Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-12-01
THE VISION OF TON CHUFF.

. dozen ancient poplar-tresS with rugged
and hoary stems around, one smashed
across she middle by fash of lightning
thirty summers before, and all ny their
Sreat height dwarfing the abode near which
they stand, there sqrats rude. stone
ho,isc with thick chimney, q kitchen and
bedroom on the ground floor. and . lon,
accessible BY q ladder. under the shlngie
roof. divided into two rooms.
It's owner was man Of iii repute. Tom
Chuff was his name. A shock headed,
broad shouldered, powerful man, though
somewhat short. with lowering brows and
a sullcn eve. He was a poacher, and
hardly made an ostensible prctence OF
earning his bread by any honest industry.
He was drunkard He beat his wife, ana
led his children a life of terror and lamen-
taiion, when he was at homo. II WAS
blessing 10 his frightened little family when
he abscnted himself, as he sometimes did.
for week or more together
On the night speak OF he Knocked at
the door with hia cudgei at about eight
O'Clock. Ii was winter, and the night was
very dark Had the summons been that OF
a bsgie from the moor, the inmates OF TINS
small house could hardly have heard II
with greater terror.
His wife unbarred the door in fear and
haste. Her hunchbackcd sister stood by
the hearth, starting towards the threshold.
The children covered behind
Tom Chuff entered with his cudgel In
his hand, without speaking, and threw
himself into a chair opposite the IRE. he
had been away two or three days. lie
looked haggard, and his eyes were blood
shot. They knew he had been drinking
Tom raked and knocked the peat nre
with his stick, and thrust his feet close TO
it. He signed toward the little dresser,
and nodded at his wife, and she knew he
wanted a cup, which in silence she gave
him. He pulled bottle of gin from his
coat pocket. and nearly filling the teacup
drank off the dram at few gulps.
He usually refreshed himself with two
or three drains of this kind before beating
the inmates of his house. His three little
children. covering in a corner, eyed him
from under table, as Jack did the ogre in
the nursery tale His wife, Nell, stand
ing behind a chair, which she was ready
TO snatch up to meet the blow OF the
cudeel, which might be levelled at her ut
any moment, never took her eyes oil him !;
and hunchbacked Mary showed the whites
of large pair of eyes, similarly employed,
as she stood against the Oakcn press, her
dark face hardly distinguishable In the
distance from the brown panel behind IL.
Tom Chuif was Mt his third dram, ana
had not yet spoken WORT since ms en-
trance; and the suspense was growing
dreadful. when, on a sudden, he leaned
back in his rude seat, the cudgcl slipped
from his hand a change and death-llke
pallor came over his face.
For while they all stared on such was
their fear of him, they dared not speak or
move lest il should prove TO have been but
doze. and Tom should wake up and pro.
coed forthwith TO crafty his temper and
exercise bis cudgel
IN little time, however, things began
10 look so odd, that they venturcd, his
wife and Mary, to exchange glances full
Of doubt and wonder He hung so much
over the side of the chair, that If it had
not been one Of cyclopcan clumsiness and
weight he would have borne 1t to the
floor. 4 leaden tint was darkcning the
pallor of lis face They were becoming
alarmed, and finally Drawing everything,
his wife timidly said tom" and then
more sharply repeated il, and finally cried
the appellative loudly, and again and again,
with the terrified accompaniment, He's
dying-hes dying" her voice rising to IA
scream, rs she found that neither 1t nor
her plucks and shaking Of him by the
shoulder had the slightest effect in recall
ing him from his torpor.
And now from sheer terror OF a new
kind the children added Their shrffffy piping
tn tie talk and cries Of their seniors; and
if ANYTHING could have called Tom up
from his lethargy, it might have been the
piercing chorus that made the rude cham
Der of the poachcrs habitation ring again.
But Tom continued unmoved, deaf, and
stirless.
His wife sent Mary down to the village,
hardly quarter Of a mile away, TO inn
plorc of the doctor, for whose family she
did duty as lallndress, to come down and
look at her husband who seemed 10 be
dying.
The doctor, who was good naturcd fell
low, arrived. With his hat still on, he
looked ut Tom, examined him, and when
he found that the cmetic he had brought
with him, on conjecture. from Marys
description, did not act and that he felt
pulselcss wrist, he shook his head, and in
wardly thought:
"What the plague is the woman crying
for? Could she have desired a greater
blessing for her children and herself than
inc very tliIlS tiiitt HAS HappSHSo!
Tom, in fact, seemed quite gone. AT his
lips no breath was perceptible The doc
tor could discover no pulse. His hands
and feet were cold, and the chill was steal
ing up into his body
The doctor, after y stay of twenty min
utcs, haG buttoned up his great coat again
and pulled down his hat, and told Mrs.
Chulf that there was no use in his remain
ing there any longer, when, all Of II sud
den, little roll OF blood began to trickle
from the lancet-cut in Ton Chuff's temple.
THAT'S very odd said the doctor. Let
us wait little"
l must describe now the sensation which
Tom Chuff had experienced
With his elbows on his knees, and his
chin upor his hands, he was staring into
the cmbers, with his gin beside him, when
suddenly swimming came in his head,
he lost sight of the fire, and sound like
one stroke of q large church bell smote his
brain.
Then he heard confused humming, and
the lcaden weight of his head held him
backward as he sank in his chair, and con-
seriousness quite iorsook him
When he came to himself he felt chilled,
vanf{ xacu