The Centre reporter. [volume] (Centre Hall, Pa.) 1871-1940, 1878-04-18

rejected by the old people, A certain
of late visible IN Daddy, and the in
crcasc Of much white hair and beard.
kept up the poetic illusion, while
Nanny, day 10y day, grew more and
more like somebody's fairy godmother.
An attempt was made by rival camp
to emulate these paying virtues Of reyer-
euce, aud AN aged mariner was procur-
cd from the Sailors Snug Harbor IN
San Francisco, on trial. But the unfort.
innate seaman was moro or less diseased,
Was not always prescntahle, through
weakness for ardent spirits, and finally.
70 use the powerful iiiom Of one Of his
disappointed tostrr.chi dren, "up and
died in week, without singing AIRY
bleSsin'.
But vicissitude reaches young and old
alike. Youthful Rough-and- Ready and
the Saints had climbed TO their meridian
together. and IL seemed tit that they
should together decline The first
shadow fell with the immigration 10
Rough-and- Ready Of a second aged pair.
The .andlady of the Independence Hotel
had not ahatsd her malevolence toward
the Saints, and had imported 1T consider
able expense her grand.aunt and grand
uncle, who ha4 been enjoying for some
years seQuestered retirement in the
poor-house Of East Machias. They
were indeed very old. by what miracle.
even as anatomical specimens, they had
been preserved during their long Jour
ney was a mystery 10 the camp. In
some respects they had superior meme
ries and "reminiscences. The old man
Abner Trix-had shouldered musket
in the war Of 1912, his wife, Abigail,
had seen Lady Washington.
Whether Il WAS jealousy, distrust or
timidity that oNercame the Saints. was
never known, but they studiously de-
clined 70 meet the strangers. When di-
rectly approached upon the subject,
Daddy Downey pleaded illness, kept
himself IN close Seclusion, and the Sun
day that the Trixes attended church in
the school-house on the hill, the triumph
Of the Trix party WIS mitigated by the
fact that the Downeys we're not in their
accustomed pew. "You bet that Daddy
and Nanny is lying low Jest 10 ketch
them old mummies vet" explained n
Downeyite. For by this time schism
ami division had crept into the camp;
the younger and later members Of the
settlement adhering 10 the Trixes, while
the older pioneers stood not only loyal
TO their own fayOrites, but even, IN the
true spirit Of partisanship, began 10
seek for a principle underlying their
personal feeling. al tell We what, boys,
observed Sweetwater Joe, Z" il this yer
camp is goin' 10 be run by greenhorns.
and old pioneers, like Daddy and
the rest Of Us, must take back
seats, it's time we emigrated and
showed ont, and TUX Daddy with
us. Why, they're talkin' of rotation in
offiss and Of putting that skeleton that
Ma'am Decker sets up at the table to
take her boarlers' appetites away-into
the post Office in place o Daddy" And,
indeed, there were some fears of such
conclusion; the newer men OF Rough
and Ready we're in the majority, and
welded a more than equal influence of
wealth and outside enterprise. " Fris.
60, " as the Downeyite bitterly remarked,
" already owned half the town. The
old friends that rallied around Daddy
and Nanny were, like most loyal friends
in adversity, in bad case themselves, and
were beginning TO look and act, it was
observed, not unlike their old favorites.
At this iuncture Nanny died.
The sudden blow for afew days seemed
TO reunite discovered Rough-and- Ready.
Both factions hastened 10 the bereaved
Daddy with condolements, and Offers of
aid and assistance. But the old man
received them sternly. A change had
come over the weak and yielding octO-
genarian. Those who expected to find
him maudlin, helpless, disconsolate,
shrank from the cold, hard eyes and
truculent voice that bade them "be-
gone, and "leave him with his dead.
Even his own friends failed 10 make
him respond to their sympathy, and
we're fain 10 content themselves with his
cold intimation that both the wishes of
his dead wife and his own instincts were
against any display, or the reception OF
any favor from the camp that might tend
10 keep up the divisions they had inno-
Gently GRATED. The refusal Of Daddy
to accept any services offered was
so unlike him as TO have but one dread
ful meaning The sudden shock had
turned his brain Yet so impressed were
they with his resolution that they permit
ted him TO perform the lastsad offices him
self. and only select few of his nearer
neiohbors assisted him in carrying the
plain deal coffin from his lonely cabin in
the woods to the still lonelier cemetery
on the hilltop. When the shallow
1. g.l.
curtly, shut himself up in his cabin, and
for days remained unseen. 1t was eyi-
dent that he was no longer in his right
mind.
His harmless alteration was accepted
and treated with a degree OF intelligent
delicacy hardly 10 be believed Of 80
rough a community. During his wife's
sudden aud severe illness, the safe
the funds intrusted 10 his
care by the various benevolent asso-
Citations, was broken into and rob-
bed. and although the act was clearly
to his carelessness and
preoccupation, all allusion to the fact
was withheld from him i'll his severe
affection. When he appeared again
before the camp, and the circumstances
were consideratey explained 10 him with
the remark that the boys had made
il all right" the vacant, hopeless, unin-
telligent eve that he turned upon the
speaker showed too plainly that he had
forgotten all about II. Don't trouble
the old man, said Whisky Dick, with
burst of honest poetry. Don't ye see
his memery's dead, aud lying there in
the coffin with Nanny" Perhaps the
speaker was nearer right than he imag-
ined.
They took various means Of diverting
his mind with worldly amusements and
one was visit to a travelling troupe,
then performing in the town.
The result Of the visit was brief
ly told by Whisky Dick. "Well,
sir, we went in, and / sot the old man
down in front seat, an d kinder propped
him up with some other Of the fellers
round him, and there he sot as silent
aud awful ez the grave. And then that
dancer, Miss Grace Somerset, comes in,
and blame my skin, il the old man didn't
git to trembling and fidgeting all over,
as she cut them pidgin wings. tell ye
what, boys, men is men, way down to
their boots-whether they're crazy or
not Well. he took on so-that I'm
blamed If Mt last that gal herself didn't
notice him and she ups, suddenly, and
blows him kiss-sol with her fingers T.
Whether this narration were exagger-
ated or not, it is certain that old man
Downey every succeeding night Of the
performance was spectator. That
K l. 1. huV