The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-06-30

No wonder you are astOnished-
said Dick-tO see such an article as
that in my possession, but if it is
a strange thing for me 10 have q BIZ
bic, the way came by it is stranger.
have had it for three years / shall
keep it as long as ] live.
Three years ago / was living by my
wits in the city of st. Paul. Perhaps /
gambled some; perhaps you would
call it sWindling.
At all events there was a chap out
there, rich young scapegrace, who
loved to be fleeced, and no one loved
to fleece him better than Dick, and
one day he came TO me looking very
miserable.
'Dick," said he, "pve lost my
watch, poor old turnip, but the old
woman gave it to me just before she
died, and l would not lose it for
farm"
/ made some inquiries, and soon
/ found that the watch had gone in-
to the Virginia lakewood settle
ment.
How l found it out is nothing TO
you. / told Tom about it.
"Well," he said, as tickled as a
child, call we have got to do is TO put
an officer on the track'' sta
"YOu must make a sweet baby" /
interrupted; "Why, up there they
shoot an officer on sight"
81 would give five hundred dol
lars, said Tom, passionately, ''rath-
er than to lose that watch.
'Done," / said, and the next morn
4 4 Il
seven miles in the dreary woods,
dressed like a backwOOdsman, with
couple of DerTingers in my pockets,
and mounted on an animal that was
once a horse, which we bought for
SOS. A dreary woods it was. TO say
nothing of the awful roads, the back
bone of my noble steed was source
of misery, for / had no saddle; that
would have excited suspicion at once.
So was glad at the end of the second
day, when five miles from the lake,
to stop at log hOvel by the road
side.
The family were preparing their
evening matchmaking it into mush
when / entered, and was about To
take my place at the table, when the
old man looked at me sadly.
"Young mar" he said, ~ see by
your looks that you don't know the
Lord"
'You are right there, old man." L
said, "He's a stranger to me-"
At that the old fellow grOaned and
immediately produced the indentical
Bible you see before you.
"Hear the words of wrath" he
said, beginning to read and queer
work he made of it, knocking his
mental shins against all the big
words.
] paid little attention to him, but i |
go somehow vague impression that |
his mind was not on his reading
Still ! did not set him down as a |
hypocrite, as I should instantly, had |
he been anywhere else but there, I
where hypocrisy seemed so super
fiuous.
Wicked as l was, / was rather
pleased than otherwise to find symp- |
toms of piety in that GOd-fOTsaken
place. The reading and the supper
over, the old man said inquringly:
"Mebbe yer going into Virginia set
tlement ?'i
''There's just where L am going"
replied.
''Then if you take that ring with
you violence will be done. Them peo-
Pile don't know the Lord"
Sure enough, like confounded fool,
as the wisest of us may be at times, l
had worn my emerald ring all the
way.
"YOung man." said the old fellow
again "what air you at Never be
a hypOcrite; you are deceiving people;
you are no labOrin' man. The Lord be
merciful to you ,"
"Right again, old stick-in-the-
mud,n / said, 81 am no labOriGg man.
I never did work for a living and
never will. / don't mind telling you,
on account of your remarkable piety,
that Pm up here Oh little business
for friend. Perhaps you can help,
in which ease you can earn dollar
or two. Perhaps you don't know
such a fellow rs Merriman-Austin
Merriman ~
"a desperate man." says the old
fellow, with a shudder, "whO knows
not the Lord"
Perhaps" | said, she's sport, a
gay and festive son of wOod-chOp-
per. May be he trades little once in
Il Nlllic III JcNOlIl y
''He's been trying to trade 4 watch
for a pair of steeTs;' and rs this, of
course, was what | wanted to know,
pulled out may wallet, and gave the
old man two dollars. How sharp he
looked at the other bills.
''The Lord does provide" he said,
TO his wife, ''why, sir, would
you belieYe it, We haven't mOrsel of
pork in the house"
Little did / think how that old boy
with his piety, had pumped me. am
to this day TO think how he
came it over ME.
al hope the Lord will bless YOU"
he said as 1 started next morning.
BE sure and stop here when you
come back" i
/ told him wOuld-I rather liked
his mush and milk for a change. had :
hardly got out of sight of the hOvel
when deer started across the road.
l fired one of my pistols at it, and
neglected to load it again. Very
foolish, but | was a little reckless.
/ suppose l was about five miles {
from the old mans place, when all at
once | came i'm sight of the Very man
was after. lie was splitting rails by !
the roadside. knew he was the man
was after, because, dangling from
the pocket of his old plush vest was
Eincent's watch chain but what
was my astOnishment To find, on
second look, that l knew him. Why,
sir, he was one of the cussedest horse
thieves that infested the "big
woods"
Bill Strahl, was the name ! knew
him by. He knew me at once.
"Halloa," said he, "what do you do
here ~ And as he said this he pick
I'd up his rifle he and were never
friends.
'FYVhat do you think ?' said l, put {
ing my hand in my pocket.
mo good" said he, "yOu internal s
beat" and with that he made mo- 5
ion to level his rifle.
In an instant ] whipped out my ]
Derringer, and gave him an excellent i
to look square down the I
muZZle.
'You are covered" said, "drop :
GOur gum"
He dropped it and began to trem-
Die. If he had known how trem-
oled inside, he would not have been Q
scared. The sense of deadly pain is I
not an easy thing to get used to. | I
fired his gun into the :
1rush and tied my horse to a stump.
Now, my friend" said to Meiri-
nan ''be kind enough to march,"