Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-03-27

tors, seeking their just dues, none doubt.
ed, but 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 'Liphalet waited
patiently for tine one to whom they were
apportioned. He was not greedy; he al.
lowed his prey to lie fattening until tina
leaf buds swelled 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 his fellows,
and knowing not whether his turn shall
come now or then?
| Aunt Dolly's real creditor was an iron
man, steel-tipped and brass 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.
| Then she sat down with her sock-knit-
ting beside Uncle 'Liphalet. Uncle 'Liph
| shook worse, and his hair and face were
| 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.
Il 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 heavy mortgage
on the farm; but we said we'd work our
selves clear, and we did, sir. We'd saved
up something for Rube's eddycation; but
kube died, and the moneys gone; the
farms going, and we're going. | don't
! know qOhere we'ie 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 bearin' tree in
| the orchid but | grated; there amt Oh!
it'll be dretful to take away the farm,
| dreful."
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, alphabetically, "but he's
been so harassed and worried, he's kind
o weakened and broke down, sir. But
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
farm that seems to stand for the spotted
| calf, and the cosset sheep, and the yellow
hens eggs"
Uncle 'Liphalet broke in: cts rocky,
and don't look like much, / know, but
pears to me 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 say?
Why, what could RUDE say, Dolly?"
GIVE tried hard to realize it," said Aunt
Dolly; in the night time, 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 spattin' up the butter on the
back porch"
"And drivin' up the COWS to PASTURE
Lordy!" 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 whisper-I hope-whoever gets
the farm, sir-they ll-they'n keep up the
fence around the grave"
The creditor choked backed something
in his throat, and made nervous ges-
| tuTe.
keep it up yourself, madam, keep it
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 | accepted the obligation,
on property that has become security
through the dishonesty of the man who
deceived me as we'll as you. My human
ity would shame me-"
The old couple stared at the man in
dazed sort of way. What did he mean
this iron man, steel-tipped and brass
bound-this Cuisines MANI"
Il believe I'll be able to catch the noon
train" SAID he, swapping together his
watch-case.
Aunt Dolly followed him to the door.
IL don't know as understand you,
sir"
Keep your farm, ma'am. I've no
moral claim, I'll have no legal claim to
it. Go on drying your sage, and spattin'
up your butter, and pray for Swinton, for
| he needs it if ever man did"
Aunt Dolly laid her worn hand sol
EMMY on the mans sleeve. Twice she
tried to speak and twice she failed.
"The Lord bless you, sir--in your
basket and your store, at your freside,
and among men; and 0, sir, when you
| grow an old man and feeble, may He
hold you in the hollow of His right
hand"
Aunt Dollys thin, quivering voice
swelled to a full tone, and the man in
clined his head reverently.
What does he say, Dollys" called IN
Gle 'Liphalet.
The man broke off a spray of the
brown green lilac buds and crushed them,
| fragrant as the old woman's blessing, be-
tween his palms.
How wonderful it is that, right after
those who would destroy our faith in hui
manity, SO often come those who re-es-
tablish it in four-fold frmness.-Sp1ng-
field (Hass.) Republican.