The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-08-03

nodded and laughed, and talked and ioked.

nodded and laughed, and talked and .joked,
and away we rode to Grigg's Peak.
At the foot of that we stopped. You see
you couldn't ride up to the Peak, nor you
couldn't leave your horses all day, SO we ID
arranged to have 'em driven back. Most
had brought hired man, or somebody to
drive their wagon back and bring it out in
the evening. So we all lighted down and
| took out our baskets. / can tell you china
for ten isn't any light load. Mine was as
heavy as lead. And we watched the wag-
ons out of sight, and then we began to
climb. 1t was climb, L tell you. When
/ we got up to the Peak we were beat out.
! Peleg Pottington, he carried Sally
/ Sproats things as well as his own, and /
/ thought then he was coming on, and would
! propose soon. Well, he did. But there,
/ now, where am wandering to? And some
/ of the young men did the same but men,
| woman aud children had their bands most
| ly full of the heavies: baskets | ever saw.
/ And there was the dreadfulest time getting
| up that hill, tumblng down and screaming
and hollering for help, never shall forget.
But we got up at last and then we sat
! down on the grass and took breath.
| We'd calkerlated 'twouid be cool, but it
! turned out the hottest day, just the hot
! test yer ever knew. My lands we we're all
/ baking aud broiling, jest as cross-all but
! Sally SprOat and Peleg Pottington-they
! were full of fun. l made up my mind
| something would come of them. SO it did.
| Well, 50 we sat and cooled off, and after
! awhile we got more good natured.
"Well," says Ann Jane Godolphin, 81
| tell you what | propose. Let's have dinner
! right off; we're all tired and hungry. Eve
! got a table cloth here, Lel's set our table. -
! So we all agreed on that, and we ladies
J got up and went TO work. We put down
the table cloth and began to put on the
! dishes.
Gracious goodness the stacks of them
! There were twenty-five of us, and as we
came to count up, we found we had dishes
enough for two hundred aud fifty.
| "Plenty is better than lack, says Ann
! Jane Godolphin. Come now, what have
! you brought? I was let off easy. | was
| told to bring dishes for ten and pepper.
| Thought I'd bring enough so l got a
pound"
81 was told to bring pepper and dishes
| for ten too" says L.
:'Just the same with nae,' said Silas
| Pone's wife.
| ME too," says some one else, and then
| every body spoke up. We'd all been told
to bring dishes for len and pepper. We all
| had
| There we were on top Of Grigg's Peak,
| with the wagons sent home and nothing to
eat all day but pepper.
| We'd done smart thing inviting those
| two iokers, They'd played nice trick on
us. Never shall forget that picnic as long as
| | live. There we sot and sot, and scoded.
Sally and Peleg went off together. After
| a while one of the boys went after them
/ and found 'em eating lunch that She d
| brought in her reticuie aud then they
fetched Peleg back, and stuffed his mouth
, with pepper, and then he fought 'em, and
! Silas Pune got rolled over the precipice,
| 4. 4 II. -
up again, and Mrs. Pone tainted away.
! And old Mrs. Pone she got hold of Sally
| and boxed her cars and smacked her in the
/ face, and there was an awful time, | tell
| you.
| And then it came on to rain, and it
| poured and poul ed, and we had to pack up
| the china and go down the Peak and hide
| in the woods, ard there we we've hall
drowned And Mrs. Masons little boy got
| lost, and it took all day to find him and
when it cleared up, and we went into the
| sun to dry, there came along mad bull
| and tossed little Jane Perriwinkle. Didn
! hurt her much, bat tore her clothes al oft
| Everybody was starved, and wet, and
angry, aud such lot as went home, in the
| wagons you never saw. 1t was The mean.
| est picnic | ever remembered going to, and
picnics usually do turn out mean, [ think
| None of us spoke to Sally Sproat or Peles
| Pottington again. But they got married
| Just as said they would, and their practi-
cal joking brought them to an untimely
| end. You see, one evening he'd just gone
| down the back stairs-little side stairs you
| know, set in the wall-and it struck her i
she threw down big bundle of something
and groaned, he'd think she'd tumbleC
| down, and be scared and it struck him
| that il he put the kerosene lamp into pa
per bag with two holes in for eyes, and
| held it over his head, and wrapped the
| table cloth around him, and went up stairs
| why, she'd think it was a ghost. So ht
! started Just rs the bundle came down, aud
they met.
They put beautiful obituary notice il
the paper about 'em. They was united
in life, " they said, ''and in death they were
not separated" And so they weren't.