The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1877-07-06

"You'll be needing it soon, Maggi,
dear, / know; don't forget me when you
come to that day."
These were his last words, and Mag
gle pondered over them that evening
as she sat silent beside her sIeepins
children.
1t was hard to sell the Gear old home
but Stephen would hear of nothing
else; so the doctors house went into
the market, the quaint furniture wa:
scattered, and the money went into
Drn's Moss.
1t only put off the evil day.
Thwaites abandoned his improve
ments.
''He would throw no more good
money after bad" he said
But Stepher, with a determination
that many thought kind of madness
worked away.
And really in the fourth year it look
ed as if he would succeed.
A portion that had been finished pro-
duced such crop as made the farmers
round doubt their eyes.
Stephen was jubilant.
What could be done for two acres
could be done for two hundred.
He had proved his position, and was
more enthusiastic than ever over his
ida.
But Maggie was almost hopeless.
She was beginning to suffer for very
necessities.
Strange, hard men came with author
ity aboL her home.
Stephen looked so i'll and haggard,
and was so irritable that her cup was
full of sorrow.
One gloomy afternoon, when it rain
ed so heavily that work was impossible
she ventured to try and leason with
and comfort the gloomy man, looking
dolefully across the empty farm yard
towards the great. flat, dreary Moss.
''It will soon be over, my poor Mag
gie," he said. Tomorrow " l am going
to get another five hundred pounds
if L csn-upon the farm plenishing
and the remnant of the stock. | am
sure, if get it. to put the whole Moss
under wheat this yeaI, and that will
practically save us. If L don't, l have
lost all these years labor and We shall
leave this place beggars. You know
the worst now, Maggie"
The next day, amid the driving storm
she watched her husband make his
last desperate effort.
She turned and looked upon the
pleasant room, her three children play
ing unconsciously about it
Then she fed up stairs, and falling
down upon her knees, poured out all
her heart IN passionate, pleading pray
er.
AZ si,e rose with streaming eyes, her
uncie'S last words flashed across her
mind.
Somello~ they held II new meaning
for her.
She unlocked iier drawer, and lifted
the old. brass bound book carefully
and tenderly out
1t has comforted my fathers aud
mothers for many a generation" and
said, softly. IL will see what it will do
for me-"
And she uuclasped it with prayer.
Il was brought low and He helped
me-"
They were good words, and she read
the whole psalm through and turned
the leaf.
A bank note for one hundred pounds
fell at her feet.
She lifted 1t as though it had fallen
from heaven, and commenced to turn
with eager, trembling fingers the we'll
worn pages.
One after another, notes fiuttered
into her Jap, until from between the
leaves of her uncle Joseph's wedding
gift she had taken eight thousand eight
hundred pounds.
Can any one guess how she prayed
again, and with what a radiant face
she met the cross, wretched man that,
half drowned with the storm, walked
about sundown up to the hearthstone!
"Stephen-Stephen," she Grid, joy
ously, ''never look sad again. Uncle
Joseph's wedding gift has saved u.s."
And she spread the notes before him.
Maggie was right; the money saved
Stephen every way.
He bought Thwaites out, he paid off
all claims on his home, he restocked
his farm, and triumphantly finished
the draining of Dru's Moss.
To-day there is glorious stretch Of
wheat fields and meadow pastures and
many traveller wonders at the Lright
and fruitful oasis in the barren coun-
try; then some countryman will say
at was aimee the DEVILS own acres,
sir, and men and sheep past counting
lost their lives IN Its bogs; but Stephen
Gray. with labor and gold, drained the
ill.laDd, and he and his have grown
rich on its outcome, though folks do
say as he found q crock of gold there
one lucky day"
Magyie's fortune was oddly, given,
but the eccentric old man did not
Judge Ear amiss.
His wedding gift was blessed as he
it should be-in two ways
for Maggie and Stephen learned to
love it. not only for the material help
it had brought them in their extremity,
but also for the promise of the far
more exceeding and abundant riches
which it promises and provides for.
Stephen, though wealthy, was no
longer proud. !
All his pride and resentment vanished
when he gazed on the work he had
finished by the aid of the Doctors
Gift.