The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-12-08

ous III spite VI al tnlS, tQey derived IN
finite consolation from long twiiig hit walks
and snug Preside gossip, and confidenti-
al talks over their respective wicket-gates
and looked forward with patient hope to
the far off "some day" that was finally
to crown their happiness.
silence; he was sorting apples in heaps
! on the barn floor, and when she had con-
cluded be brought down his closed hand
| on the biggest bin with an energy that
would have abraded any less horny cut
icle
Its a shame! r. was honest Hugh's
| emphatic comment.
| $50 it isl said Agatha; "and father
| thinks so too. You see Uncle Philemon
brought father up, and took care of him
when he was poor boy, with no other
friend in the wide world, and now that
he is sick and bedridden-'
| Hain't he no money to leave?'' ask
! ed Hugh. Seems to NE I've heard
pretty middlin' we'll off,
| Agatha shook her head.
| Dear me, no! you forget how long
he has been sick and helpless under the
doctors hands, Hugh. And wouldn' t
1 'eh ony OuO out Sou, utdf-DUt tUluk
mother hasn't been nearly SO kind and
| forbearing with him since she made up
| her mind that his little store of money
was all spent
Hugh and Agatha talked together
| loud and earnestly, and then they strolled
across the quiet fields. arm-in- arm, and
took Moses Jefferson into their confidence
as he wrestled with a huge log of wood
on the wood pile, at the west end of the
house.
Father. Hugh has loEg thought of
something - chirped Agatha. as exult-
antly as if a thought were quite novelty
to Hugh Darwin.
i've got a plan, Sir" said Hugh, and
straig htway proceeded to unfold it.
| ''We'll do it - reared Moses, shifting
his thigh, with prodigious laugh. which
echoed through the frosty twilight like a
war whoop.
YES, Hugh, We'll do it, sure's the
world I"
Mrs. Moses Jefferson was busy skim
ming her cream the next day, in the clear
cool little mIlk-room, whose windows
were netted with wire-work, and shaded
with the yellow vine leaves which yet
hung to their stems, when there was
shrill jingle,jangle Of discordant bells in
the road beyond. Mrs. Jefferson drop
ped her skinner into the golden depths
of the jar of cream, and darted, bonnet
less, and with her sleeves rolled UP above
the elbow, across the door-yard.
Its ragman, or my name amt
C!arissy Jefferson - she thought, exult-
antly.
And, sure enough, there was a portly
xuIth bnn 81
| over his eyes, a coarse red pocket-hand-
kerchief tied round the lower part of his
chin, and furthermore attired in long
rusty over coat, whose ragged skirts ex-
tended nearly to his feet. He was pro-
pelling, by means of his vigorous arms,
little hand-wagon, surrounded with
bells, and partially filled with rags, bot
ties, cast off clothing, and crumbled pa
peIs, and checked his noisy career at once,
as Mrs. Jefferson breathlessly hailed him
from her little gate.
| "D'ye buy old newspapers" shrieked
our housewife, in the shrillest of trebles.
"Na'al, yes, onst in a WHILE was the
deliberate answer. "Got any to sell?''-
''How much dye give for 'em ?''
| -Four cents pound, ma am.
'Well, you just wait a half mint:
| L VIC AOt d plSlty SOUU hueSS Oh EN- mere
I'd like to sell ye'
"All right, ma 'am.'' said the travelling
chant, balancing the shafts of his wagon
against the fence, and burying his hands
II his pockets. Bring EN- on
And the next minute Agatha was sum-
moned from her sewing to help pile Uncle
Philemon dearly beloved file of ancient
newspapers into the wicker clothes basket.
| A 1,- i
haps she had learned the folly of entering
into argument with her mother; she
only obeyed- Mrs. Jefferson's behest in
| silence. There were several packets of
the time-yeliowed old papers, and more
than one journey back and forth was
necessary before the whole heap lay on
| the turf by the roadside. Mrs. Jeffer-
| son looked on with streaming cap-frills
| and hawk-eyed oagerness, to make sure
that no defrauding sleights of hand were
practIced during the momentous opera
| ton OF weighing.
Nov mind you,'' said she to the rag
man, Il won't be cheated -
Thirty nine pounds ~ calculated the
hero of the elongated coat skirts, as he
swung the burden high in the air.
Call it forty !" squeaked Mrs. Jeffer-
son, greediIy cycling the pile Forty
pounds; you don't hitch 'em on true.
IVA al. We won't quarrel over..an odd
pound, ma am, you and [, any way
quoth the accommodating merchant.
'"Lemme see, " closing one eye in calcu-
lating fashion, forty pounds at four
| cents comes to-four times ort is ort, four
times four-one dollar and forty cents.
Here your money, ma am, and hopin'
Yrny nm
Agatha, what are you laughing at ?''
demanded her mother, as the bells .iangl-
ed noisily away down the quiet road over
which the November mists brooded like
haze OF gold. Didn't [ see that i'm
pudent ragman a-starin at you, and you
gigglin like any school girl? What do
you spose Hugh Darwin would think if
he was to hear ont? Go back to your
work this very minnit -
And Agatha went. leaving her mother
to count up her gains, hike feminine
style OF mlser, In calico and cap-borders
1t was drawing toward sunset the next
afternoon MIR. Jefferson and Agatha
had gone on some errand to the village,
mile and half distant, and Mrs. JEFF.
ferson was alone in the kitchen, chopping
| apples for minee- pies, when Uucle Phile-
tiioH was ptpinS fulCe nidQe ltSe1l
heard from the chamber above.
''Carissy, Clarissyl,,'
Mrs. Jefferson, with smothered ex-
clamation of Impotence, threw down the
chopping knife, set aside the wooden
| tray, and ran up stairs
Well said she, with more energy
than mildness, whats wantin' now?'
Il feel very poorly, Clarissy,' groaned
the old man, who lay among the white
bed clothes like dried yellow efiigy, Il
think I'm DRAWN near my end. "