Not the best gold and ieweled
- hunter " in existence would tempt me to swap.
The watch marked the time when my children
were born and the record is set down in the
family Bible: it has licked on their ears when
they could only speak by laughing at it, and
kicking up their heels. 1t has marked the hours
when the doctors medicines were to be given,
and counted their pulses when these beat low at
midnight, and when the heart ached. 1t has
made many records that are fast sealed up, TO be
opened only when another time comes.
Twenty-seven years have passed since my wife
and | went out one evening and bought our tea
kettle. The fitting of the lid vas a little imper-
feet, so that the escape of steam shook it, and
caused d peculiar noise, nearly enough resemb-
ling the chIrping OF some insect to suggest the
by which it has now been known in the
family for IL long time-our : cricket on the
hearth - Like the table and the watch. the ket-
tie has been adding dividends to its capital every
since its first purchase, and, though nothing
but iron, it could not be bought for its weight in
1t has sung its song SO regularly and
that not only the kitchen, but the
house would be lonely without it. IL has
Giggeqh Rd is G5Smf5e" Gf fm5st tI to Be regarded Gs1Td4;dd" as ga" a living vim
and talking creature.
1t Is never Il good fortune that sells such old
friends out of IL family, and takes in new ones
have no history and no tongue. In all
changes that have so far taken place, | have kent
.hese silver bowls unbroken, and surely no
in the future shall break them.-Ccntury.