The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-10-12
SOME RAMBLING NOTES OF
AN IDLE EXCLUSION,
ny MARX TWAIN.

BY MARX TWAIN.
All the iourneyings / had ever dont
had been purely in the way Of business
The pleasant May weather suggested ;
novelty, namely, trip for pure recrea
ton, the bread and-butter element LETT
out. The Reverend said he would 90
/ too; q good man, one of the best Of men
7 although a clergyman BY eleven at
night we were in New Haven and OF
board the New York boat, We bought
our tickets, and then went wandering
around, here and there, in the solid com
fort of being free and idle, and Of put
ting distance between ourselves and the
mails and telegraphs.
After a while l went to my state-room
and undres-ed, but the night was toe
enticing for bed. We were moving
down the bay now. and it was pleasant
to stand st the window and take the
cool night-breeze and watch the gliding
lights on shore. Presently, two elderly
men sat down under that window and
began a conversation. Their talk wa.
ProperlEaRo business o: mine, yet was
feeling Siendly toward the world and
willing to be entertained. I soon gath
cred that they were brothers, that they
were from a small Connecticut village
and that the matter in hand concerned
the cemetery. said one
Now, John, we talked 1t all over
amongst ourselves, and this Is what we've
done. You see, everybody was a-movin'
from the old buryin' ground and our
folks was most about left 10 themselves,
As you may say. They was crowded,
too, as you know lot WANT big enough
in the first place; and last year, when
Seth's wife died, we couldn't hardly
tuck her in. She sort o. overlaid Dea-
con Shorb's lot, and he soured on her, so
to speak, and on the rest OF US too. 30
we talked it over, and l was Tor q layout
in the new simitery on the hill. They
want unwilling, if it was cheap. Wei,
the two best and biggest plots was No. $
and No. 9,-both of size; nice com
Portable room for twenty x-twenty-six
full-growns, that is; but you reckon in
children and other shorts, and strike an
average .snd should say you might lay
in thirty, or may be thirty-two or three,
pretty genteel,-no crowdin' to signify.
That's a plenty, William. Which
one did you buy ?"
"Well, I'm a-coming to that, John
You see. No. was thirteen dollars, No
9 fourteen -
"I see. So's's you took y. So
"You wait. I took No. 9 And III
tell you for why. In the first place.
Deacon Shorb wanted it. Well, after
the way he'd gone on about Seth's wife
overlappin' his prem 'ses, I'd "a beat him
out of that No if I'd "a had to stand
two dollars extra, let alone one. That's
the way I felt about it. Says 1, what's
dollar, any way2 Life's on'y pill
grimage, says I we amt here for good,
and We can't take it with us, says l. -
Just dumped it down, KNOWN the
Lord don't suffer good deed to 60 for
nothin' and cal'latin' to take it out o
somebody in the course o trade. Then
there was another reason, John. No. 9's
Il long wav the handiest lot in the SINH.
terry, and the likeliest for situation. 1t
lays right on top Of a knoll in ,the dead
centre of the buryin' ground; and you
can see 1Iillport from there, and Tracy's,
and Hopper Mount, and a raft o farms,
and so on. There amt no better outlook
from a buryin' plot in the state. 81
Higgins says so, and / reckon he ought
to know. Well, and that amt all
Course Shorb had to take No. S WANT
no help for t. Now, No. s jines on to
Ne. 9, but it's on the slope of the hill,
and every time 1t rains it'll soak right
down on to the Shorbs. ST Higgins says
t when the deacon's time comes, he better
take out fire and marine Insurance both
on his remains"
Here there was the sound Of low,
placid, duplicate chuckle of appreciation
and satisfaction.
Now, John, shere's little rough
draft of the ground, that I've made on
a piece of paper. Up here in the left
hand corner we've punched the departed;
took them from the old graveyard, and
slowed them one long side O t'other, on
a first come-frst-served plan, no partiali-
ties, with gran'the Jones Tor a starter,
only because it happened so, and windin'
up indiscriminate with Seth's twins. a
little crowded towards the end of the lay
out, may be, but we reckoned 'twa'n't
best 20 scatter the twing. Well, next
comes the Iivin' Here, where it's
marked A, we're goin' to put Marian and
her family, when they're called; B, that's
for brother Hosea aud his'n; G, Calvin
and tribe. What's left is these two lots
nere.-iust the gem of the whole patch
for general style and outlook; they're for
me and .my folks, and you and yourn.
Which of them would you ruther be
buried in ?"
q 1 swan you've took me mighty lin-
sxpectA, William It sort of started
5he shivers. Fact is, was thinkin' so
BUSY about maxim things comfortable for
The others, l hadn't thought about being
buried myself.
"Lite's on'y heetin' show, John, as
she sayin' is. We've slllgotsto go sooner
n later. To go with clean record 5 the
main thing. Fact Is, it's the on'y thing
worth strivin' for, john