The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-02-04

I'll outlive you, mark my words. Andif
the law had its just dues this day you'd
be up yonder with a striped suit On end
ball to your Leg"
She hurried of in the opposite direc-
ton at prodigious rate just to show her
enemy how much more active she was
than he. His rage cooled sufficiently
| for him to be sarcastic as she disap-
peared. He waved his hand after her in
the manner of high tragedy and remarked
serenely:
"Sweet-voiced female Of the name of
Babylonia. FAREWELL"
| A little while after Babylonia fell i'll.
They told her at length it was a mortal
sickness. She had not sat up for days
before that. But as the stout serving
maid announced the direful tidings the
old woman sprang boltupright. She
clinched her hands.
81 will not die" she said-"1 will not
die. l mean to outlive John Clough."
But she grew worse for all that. At
length they brought her word that her
enemy too was i'll.
"Ahar' said the terrible old woman.
"I'll outlive him yet. will not die"
Nevertheless she grew yet weaker un-
| til she was no more than half conscious
of mortal things. While she was in this
state one day the bell began to toll in
token that some poor soul was passing
out alone over the cold waters of eterni-
ty. The very first stroke of the bell
aroused her wandering, already half
escaped, senses. She even counted the
strokes-one, two, three, and SO on.
"Sixty, sixty-five, seventyone, two,
three, four, ue-seuenty:fue" screamed
the fierce old woman. She rails ed her head
and shoulders desperately. Seventy
five! Heaven above me! it's John Clough
they're tolling for. Ha, ha! told him
to his face I'd outlive him. They said I
was going to die, did they? will not
die! will not diet"
\ \
The people who had been listening
with momentarily chilled solemn hearts
to the bell which tolled for the departing
soul of old John Clough had returned to
their buying and selling, their gossiping
and dressing, their marrying and giving
in marriage, and their poor little tricks
to keep the breath of life within their
bodies. I say they had returned to all
this just the same, for it had been half
an hour-nay, had it not struck three
quarters ?-since the bell ceased tolling
for old John Clough. What would you
have? Must one think about dead people
forever? Must-Hark! What's that?
The great deep bell had begun to toll
again. People ceased their poor little
tricks and listened again with solemn
hearts. One, two, three, chanted the
great bell-thirty, forty, sixty.
"It's an old person-real old" said the
younger ones.
Sixty-one, sixty-feur, sixty-five, SEQ
! enty, called the deep-mouthed bell.
Miss Patience Hopkins struck her
hands together.
"Heaven help us, it's Widow Heath
erclough!" she exclaimed. "Them two
old creeturs has gone into t'other world
side an side. God be merciful to US all,
miserable sinners! / wonder if they'll
ever squabble anywhere they're gone:
It's wicked to question Gods mercy, but
it does appear as if heaven was hardly
big enough to hold them two both at
once"
And SO it was. These two, who had
hated each other and hurt each other and
abused each other forty years, had passed
over together, quietly enough at last, to
the shore whence the serene pilgrim OF
eternity" looking backward, sees that all
the strifes, WORKINGS and torments OF
this world are inexpressibly mean, small
and pitiful.
Ay! quietly, quietly enough, God
knows!
They died within the same hour; they
were buried in the same graveyard; and
her funeral procession went in through
the gate as his came out.
"I bequeath all my earthly posses
'sions to my granddaughter, Mariana
Clough," said the old mans will. II
also bequeath to her, as sacred legacy,
my Heatherton Park lawsuit. request
her to fight for that property till she dies
or gains possession OF it. If she gives it
up while she is alive, hope she may die
in the alms-house."
"Land G. libertyr said Miss Patience.
"To think how two poor worms O the
dust can hate each other even with one
foot in the grave"
81 wonder what'll become of the
Bone now?" said the gossirs.
Mariana bought some black dresses
and staid at home in the old Clough
house. She was handsome, clear
headed, high-spirited young woman of
three and twenty. Meantime the oppos-
ing lawyer advertised for the legal heirs
of the late Babylonia Heatherclough.
have told you of the hate of two old
people. 1t is, left me now to speak of
the love of two young people.
1. was late in November. The two old
enemies had been sleeping quietly in
their graves for three months. The law
yer had at length found an heir to the
estates of Babylonia Heatherclough.
The said heir was nephew of the de-
ceased lady. His mother had been her
Youngest sister. His father had been q
cousin of the deceased lady's husband,
and his name was Heatherclough too.
He was coming in person to take pos
session, be wrote. The news had been
formally announced to Mariana.
Mariana took it quietly enough. In
the afternoon-the pale November af'
ternoon-she walked out to the tiny lake
in the middle of the Bone" She had
not been there before since the time he1
grandfather and Dame Heatherclough
had quarreled so furiously. twas chilly,
and Mariana forgot she was in mourn.
ing so far as to wrap scarlet shawl
about her firm, plump shoulders. She
was always forgetting the most impor-
tant matters in life-like the impropriety
of putting on scarlet shawl over mourn
ing, for instance.
She was melancholy. on the whole.
She really did mot know whether she
meant to fight for her rights or not. She
carried in her hand . Newspaper, In
which she had Just been reading soul
aieconraOinr storv of a strike and sick.