Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-03-26

us show them TO grandmother and ask
her II we can't have them. 1t is q shame
to keep them slowed away in this dark
attic. ] wonder people haven't more
family pride. would rather have found
a will making us heirs to some old En-
glish estate; but it is something to have
knighted ancestors sword and shield"
So saying the young ladies descended
the crooked stairs and sought their
grandmother.
Lawful sakesl girls, what have you
been doing in the garnet with your Aunt
Mary's pewter platter9"
Pewter platterp exclaimed Hannah
aghast.
Certainly; your Aunt Mary's pewter
platter, child; and many roast pig it
has held. 1t belonged to her Aunt Mary
before her. In them days 1t was kept as
bright as the brightest steel you ever
see. / remember one Thanksgivin' after
/ was engaged to Phineas-your grand
father, i mean-he brought me here to
dinner, and your Great-uncle Ebenezers
folks were here, and Aunt Jemina and
Cousin Cynthy Ann. Oh, what times
Cynthy and me had in them days! Poor
Cynthy Ann, she married Builder, and
didn't live long after. That was the last
dinner your Uncle Ebenezer ever eat OIL
that ere platter, for he died the 4th of
May--same day or the month you was
horn, Jerusha? and Eliza Modget, she
married the 6tL, the same day Cousin
Sarah was married, only that was the 9th
of February That Thanksgivin' Day
Mary Susan came over in the evenin'
with Josiah Perkins, and we all played
blind-man's-bu in the great kitchen
old and young. Folks said Mary Susan
was goin' to marry Josiah; bat, lawful
sakes! they didn't know, for she married
Jonathan Bumbleton-he of the one
arm"
Ibid he lose his arm in the service of
his country, Grsndma"
Law no, child; in a sawin' mill, and
your Uncle Silas was there at the time,
and he run for the doctor, who was just
gone to tend to Mandy Miggler's young
est (she that was Bumbleton, and lived
on Meetin' House HilD, which was took
down with the measles that very morn
in, and after him all the others had it
and poor Mandy was kept fussin' over
them children all winter"
"And what is this?" asked Hannah,
when the old lady paused for breath.
THAT" she replied, looking over her
spectacles attentively at the broken
blade, "seems very much like an old
carving-knife; in fact, remember now
that broken knife was put away in the
garret, for your grandfather never could
bear to throw away anything"
The girls restored the ancestral sword
and shield to their place in the attic.
ITO think" said Jerusha, "that it
should have been pewter platter to
hold vulgar dinner, rather than shield
to guard the noble form of Sir William,
and that this blade should have carved
roast pig instead of vanquished knights.
What do you think of Joe Jobstock now,
my dear?"
"I think he is plebeian fellow, and
unworthy the hand of Phimstickle.
What if these are not Sir Williams
sword and shield; it still remains true
that we had such an ancestor"
So they left the old attic, never once
casting look at the desk, which stood
there grim, dusty and silent. The Phim-
sickle girls returned home and never re-
visited the attic, for very soon after this,
on the death of the good old grand
mother, the house was remodeled and no
attic left. Parson Phimstickle took the
desk, and, after it was repaired, placed
it in his study. It had been there two
years, and was considered by all rather a
CullOuO Olu NOch Dut, dS L oulu DClOIC,
nobody suspected how curious it really
was. Meanwhile Hannah Phimstickle
continued to dream of rich cousins and
ancestral knights. Jerusha had grown
more disposed to contentment and more
inclined to take things as they came.
One thing which came pretty often be-
ing Joe Jobstock, she had also concluded
to take him.
Jerusha," said the parson, as they
were all sitting together in the study,
"will you pass me few troches from
the upper righthand drawer of the
desk?"
Now Parson Phimstiekle had a cold,
| and wanted the trOches for his throat
IsHe little dreamed that this simple re-
quest would lead to an important discov
| ery-for neither Parson Phimstickle him.
self, nor his daughters, nor the neigh
bors who had often seen the desk, sus
| pected it of having any secret. Now il
happened that Jerusha, when her father
| spoke, was writing letter to her absent
lover at this very desk. 1t also hap.
pened that when she drew forth the
drawer it came entirely out. This had
| frequently occurred before and surely it
was nothing very marvellous But on
this occasion, Jerusha's eyes being on
an exact level with the drawer, before
she placed it in its accustomed niche she
espied a small hole in what she might
otherwise have supposed to be the back
of the desk. A sudden thought flashed
through her brain.
Father, are there any secret drawers
in this desk?"
"Not that know of, my daughter
but, now you speak of it, do remember
to have noticed that the extreme right
hand drawers are shorter than those on
the extreme left"
"Secret drawers!" exclaimed Hannah,
springing toward the desk. Where?''
Jerusha pointed to the place. The
paIson h"ndod pocket knife TO the ex-
cited Hannah, who, by its assistance,
drew forth, with trembling fingers, a Sc.
cret drawer All eyes were bent eagerly
upon it, and there, buried beneath the
dust of centuries, they beheld-no will !
Hearth ana Home.