The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-03-28

/
! . good street. when / lay down to rest at
| night.
| So one day when had been to mark
etI brought home half dozen hams
I and hung them up above the door, more
for show than anything else, for hams
were grand holidy dinner in those re-
gions, and not an every day affair can
tell you. They went off slowly, as l
4 thought they would. Now and then,
some one would come in for pound,
and once 1 sold half Of the smallest one
/ to a woman who wanted it for Sunday
dinner. She was to pay me on Monday
10 orning, but she never did, for on Sun
day night her husband killed her with
rum bottle, and they took her body past
my shop, with its poor head beaten out
of shape and bloody
And SO the hams hung there all thro'
the fall, and quite on into the winter.
1t was just as the December nights be
/ gan to grow long and dark and cold, that
l noticed a new policeman on our beat
a young, handsome looking fellow, with
very bright eyes, but with such thin
cheeks and hands, although he seemed
powerfully built and made for rather
stout man, that could not help watch
ing him and wondering whether ne had
been i'll or not. The first time I noticed
him was about sunset and he passed and
: repassed my window dozen times, look
ing all the while at those hams which
dangled from the frame of the awning
1 hope he means to buy one,' l said to
my wife as we sat together over the tea
table; and shouldn't wonder if he did,
for he seems to have taken quite q fancy
to them
But the evening passed, and though 1
saw him now and then on the other side
of the way looking across with his bright
eyes straight at the hams, he did not
come in or speak to me on the subject.
And so made up my mind that he
would send for it in the morning, and
somehow made so sure of it that when
ever saw decent looking woman go
by with a basket on her arm, said |
there's the policeman's wife coming af- |
ter the ham, / was mistaken, however;
and after the street lamps, we're lighted |
that night, began to see the man pass
ing up and down, up and down, with his |
eyes still fixed as they had been on the |
night previous, upon the hams. Once he
caught me peeping at him and then he I
tprp a5 co rod and looE a6 OF. M ifh SI,ob
a glitter in his eyes, that I grew angry |
and said to myself,
It's we'll that keeping unsaleable arti
cles isn't a crime in this country, for if /
it was, would be sure to be arrested
So gave him back his look, turned my |
head and walked back into the shop. / /
did not see him again that night, but |
long after everything had been taken in,
l heard tramp, tramp, tramp, upon the |
pavement, and l knew he was looking at |
the hooks where the hams had hung, as
we'll as though had seen him.
On the third evening he was there
der, for it was his duty ito be upon that
beat and no other; but it was curious
that he should keep on staring at those
hams with those bright, wolfish eyes of
his. didn't like it. though could not
have said why. A vessel had been
wrecked at sea about that time, and an
extra with the latest news of the disaster
came out that evening. l bought pa
per and sat down behind the counter to
read it. 1t was stormy night, and but
few customers came in, and these were
easily served, and somehow, between
reading and thinking, time passed on un-
til the clock struck eleven, and had not
yet taken in my goods or put up my
shutters.
just as was about to do 50, Tin fact
had already put my hand upon the first
piece of the shutter,) my door opened
and an old woman came in. She was a
scottish, miserable creature, known about
the place as Irish Kate, and with her red
nose and bleared eyes, was as ugly fig
ure as one ever cast eyes on Another
dram, 1 suppose I said to myself, go
ms arOunu tue oaI at once, loT Wauteu
! to get clear of her as soon as possible.
/ But she to my surprise, came closer to
me and put her gaeat red paw upon my
arm.
I've made diskivery, MASTER she
said. you have not been keeping as
/ bright lookout as you should; there's
been thafe st work widout, this blessed
night
What thief 2 asked.
More than can tell you, she answer
ed But think its policeman. no less
the blackguard-
Il didn't see his face she said but
caught the shine of star on the coat he
/ has on, and whoever it was took . ham