The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-03-24

tell you, chad good birth Ga matter of
weight in Tarrytewn) and good educa-
ton. He studied law. Why, Johnny
could give you the points Of a cast or
precedents as well as any man in larry
town. But he'd take to chasing the sub
ject through the books like n hound af-
ter q hare, and there was an end of all
practical good of him for a month. Or,
if you wanted a deed, he'd go to ferret
ing out the title back to the ~tomahawk
claims, and to hunting up the history
of all the owners" 1t was better than
a play, he said, to make searches for a
title. Business o o left that office, of
course The Office was a large, white
washed room, lined with rough shelves
of old books, Il stove in one corner,
where Johnny cooked his own meals, a
neat bed behind a check curtain, and,
scattered miscellaneously, two or three
dogs, some of the n~eighbors' children,
a dozen tame caaari6s, a goldfinch, and
q parrot. Outside there was a queer old
garden, full of herbs and roses, n poul-
try-yard, tanned squirrels, pigeons, more
dogs. 1t was but additional proof of
Johnny's h%alf-idiocy to the townspeo-
pie that he chose to spend his life study
ing queer books, in tongues that no.
body understood, to making money. As
to the animals and children, they took
to him naturally, as though he were
one of themselves.
Johnny was always busy. Besides his
books, he brewed from his herbs
draughts, s%alves, lotions, for almost
every disease, which he gave away. OF
he had sold them, they would have lost
virtue,) If any body was sick or dead,
Johnny was sent for at once. Nobody
was so good a nurse. Nobody was so
tender in trouble as the apple-cheeked,
bald-headed little man. lie was q sort
of foster-father to the whole village;
had kept a record of births, deaths,
ETC., for many years. Of course, no.
body had the least respect for Johnny.
He was queer, Eighty, had an absurdly
high opinion of every living soul with
whom he came in contact-saw
virtue in them which only insanity
could have imagined. All the village
wits made q but of him. Every larry
towner had an opinion of his own, fixed
as that of the Pope. Johnny never
offered an opinion in his life. He never
said so much, rs that virtue was right
and vice wrong. When people were
sick or in trouble, and sent for him, he
would sometimes pull ont his old Bible,
and, putting on his spectacles, read in
his humble, %squeaking voice usually
from the gospel of st. John. remem-
Der how comical we children thought
him, with his feet on the rung of his
chair, and his bald head and round,
boyish face. But there was % wonder
full pathos in his voice, and what he
read was real to us.
All this was long ago. Johnny died
soOn after the Judge. Books, dogs,
birds were all scattered. GA good-for-
nothing fellow" said the smart young
druggist who had just opened a shop.
"Lived all his life here, and his whole
belongings sold for ten dollars. Fact!
| was at the vendue."
But there was no a man or woman
in ~Tarrytown who did not feel a sudden
gap in their everyday life, out of which
something good and helpful had gone.
And there was not a child who has not
now, in middle age, Il tender and CRATE
full memory of poor Johnny.-The In
dependent.