The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-07-31

they'll know where to look, and I've go'
to guess at it,"
At eight o'clock two wagons went ur
"the gulf-road," and q boy stole down
over the hill to the school house.
"Better luck next time" said Thoff,
Gone Hundred Dollars Reward |"
This was a week later, and a lad stood
reading an advertisement which was
pasted up at the entrance of the bridge
The above reward was offered for the
finding and return to it's owner of a pock'
ct book, lost on Spruce Hill the 30tf
of April, by Luke Granger. Thof stood
for some time staring at the large CAPT
tails; then he turned away, remarking tc
himself:
$50 they haint found that money, il
seems. Well, nor haint l."
Three days afterwards, when the
search had been given up by everybody
else, Thof started out again. Arbutus
was in bloom now, and wake robin, and
wood v~iolets, and the boy trampledd down
great levels of them in his search.
His palm leaf hat, with a strip Of blue
cambria tied around it for a band,
became a familiar sight to every SPUR
rel on the hill that day, for he stay:
ed till sunset. Then, as it drew toward
dusk, and the valley below lay in shadow,
and only the hilltops saw the sun, he
started for home.
It Was quite dark in the thick woods
at the base of the mountain, and there,
running along a narrow path, his foot
hit something which bounded off, and
which was not o stone. He stopped,
fumbled with cropping fingers In the
ground pine and last years leaves, and
at length found-the pocket book.
Ten minutes more and Thof Shelton
might have been seen, had there been
more light and any one to see him,
%crouching in the darkness of his den,
seging the wallet to his breast, and, tc
his o9n amazement and modification,
actually crying as he clutched his trea'
sure.
Give hundred dollars - he said,
softly, to himself. It was all there. He
had counted the bills by the one bar o.
lamplight which struggled up from be
low. "Now then for life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness as the reading
book says"
Then he proceeded to arrange with
himself how 1.-THE pursuit of happiness
should begin.
"In start off on the six o'clock train
tomorrow morning. I'll go to Boston.
n I'll have a stunnin' dinner, n I'll buy
me some clothes. Hold on a minute,
though" Caution put in a word here,
Chow about buying a ticket and chang
ing a ten dollar bill and SO on?"
Thof thought some time about this,
and at last decided it wouldn't do fol-
him to be seen with money in Diarmid,
He might walk to Springfield and take
the cars, but Springfield was only ter
miles away. The lost wallet had been
talked about there, and he might gel
himself into trouble. Well, then, what
should he do? "Wait a little" said
Caution; "you've got your money,
What's your hurry? Wait till people
forget about it."
"All right; I'll wait then," said
Thof.
The night was getting on. The clock
struck twelve. Up to this time he had
been wildly happy. No more cold, mol
hunger, nor hard knocks. Plenty Of
clothes, and food, and kittens, and conf
fort. This was what the money meant tc
Thof, you know. Presently he felt him
self grow quiet. Then something walked
up inside, and said,-
"Better take the pocket book back to
the squire, and claim the hundred-dolla'
reward"
"Hush up !" answered the boy. 81
sh'd be o Jolly fool to take one hundred
dollars when I've got fve."
81 know you've got it," the some
thing-we will call it Conscience -
more awake; but is it your money /
Isn't it the ~squire's money
"No, faint the squire's money!" re.
piled Thoff, stoutly. "He lost it. and
then 'twasn't his'n. I've found it, n
now it's mine, n I'm going 10 keep it.
So that's the end of it."
1t wasn't; it was the beginning of it.
The wal had just broken out. The same
battle between Thof and his conscience
had to be fought over again for every
cent of that five hundred dollars. The
boy considered that he beat conscience
in every engagement, but somehow she
wouldn't stay beaten. She came UP
fresh and CHEEKY every time, till finally
but there are two or three things tc
be told first.
Thoff's great trouble was where tt
put the wallet. He dared not to carry il
about with him. If he hid it up oyel
the bridge some n might find it, fol
the school-boys all knew the secret O
his retreat. Finally he decided OF
wrapping it in a piece of brown paper
and sliding it under a stone at the bas'
Of n of the piers of the bridge.
This he did, and then went off tx
school and spent the time in an agon.
of fear lest something shonld happen t.
rob him of his wealth. What if a SOUR
rel should happen to carry it of, o
q musk-rat out of the river? What i
the great dam at Millington SHOULD
break, and the flood come down and tax
away bridge, and piers, and hidde1
treasure?
Thoff thought of it until he was sur
he heard the roar of the water sweeping
down. What he really heard was tn
teachers stern "Skelton, take you
place in the spelling-class !"
All through the spelling a voice in
side was saying, over and over: "You'r
q thief / you're a thief !" 'sYou hush up
T amt a thief, I tell you," he said, il
answer.
You see a boy may have money an
yet be a miserable boy. Thof foun'
this out that day, and he found on
another thing.
He had lost his hat -band.
Now the loss of an old strip of blu
cambria is no great affair, especially t
a young man of means, but this Sc
Thoff to thinking. He wondered if b
had lost it on Spruce Hill.
"Look here, you Tom-Ted-what'
your manifestation ?"
The. squire had driven up and stoppe
Sis horse near Thof on the bridge on
Ihing. The boy glanced upaad ms