The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-07-31
"what pig p, returned the mystiaed

~ WI SAANS Pi6s all thoo Pi6
passed down the road" stammered Mr..
Poddy with guilty look, trying to re-
member that he had passed the pig in
question.
"Oh, that old hog. Why, you can
have him for his keep. He'll break
down all your fences, and root up your
garden to ruins,' said Hicks, with
broad grin upon his face.
"You don't see anything laughable
in me buying hog do you, Mr.. Hicks ?"
asked Poddy with mock dignity. "That
is fine hog. L want him for the
breed"
That was too much for the farmer,
and he laughed outright.
"Well, if you want him, send down
and get him. was thinking of shoot
ing the old rascal said he
"I will" said Mr.. Poddy, with great
earnestness, and he drove off. In the
road he passed a bodied lean, bristly
old boar, Footing in the ditch with his
ugly tusk, which he presumed was his
rash bargain, Giving the unfortunate
grunter lash with his whip, and cut
ting poor old Dobbin numerically over
the back ,he ratified home ,cursing Hicks,
the hog, himself, and all mankind for
his own folly.
AT home he was so unbearable that
Miss Perkins resolved to put the screws
on, and adopt her old pushing tactics to
bring him to the wall, but with no re-
suit.
Two miserable days passed, and then
he made desperate resolve to see Miss
Jones, or drown himself in the mill
pond on his return If he was a second
time so foolish as to forego that pleas
ure. He would go straight to the front
door and ask for Tabitha, without
troubling either the master or the mis-
tress of the house. He couldn't very
well withdraw after that.
But this ingenious plan very nearly
failed. Arriving at the house, he tied
his horse in very careful and scientific
manner, to the great astonishment of
old Dobbin, who had never shown the
slightest inclination to run away. Three
times he got as far as the gate, and re-
turned to satisfy him that the knot was
safe. At the third attempt to mount the
steps and knock who should come round
the corner house but old Hicks.
C It's no good" thought Solomon, " L
can't do it; and here is loop-hole for
escape"
"That you, Poddy? When are you
going to send for that hog ?" slyly asked
the farmer.
ell have come for it now," stam-
mered Solomon.
"Well, it amt there. Come round the
barn"
Poddy's face assumed an agonized ex-
preston, and he turned away from the
door, fully resolved that the coroner
should have job and the county sem
sation, when o well known face with q
pair of gold spectacles appeared at a side
window, and Miss Tabitha's voice was
heard.
g Is it really you, Mr.. PoddyY was
afraid you had suffered from my foolish
acCluenU. DO cOule III.
Mr.. Solomon Poddy went in, and was
introduced to all the girls, and knocked
over several chairs, gave some very con-
Trajectory answers to questions, blushed
and hesitated, and in the words of Mrs.
Hicks, "behaved more like big over
grown gawky boy than man of fifty"
All of which furnished amusement for
the young lady boarders, who were
sternly reproved at supper table by Miss
Jones for their heartless conduct.
The ice was broken; and by some mys-
terious process-he never knew himself
just how it was brought about-but be-
fore the return flight Of the boarders to
New York in the fall, ,Tabitha Jones had
confided her maidenly heart to Solomon
Poddy's keeping, and they were to be
married in December.
Miss Jones occupied the second floor
back room of Mrs. Hasher's fashionable
boarding house in Twenty-Third street.
The front room on the same floor was
occupied by lady Mrs. Daniel Bankum
by name.
Mrs. Bankum was widow, and her
sole need now was successor for the
dead-and-gone Bankum, and a father, as
she told the assembled company at Mrs.
Hasher's for her poor boy.
Mrs. Bankum had selected for the po-
sition Of parent, certain Mr.. Wilks, u