Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-10-05
JOHN AND BECKY.
BY CHAS. II. DAY.

BY CHAS. II. DAY.
Aunt Becky was miffed. She hadn't felt
so really put out since the day John voted
the Whig ticket, when all the days of her
life at home she had been brought up a
straight out-and-out Jeffersonian demo
GRAFT, as had all her progenitors for genera
lions. But long since had the old couple
learned to eschew politics as they would
evil and, by the aid of their spectacles,
each read the Nominations of their politi-
cal idols in the columns of the "Palladi-
UNI Of Liberty" and the "Register of Free
dom" without inf1icting their own peculiar
sentiments upon the other.
On the whole, for going on forty years,
things had moved on quite tremendously
in their household-to be sure, triaing dis
cussions would arise from time to time.
Becky thought that the cart had best be
painted blue, economising the color re-
naming after painting the sink room floor;
while John insisted that red-and s'ver-
million red at that'-was the only hue
for carts. The setting of hen was an
event of extraordinary proportions and
provocative Of an infinite amount of dis
cussion. John did not believe in early
chickens. Aunt Becky fairly dotted on
them. John could not understand how
it was that every TWO or three years
Becky wanted new bonnet, while
his stovepipe hat had lasted him
for Sunday -go-to-meeting, training and
town meeting days, and no end of funerals,
for twenty years. Minor topics as they
were, they served to relieve the monotony
Of their quiet farm life.
What was it that put out Becky which
we have been too long concealing from the
reader
John had sold old Dobbin, the grey mare,
the very animal which had been born on
the farm twenty years ago, and had drag
ged the plow, early and late, all the years,
from its frisky colt-hood to its sedate old
age She cried from vexation as she
thought of all the years that Dobbin had
drawn them to church in the old Rocka-
way and how patiently she had waited in
while Parson Brown advanced his doctri-
nal tenets, as far as sixteenthly, without
other exhibition Of disapproval than kick
Ing off a board and whinnying for her mas
ter, IA very INDIGENOUS proceeding was
that, too, to transpire in Westinghouse
horse-shed.)
Becky always insisted that John barely
escaped being horse jockey; and John
knew that Becky's weakness was that of
Mrs. Toodles-the auction-room.
John hardly dare face the music after
disposing of the old white mare, and he
felt half ashamed after he had made the bar
gain, but he had never backed down and he
never would. So he StrOlled down to tin
blacksmith shop, and talked about the
finances and the temperance movement.
and the coming town meeting, and criti-
cised the action of the board of selectmen
and the county commissioners, as is the
privilege of every good citizen. But, de-
spite this, and the fact that the price of
Dobbin would ''come in handy" the ensu-
ing Sabbath to meet the pew rent and re-
Chronical," he wished the old mare back
again in her stall, or turned out to pasture
and the greenbacks returned to the pock- |
cts of the horse jockey.
While John was discussing affairs of |
state, Becky was reverting to the day |
when John, a man in his prime, acted as /
chief marshal Of a Fourth Of July process
sion. and looked for all the world mounted |
on Dobbin--she was prancing and caper- |
ing young creature then-like General |
Taylor at the battle of Buena Vista, as |
pictured in print in the "spare room.'
which she had purchased at auction at a |
bargain.
q Suddenly, John and Becky were both |
aroused by strains of music. In his posi- |
ton at the blacksmith 's-shop he was ena-
abled to see from whence it came, and the |
cause thereof, but to her ears the sweet |
sounds were more. distant and she looked |
down the long lane which led from the
farmhouse to the village, and could, with
the aid of her glasses; distinguish three
magnificent golden cars which, even at |
that distance, struck her with amazement
at their grand appearance. Therein she saw
three bands in gay grey uniforms, and such
music she had never heard-not even when
their society had united with the South
church Sunday-school picnic, and the silver
cornet band had come up from the CITY,
She threw shawl over her head, and,
with all the enthusiasm OF q schools girl, |
ran down the lane to obtain a better view |
of the pageant, and drink in the ravishing
notes OF Kauffman's three bands, and to |
admire the beautiful Arabian horses, so |
skillfully driven, and delight herself with |
looking upon the great elephants, the |
homely camels and long line Of cages, and |
the mules; she knew every one of them |
must be Wings and read the Palladiuna of |
Liberty every week.
After watching the procession until it |
was out of sight, down by the saw-mill, she |
turned home with hurried step, for fear |
that during her absence the cat might have |
poked its intrusive nose into the cream IN |
the buttery but that villainous feline had |
no taste for cream, for was not Thomas fast |
asleep in the hay-mow. gorged with three
of Biddy's plump chicks, captured and de- |
voured during the absence of the cautious |
housewife.
his meal with silence, and never once
found fault with the bread or grumbled at
the shiftlessness of Congress. After dinner,
he fumbled about the clock shelf for the
last issue of the Register of Freedom, for the
purpose of perusing the advertisements of
O'Brien's Six Shows. which had caused
such commotion by its entrance into
town that morning. It was not until he
had read it line for line that he had discov-
cred that he had been informing himself
through the columns of the much hated
Palladium Of Liberty, to the no little salts
faction of Becky, who had been watching
him through the crack of the sink-room
door.
John drew out his Well-worn calfskin
wallet, and transferred therefrom to his
vest-pocketa half-dollar, and looking about
as if to see if his movements had been
noted by Becky, slid out Of the door, much
as would a schoolboy after reprimand from
his teacher.
Becky's ''spunk'' was up now; she had
read O'Brie1o's Illustrated Pilot and the ad-
vertisement in the Palladium of Liberty,
and she was going to see the circus if she
did have to make an inroad On her egg
money. Hastily dressing herself in her