Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-03-14

and the north and the south, came creuf
tors, seeking their Just dues, none doubt
ed, bat seeming often; times TO- the gnarl.
ed and hard. working debtors like the fat
kline come up anew to devour the lean
Aunt Dolly and Uncle Iiphalet waited
patiently for the one TO whom they were
apportioned. He was not greedy; he al
lowed his prey to lie fattening until the
leaf buds sweiled on the lilacs. Mean
while, what agonies Aunt Dolly under
went can not be described, What must
the crab feel in seeing the stork straddle
along the shore and gobble up hisfellows,
and knowing not whether his turn shall
come now or thenp f-
Aunt Doly's real creditor was an iron
man, steel-tipped and bress,bound; when,
therefore, the real creditor one early
April morning swung back the little
picket gate, and stopped to sniff at the
lilac buds, she closed her eyes as she
would have done in the hands of the exc
cutioner. She went, though, and let him
in as If he had come unto his own and
his own received him. Pc H
Then she sat down with her sock-knit-
ting beside Uncle Tiphalet. lUncle'Liph
shook worse, and his hair and face we're
whittier than when Swinton called three
years before.
The creditor talked pleasantly; so had
his predecessor. All "business men"
were to Aunt Dolly of the Artful Swindle-
ton type.
The creditor opened the subject gently
. az know the law gives it to you, sir;
but it's hard hard bringing my mind to
it," said the hoarse voice of Uncle 'Liph,
coming over infirm lips. Here's where
Dolly and me came when we was first
married. There was a heavy mortgage
on the farm; but we said we'd work our
selves clear, and we did, sir, Wed saved
up something for Rube's eddycation; but
Rube died, and the moneys gone; the
farms going, and we're going. l don't
know i1hsre we're going"
The creditor looked troubled.
"Why, sir. there ant rod O. stone
wall on the farm but I've laid the stone;
not a foot o. drained medder land but I've
put down the tiles; not a bearin' tree In
the orchid but / grated; there amt OIL
it'll be drefful to take away the farm,
drefful."
Uncle 'Liph laid his great rough hands
over his face, and the tears trickled
through his fingers.
''He don't oughter shed tears" said
Aunt Dolly, apologetically, "but he's
been so harassed and worried, he's kind
IT'S hard on us both to leave the old farm.
There's difference, sir, betwixt farm
that's bought for lump o. money, and a
farm that seems to stand for the spotted
calf, and the cosset sheep, and the yellow
hens eggs"
Uncle 'Liphalet broke in: "1t's rocky,
and don't look like much, know, but
pears to NE men are some like trees; it's
them as has their roots twisted around
and under the rocks that it's hardest TO
tear up. / never expected to die in the
poor-house, SIR None o my kin ever
went there. What would Rube sayP
Why, what ro,tld Rube say, Dolly"
give tried hard to realize it, said Aunt
Dolly; "-in the nighttime, too, sir
what it'll be to be sitting by somebody s
else fire knitting, him a-bringing in
their wood, and out here another than
me, canning the plums, and drying the
sage, and spattn' up the butter on the
back porch"
"And drivin' up the cows to pastur-O
| Lordyl' broke In the old man.
"But the hardest thing to leave-Reu-
ben, our son-he was turned eighteen,
| sir-is buried on the farm. If you'll step
| to this winder, sir, I'll show you his
grave. There, down under that maple.
| There's where he fit for college, and when
he came TO die, it seemed, sir, as If in that
place where he'd dreamed over his Latin
and his Greek, of great futur', there he
wanted to be left. he asked it that morn
! ing in a whisper-I hOpe-whoever gets
| the farm, ir-theyll-they'l keep up the
fence around the grave"
| The creditor choked backed something g
in his throat, and made a nervous ges-
! ture.
'Keep it up yourself, madam, keep IL
| up yourself. Trade takes It's own risks
| and must bear its own losses. I'll not
! come back on security of which was
/ Ignorant when 1 accepted the obligation,
on property that has become security
through the dishonesty of the man who
deceived me aswell as you. My human
ity weuld shame me-"
The old couple stared at the man in a
| dszed sort of a way. What did he mean
this iron man, steeltipped and brass.
bound-this Cuisines mani" .tB
81 believe I'll be able to catch the noon
train" SAID he, swapping together ais
watch-case. r.n
Aunt Dolly followed him to the door.
"I-I don't know as understand you,
SIR"
''Keep your farm, ma'am. I've nc
moral claim, III have no legal claim to
it. Go on drying your sage, and spattin
up your butter, and pray for Swinton, fol
he needs it if ever a man did,"
Aunt Dolly laid her Norn hand sol
I emnly on the mans sleeve. Twice she
tried to speak and twice she failed.
"The Lord bless you, sir-in youl
basket and your store, at your freside
and among men; and o, sir, when you
grow an old man and feeble, may He
hold you in the hollow of His rlghI
hand "
Aunt Dolly's thin, quivering voice
swelled TO full tone, and the man in
clined his head reverenly,
What does he say, Dolly? called I'm
/ Gle 'Liphalet.
The man broke off a spray of th'
brOwn-gTeen lilac buds and crushed them
fragrant as the old woman's blessing, be
tween his palms.
How wonderful il is that, right aftel
those who would destroy our faith in hu
manity, so often come those who re.es
tablish it in four-fold irmness. Spring
1 tield (lnass.) Republican,.
THE Hartford Conn COuyaHt statei
that more than year ago conductor or