Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-04-14
a NIGHT OF DREAD.
BY N. G.. SHEPHERD.
From the New York Mercury.

am aware that the title I have affix-
ed TO this narrative partakes somewhat Of
the sensational. It may be that the mar
rative Itself will border slightly upon SEN
sationalism. But what if it should +? My
purpose is simply to relate truths, with
out in the least calling upon invention to
aid me in giving them fictitious color
ing and as [ am no story teller. never
having had the least gift that way, 1t is
my belief that shall succeed much Get
ter in dealing with plain facts than if [
resorted to romance as means of more
efectually interesting my readers.
l am, or was, rather, the junior part
ner of the firm of John Raby & Co., a
respectable house, doing moderate bu-
siness. BY the death of Mr.. John Raby,
with whom [ was at one time a clerk, the
firm ceased to exist. This event took
place just eight years ago; and the Incl.
dents am about to relate happened l
think, five years prior, making in all a
period of thirteen years.
Old Andr2w Hillyer was bookkeeper
in our house long before entered it as
clerk believe he had held that posi-
zion when the two brothers, John and
William Raby, first STATED in business
William died before my time, 50 th.t the
firm was plain John Raby when | first
mounted my stool in the Office. I was
there twelve years before [ was admitted
as partner, junior-partner, [ should say :;
and then it was because Mr.. Rady was
getting old and wanted an active young
man in with him. But, as to Andrew
Hillyer.
He must, I think, have been consider
ably older than Mr.. Raby-maybe, eight
or ten years. A feeble, white-haired old
man he was, even when [ first knew him,
this Andrew Hillyer. A precise, syste-
matte person, regular as clock, and con-
siderably more so than ours in the Office,
which was very apt to get out of repair.
l really believe he could not have lived
outside of the dull routine of ofice-life
It was his element, as much so as water
is that of fish. An excellent accountant,
he was seldom guilty of an error in fig
ures. His books were models of neat
ness and his trial-balances might have
taken the premium at any fair; they we're
so legible and exact. Andrew Hlllyer
was man Of few words-a quiet, sedate
old man, with a wrinkled face, dressed
in shiny black-not shiny on account of
being new, but from age and wear-with
a black stock, old and threadbare, and
shoes always shoes-fastened with bro
ken, knotted strings.
Poor old man how distinctly I recall
him. He had wife and one daughter.
The latter's name was Jennie. She
could not have been more than twenty
when her father died, and this brings me
to the precise time of which would
write The old man Hillyer was dead !;
he had long been ailing: What his dis
ease was hardly know; [ question if
his physician was much wiser at least, [
was led to think so from the confused, un.
certain answers | got, whenever [ called
during his illness, and questioned either
mother or daughter in relation to t. The
old man had died that forenoon, and |
had called in the evening, according to
my promise, to sit up with the corpse. 1t
was late in November, dreary, melan-
choly sort of night; with sad, complain
ing wind, that never once got angry and
clustered, but sobbed and moaned all the
while and if ii were grieving about some
thing or somebody, making every one
miserable and mopish who heard it. The
house was a small, old fashioned one, in
rather an inoonvenient neighborhood that
had once held its own, but then that was
long time before. There were some
buttonball trees around it, remember,
that were stripped and base, and it was
in the branches of these that the wind
sobced loudest, and made the most dis
mai sounds, probably because the shelter
that the broad leaves had given it was
now refused, and it could only moan and
complain Of its forlorn, houseless condi-
ton.
1t was hardly 8 o'clock, I think, when
| arrived. The door was opened by the
widow, while Jennie stood in the back
o.r,,,rI phgt1inc, an nil 1e,n~ 4Riff. her