Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-03-14
WHAT CAME OF IT.
BY ELIZABETH A. s. CHESTER.

CITIZEN you think you wouldn't do it,
Dolly?" said Uncle 'Liphalet, pulling out
the stove hearth and poking at the Goals.
mo, l wouldn't 'Liphalet," replied
Aunt Dolly, resting her shining knitting
needles, while she stirred up the pump
kin simmering in the pot. "The FARMS
paid for now, and if we're savin' we've
en- ugh to last us through. Why should
we harass ourselves VII seekin' arter
Fiches?"
"'Tain't riches I'd be seekin' arter, Dolly,
but this Mr.. SWintOn-they call him q
very smart young man, Dolly-he says if
the mill amt rebuilt the villagell go
back ards, the farm'll sink in vally, and
things'll ginerally run down. You know,
Dolly, never hild back when / could do
anything to help along"
81 amt likely to forget, 'Liphalet,
where the calf and butter money went in
time o. war, nor how you've given to
church and missions, schools and poor
folks, and everything else anybody'd o
mind to draw up paper for. You and
I've had more disagreements -"
"But this'll be helpin' ourselves as we'll
as helpin' others, Dolly. This MIR. Swim
tOn-he's very pleasant-spoken young
man, Dolly-he says he'll guarantee the
stock shall pay for itself in three to five
years. He says he'd rather build here
than elsewhere, because he wants to help
his native village, and if We'll all take
hold, and each help little, he can do it. I"
"We've no money to put In" said Aunt
D0lly,-leaning back and fixing her eyes
on the Goals Uncle 'Liph had raked open,
--''unless we take"
"Unless we take what we'd laid by for
hoo 4 4 10 irNI o1of
softly.
"Since God took Rube's eddycation in
to His own hands, 'Liphalet, I've always
wanted that money to lie in the bank
until we'd plain call to use it. | can't
a-bear to think of it's bein' used like other
money"
Nor I, Dolly, but Rube would wish it
doing good, and this Mr.. SwintOn, he
gays it might draw thrible what it does
now. We can maybe use the income in
helpin' boys who love larnin', as Rabe
did"
Dolly replied nothing. After the men
tiOn Of Rube's name silence was wont to
fall between the old couple, an old couple
Outwardly as crooked. as gnarled, and
scraggy as any two old apple-trees that
drew sustenancc from their rocky fields
This Mr.. SwintOn-he came out to the
farm the next day, and Aunt Dolly put
on her black alpaca apron and received
him with courtesy. A man OF less
shallow sympathies would have been
touched with kind of plying tender
ness for the obsequious old woman, but
to Swinton her Difference was constitu-
tionally agreeable. it argued well, too,
for his designs. He drew his glOved finger
athwart his foxy colored mustache, and
talked business.
Heaven help the simple minded old
couple now! What is "business" to them
but kind of mysterious wonderland full
of pyramids and sphinxes and statues of
Memnon? What businessman but
priestly sorcerer, with his offerings and
incantations, living ever among the mys-
teriesf
But heaven didn't help them. Some
times it does seem to fail people IN their
sorest needs; and yet, things work OBJ
scurely and very far around, and who as
yet has seen the end of enything?
Aunt Dolly, in her wood rocker, knit
silently on the socks that would bring her
rs cents pair. Uncle 'Liphalet drank
in the mans words with child-like cre-
dulity.
LET me tell you, sir, manufacturing
enterprises are the life of our villages.
Compare Mr. Swinton drew his COM
parisons f1uently and correctly. "Were
we to Locate elsewhere stock would be
rapidly taken up, but owing to our most
singular and unfortunate fires-loss of
confidence in the location-I am strongly
desirous of comforting the advantages of
the mill on my native village; citizens
must subscribe"
GAS for the risk-how can there be any
risk2 Let me explain" Mr.. Swinton
was q man of facts, and his explanations
consisted of facts, unimpeachabie, i'm
movable facts, that there was no gong
back of or around. "1hat doesn't admit
of a question: kraooo it to be true-why,
we've demonstrated it, sir. Doyou see?"
Uncle 'Liphalet thought he saw. VINO
could avoid seeing square, sharply-de-
hned fact, that was nowhere allowed to
melt away into suppositions or uncertain
ties?
81 hain't but leetle money. ANYWAY"
said Uncle 'Liphalet, pushing back his
rough, gray locks with his rough, trem.
bling fingers. "Mother an me saved nm
enough, leetle by leetle, to eddycate Rube
with; but he-Rube-died, you know, and
the money has lain in the bank"
ga thousand isn't much, any way"
said the man of tens of thousands, tipping
back in his chair, and picking his teeth
elegantly; "but the morale your subscrip-
ton lends is something. Our very sim
gular and unfortunate fires, you see. The
fact that men like yourself have entrust-
ed their savings to US, gives us desirable
standing" a.ss
Uncle Liphalet's vanity was touched,
bat Dolly, with closed lips, continued her
stitches.
"What do you say, Dolly?"
''I've said my say, 'Liphalet. In sick