The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-03-04

holly about the room, occasionally
pausing in her task to cast a sweet,
! sorrowful look at her husband John.
! Mary Welder's face was a pretty one
at all times-pretty when she smiled
her thanks to the passengers of the
coach pretty as she smiled the pleas
ure she felt when John came in hot
from the forge or cold from the field;
very pretty, indeed, when she held up
their rosy, chubby boy to his fathers
lips; but prettiest by far now, we think,
when her face was full Of love and
sorrow for her perplexed husband.
John had married Mary out of pure,
honest love, and her love was all the
| dowry she had to bring him. 1t
might have been otherwise had Ger
tain strange events not happened.
Mary's father was a man of sub
stance when she was born. He was
yeOman farmer, and had a hundred
acres of the best land in the county
of his own and rented twice as much
more. He was a man to be envied,
many thought, for his wife was all
good housewife should be, and Green
/ Tree Place was a home indeed.
Thomas Sharpe-that was his name
was the best of neighboTs, ever
ready. to help friend or an honest
man. Indeed some thought that
! Thomas Sharpe was not always dis
Greet In that respect. and he would
have acted more wisely had he kept
his old bureau locked at times
instead of opening it, to lend
some OF the bright guineas he
kept boarded there. This boarding
was popularity of his, as he dis
trusted all banks, except the Bank of
England, his father having lost money
by one and been nearly ruined before
he came to live at Craysford; and in
consequence, the elder Sharpe had al
most exacted promise from his son
that he would never place his earnings
in another's keeping.
Put it into dirt, as I have done of
late, lad, and not into bankers boxes
as | did, like a fool, in afore time.
| Good land can't run away but bank
ers can" were almost the last words
spoken by Thomas Sharpe's father.
So there were always guineas to be
had at Green Tree Place, and John
Welder's father had borrowed more
than hundred of them.
But a great sorrow come upon
| Thomas Sharpe-one of the greatest
which could have come to him. His
wife died suddenly whilst they were
making merry on little Mary's tenth
birthday. The circumstance of her
death seemed TO intensity his
grief at the loss of his wife, and
how dearly he had loved her
none could know but himself. His
friends tried hard to console him, but
in vain. Everything about the place
reminded him of her, and he rather
| enco dragged his sorrow than fought
with 1T manfully and with the Chris
tan belief that death was but the
gate to life. He seemed to reject the
conviction Gas LongfelloW has beauti-
fully expressed it) that
Dust to dust returning t
Was not spoken of the SOUL"
During the next two years he fell into
such state Of dependency that his
| neighbors were scarcely surprised
when they heard that Thomas
! Sharpe's land was to be sold, and
that his holding was open to another
! tenant.
The land sold we'll, it was said, and
people who knew Thomas Sharpes
| peculiarmistrust of bank, wondered
what he would do with his money.
| If any one could have answered that
questioR.it would have been Phillip
Pullen, his bailiff, as he had always
been treated more Ike a brother than
a servant. They had been boys to-
gether, and Thomas Sharpe had
taught Phillip to read and write and
| keep accounts, besides imparting to
him all the knowledge he himself had
| gained from reading Phillip Pullen,
as time went on, became Master
/ Sharpe's bailiff, and if any man knew
what was to be done with the pur-
chase money OF the hundred acres and
the gear of the farm it was Phillip
/ Pullen. .Ia ~
The bailiff was as silent as his mas
/ ter, who had neither kith nor kin
about Craysford to consult, and his
father had never kept up any com
municatien with those who had
perhaps, turned TO him the cold
/ shoulder. when his early loss had
nigh ruined him. So Thomas had
only his daughter Mary to care for,
and she had been placed with old
| John Welder's sister, who had been
| her nurse at Green Tree Place.
Becky Wilder loved her darling
charge with almost the fondness
of a mother, and this Thomas
/ Sharpe knew, and so entrusted
his most precious treasure to her now
that his child was motherless. whilst
he took up his quarters at The
| Three 1orseShOes. .
Matters continued in this state for
a short time and until one day when
"a