The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-15

1t was done, but the poor thing made
no effort to rise, and gave no sign ex-
cept prolonged, piteous, quiveriug cry.
''That was the DEVILS cry" said gram
ther, with a cracked laugh, aud then
he beckoned to have the '.joog" passed
and 1t was held up, and he drank with
the utmost satisfaction.
| But such details are repulsive, and
should be forgotten. Suffice to say, the
COW died, and the feather bed was gone,
and the poor family were poorer than
ever.
One day gran'ther was at Daniel
Franks house, and Susie was making
hominy, and using paiful after pailful
of spring water from the fountain half a
mile distant, when the old man said to
one of the boys:
"Go git me a stick of witch hazel, and
be sure you git it off'n the sunrise side
o. the bush, an I'll see if it would be
proper for your pa to be diggin' well
hereabouts."
Buttoning the band of his neither
drapery, and having the other garment
all a-futter in the wind, be broke a
| forked stick from the witch hazel, and
began walking slowly up and down the
lot in which the cabin stood, holding
the stick in a certain position between
his two hands. Suddenly it began to
turn; he stopped; it moved slowly round;
when in loud, nose-y voice he cried
out:
"Does my Maker tell me there is
water here 2"
Then he informed Daniel that he
could strike a good vein of pure, soft
water by digging twenty-five feet. But
Daniel had to earn bread for the family,
he had not time to earn water too, and
so the well was never dug.
But alas for the fate of the woman
who was Stunned, and despised, and
prosecuted as a witch!
In those days alms-hOuses had not
been built in the West. There was need
enough for them, but the poor pioneers
could not stand the taxes. So when il
was known that Goody Leet was sick,
and suffering, and dying, and all the
while declaring herself an innocent and
wronged woman, then some of the
neighbors of the better class sought her
in her cherries, dark, lonely cabin, and
found her to be an object of charity and
sympathy.
1t was hardly to be supposed that any
of those poor families could afford ia
take her into their homes and treat heI
as one of them without a trifiing recon-
pense, and though it did look very hard
aud inhuman, and we cannot quite be
reconciled to the fact, yet notice was
stuck on the door of the blacksmith's
shop, saying that on the 9th day of DC.
t0ber, 1918, Mistress GoOdy Leet, an in.
firm woman, would be sold to the low
est bidder for the term of six months.
On that day Goody was put into a lit.
tie wooden wagon and hauled to the
lower rifle, where the blacksmith's
shop was located, and she was sold as 8
pauper by public outcry.
This was the iron that entered hel
soul. A man mounted on a stump
raised his hands, and his voice, and hii
powers of eloquence, said all the fine
words he could think of, and all the
pretty phrases, and the poor creature
was sold to the lowest bidder. A lazy
ignorant old couple made the bid, anC
hauled her off to their cherries home
in the creaking little wagon, amid the
solemn silence of the motley Assem- blage
Goody was quiet. For days she woulC
sit and lean on her thin talony hand
and she would open little brown pape
that she carried in her bosom, and cry
over it softly and silently. But one dal
day she did the same, and persisted in i
calmly yet positively day after day
, Kind women could not prevail on her t.
eat, sympathizing men besought her t.
without avail; and one morning, wheI
} the old couple looked upon their charge
she lay peaceful and with pitiful coun
tenance as one in pleasant slumber. AL
plainness and homeliness were obliter
, ated, and q rare beauty, lost and fadet
for long years, had come back again.
, In the suspected little brown paper II
her bosom was flossy flake of infant
, hair, and a coarser slip beside it, O
dark brown, was q mans hair, treasure,
and beloved, both. The tale they Nigh
, have told could only be guessed.
Mary, with long and patient waiting
: the poor prosecuted pauper, lady born
/ had sought and found a friendly refug
? by starvation.