New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-12-24

| ute or two, and BY the tune Alice hes man
sreS vith sstoundipg disregard Of dounces,
and the effect of vet and thorus upon them,
to come up with the pioneers. she secs
| them engaged in clearing aside Win rect
and hands mass of accumulated rnDDleh,
| fallen leaves. earth and underwood. Inc
snow has been very light and has not PEN
etrsted far below the upper twigs.
IA spade. spade" calls out lo"' or
pick of some sorl!"
And the child, who is only half way down
| the slope, runs back, and soon reaPpeare'
| struggling with Q spade.
Alics relieves the little hands Of thsir IN
wieldy burden. and takes it down to Tom,
sending the child back to the house Tor fear
| of her taking cold.
Five minutes pass, and the sailor, by
| hacking at the bushes and delving into the
earth, has laid bare the top of queer look
| iog, half bricked. half tiled sors of strnc-
ture He lifts away some of tho tiles with
which portion Of it is covered, and dls-
closes the upper end of q large lesthern
sack, all mouldy and bagrimeJ. having
kind of brass binding and hasp fastened by
rusty paddock
With low muttered EXPLANATIONS from
Tom, and much g4sping and putting from
George, by degrees regular clearance Is
made, and there lies exposed to view the
whole of an enormous sack, nearly i've feet
| long and three feet wide!
ciasp-knife flies out from the sailors
pocket, the leather is ripped open. ard the
sack is discovered to be crammed with a
succession OF canvass bags. With some
difficulty for il is very heavy, Tom, having
handed the spade to George, is the first to
lift one of these out. IL is firmly tied at the
mouth with strong string and sealed. and
has a parchment label, with the sum $1,000
in figures marked upon it. Again the knife
is used with more impotence than ever,
and Tom, dipping his hand in. produces
dozen or more bright sOvereigns!
"Hurrab, hurrah! Here it Is, then" cries
Tom-''the main bulk of my property
hidden, buried, after the fashion of our old
money box. And here it has lain certainly
for five, and who can say for how many
more years."
Bag BY bag is renewed from the leathern
eack; the sample which has been opened
explains what they each are filed with.
There they are-forty of them, all alike,
tied and labeled alike; each weighing about
seventeen pounds, q solid mass OF some six
hundred weight of gold!
.'Total," SAYS George, with a facetious "a
sumption of the bankers air, when, with
much labor and hurrying to and fro, every.
thing has been conveyed very qnietly and
secretly into the house, "s4O, 900 in gold!'
The surprise, the excitem emit, and the
general comm otion which went on while
these facts we're being arrived at, NO words
can describe. However, there was Matthew
Rickm ans accumulated wealth at last,
standing in forty bags upon the table and
floor in the little parlor. But how his heirs
and executors behaved, and what they said,
must, in detail, be left to the imagination.
They walked around it, and felt it, moved
first one bag and then another. to try If
they we're sll the Same weight. Then they
counted few sovereigns from the bag that
had been opened, and then put them in
again; and the whole time they were talk
ing, every one of them, all at once, and not
soul listening. They exclaimed, they
wondered, they laughed, and, of course,
Alice cried, and Lillian followed suit And
it il quite impossible to say how long this
thing went on, for everything they did they
did fifty tunes. and everything they said
they said at least hundred timss over and
over again, and the performance might
hsve lasted till ''crack of DOOM" but for
the closing in of the short Christmas day.
This see med to suggest practical remark
to George, and to which at length the rest
seemed inclined to listen.
at is all very WE'LL" he cried; "out we
can't dine off gold-at least not at present
and I'm getting hungry"
1ucu euOuouly OCOuEToU u butm AI1
that they were hungry; and then the good
old fas hioned general servant. who had
been looking in from time to time at the
parlor door, and who had no. yet quite
ma stored what had happened, was told to
bring dinner. So, finally, the treasure was
slowed away in q corner, just, Tom said, as
if it had been so many bags of sawdust,
such as he used to have in his toy miller's
cart, and which he always stabbed in the
self same corner.
While the cloth was being laid the whole
party looked out of the window, apparently
entirely absorbed by their own thoughts.
After long silence, Tom said, as he gazed
absently IN the direction of the little sum-
merhouse.
That's where he got them"
Got whatl" inquired George.
'The materials to make his strong room
with. As looked through the bushes Just
now / perceived some remnants of old
tiles, and saw at q Glance they were the
same sort as those in that patch in the
root Of the summer-house. They would
not have suggested anything in the m selves:
but seeing them where did, with what
had in my mind, they confirmed my sus-
piclon, and the first kick or two l gave to
the earth settled the question"
why, of course, exclaimed Georges"
"the old gentleman had the roof mended
while We were away that year, not month
come OF the workmen's materials for this
purpose"
"Only faucyw cried Alice; "snd the
sack-where did he get the sack, do you
Think"
"Oh, simply had it made years ago, NO
doubt, when this idea first possessed him."
was Toms rejoinder.
"Well, God bless him." said Alice; che
never meant that we should have 60 much
trouble about it all, poor dear father! God
bless him, say again"
And they ell answered, s'Amen."
Presently after this the Christmas feast
was served, and we may be pretty sure
that there was not q merrier or happier
Christmas dinner party throughout the
length and breadth of the land to be found
that day. There was no melancholy tone
in the talk now; it was all in the bright,
high, happy key.
"And why notl' asks Gsorge. ''If grand
father had not buried the money in the Or
chard, why, might have buried it in the
copper mine-who knows9 No, it is all for
the best, depend upon it; and l call it a
wonderful story of Christmas luck. Tom
will have half, and Alice will have half
whole in the three per cents. That will be
enough for us, won't it? Yes, wonderful
luck, he continued; "only can't make ont
about my dream, for it must have been a
dream, after all; it could not have been any
thing else"
"Ah. so we may" broke in Tom solennlv.
land 80 most people would say; and thew
would tell you that it was my talking about
the dolls nest just before we went to bad
that started the dream in your head.
George; but I'm not for having everything
cut and dried and explained in this m after.
0f-fact sort Of fashion. l say l have seen
enough TO know that it can't be done: