The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-09
THERE'S MANY A MURPHY.

THERE'S MANY A MURPHY.
''The fact is" said Mrs. Bixby, I" you
might rs well look for needle in hay
stack as to try and find any lost creature
in this big blazing bumble-bee of city
You may as well give it up ut once.
And she looked over ut her brother-in
laws brother with an impotence that she
tried in vain to suppress. Forit was not
polite to succumb to this feeling of ex
ASPIRATION which her brother-in-law'
brother had induced by this infatuatior
of his about his youngest sister, who had
run away from home with scoundrel
years and years ago-long enough, as
Mrs Bixby thought, to have dropped out
OF any reasonable famiiy's remembrance.
1t was not polite, because this torment
ing and persistent man, who insisted
upon hunting where there was no hope
OF finding, was bachelor of mature
years and ample fortune
Joshua Flanders farm out ON the Dor.
der Mrs. Bixby had heard of as "A marvel
of richness and prosperity; the soil was
iet-black for fathoms deep, and cror
after crop could be taken therefrom with.
out administering the mildest tonic fol
tins drain upon its resources. The
mowers and reapers, and gatherers and
sewers, and all the other machines, were
numberless and inestimable thousands
and thousands of acres, level, infinite,
and unfenced, dazzled the imagination
and filled the admiring heart of Mrs.
Bixby
''Not chick to inherit it all. " she said
TO herself, " but his brother and the
children"
Lost creature - repeated her brother
in-law's brother "Lost God forbid.
Maria T.
Well, can you find her ?" said Mrs.
Bixby. She was polishing the silver
'coffee-urn, and almost made dent in its
brilliant side in her irritation. "Can
you find her, Joshua Flanders ?"
ono, no, he said, shaking his head
mournfully; Il can't find her"
Can Ifind her? Can your brother
John find her? Can his wife, my sister.
find her? Can the multitudes of people
and papers you've written to find her Il?
No. Then she's lost, isn't she? If a
thing can't be found, it's lost, amt it 2"
+" Yes, yes. said Joshua, still shaking
his head dolefully; "in one sense she's
lost; but ! don't like to hear you call her
"A lost creature, Maria
"Shall | call her a lost coffee-urn
Joshua, lost boot jack, lost spittoon %
Mrs Bixbys sharp black eyes had fallen
upon these things one after the other
- Shall | call her a lost cravat Z" she con-
tinued. you'd better fix yours before
YOU go out, Joshua, for it's away around
under your left ear. And suppose we'd
best get ready, for well have to wait out
side I'LL the doors are opened, so as to
get good seat. James little hard of
hearing, and Moody's voice in the dis
lance Is thick and indistinct. Sankey's
YOU cal hear TO the end of creation: but
It's n dreadful strain to catch every word
Of M0odys, if You happen TO be late and
cam get down in the body OF the build
ing"
ALrs. Bnby's brother-in-law's brother
sighed once more heavily and despair
ingly, and then went slowly up stairs to
arrange his tohet for this trip to the Hip
podrome.
This was his last day in the metropo-
lis, his very last; and the only news he
bad gained in all these years of poor lit
Gle3Itty had come from this big seeth-
ing city. 1t must have been fully ten
S1ears since lie saw that account of the
brawl in the paper telling of Murphy's
DEATH and, although he wrote at once.
and made every effort to find his now
widowed sister, all was in vain. She was
gone, she was lost, as Mrs. Bixby had
said-a little pebble in the big whirlpool,
swept away. He looked out of his win
dow, and, as it was up in the Mansard-
roof, il commanded view of myriads of
chimneys as far as the eye could reach.
He wondered, i'll weak, vacillating way,
If the smoke from Kittys frugal fire had
crcpt thinly up through any of these
chimneys, and he had actually put his
arms upon the window-sill and looked
mouinfully forth, when tap upon the
door aroused him from his reverie.
He opened it, and found upon the
e threshold quantity of lace and silk and
y velvet that almost extinglished the
slight form of his niece, Marie Gene
We've Flanders.
'' l want to bid you once more good
10y, dear Uncle Joshua" she said, in
fc'gh treble, and pouring forth her words
quickly and pantingly-"just once more,
dear Uncle Joshua p
Uncle Joshua stopped and kissed her
after his melancholy fashion, and, finding
Cha. che still remained in the doorway,
he Kissed her again, this time putting
his horny hand upon her little velvet
cad shoulder, whereupon she shrank
tDack.
Don't runple my collar, please. she
said, still remaining there, tossing her
long golden curls, and lifting her big
blue eyes greedily to the dim, sad ones
of the Western farmer.
AT once Joshua thought of something.
He put his hand in his vest pocket and