St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-03-29
Nicholas Harbour's Work.

-Harper's Weekly.
Nicholas Harbour's Work.
So far as l can learn, only one event
ever took place at Kerr's Ford. 1t hap
pened years ago, but it is the gossip of
the village to this day; you hear dark
illusions to it a tea-parties or the church
sewing circles, as to a legend belonging
to the far, outlying regions of iniquity !;
at the drug-shOps or about the stove at
the post office, however, it is openly
talked of when the magnates of the
village are assembled, and with lily
concealed pride. New York and Wash
ington may have their murders and gi-
gantic frauds; but Kerr's Ford, also
has had her mystery, her sensation
which with headlines, filed a column
of the county newspaper.
The whole story hinges on the ap-
pearance of Il stranger. Colonel Cald-
well, with the Judge, and Phipps the
undertaken, claim to have first seen this
man he was coming up the street as
they were sitting in front of Bryce's
store smoking their cigars after dinner
one October afternoon.
81 noticed the man, the Colonel is
wont to say. "1 he Judge, he had just
asked me about my pigs. 'Caldwell,' he
says, 'how's pork with you p and says,
Pretty fair, considerin' the scarcity of
chestnut mast'-( -(chestnuts failed entire
that year)-when | noticed this man.
Coming direct to us, crossin' by Hob
bes's grist- mill. Here's tramp
says. Not that tramps or strangers was
any novelty at Kerr's Ford. I'd seen
three go through the town that very
week, comm up from Coalport. It's a
regular sink of iniquity-that town.
But Fve a keen eye for character, and
| seen at glance this man was differ
ent from anything that even Coalport
could produce in the way of rascality.
'Twan't his clothes, though they might
have been his sleepin' apparel in the
gutter; an 'twan't his lean, shakin'
hands. Lots of men in our own town
is no better off till they've driven nail
in their coffins in the mOrnin'; and
'twan't that his cheek was yellow and
sunk like a corpse's neyther. Twas
his eye, sir. AS soon as | seen that fel
lows eye, says to Phipps, Here's Il
man would cut your throat for quarter
dollar. | can see through human ma
ture better'n most men, if l do say it,
The man, just as the Colonel pro-
nounced this verdict on him, stopped
by the curbstOne.
"There seems to be some kind OF
public excitement in your town." he
said, with hint of amusement in his
tone; "What is it 2"
ga church fair" said Bryce, always
civil to possible patron of the barre
of whiskey kept on tap at the back OF
the store.
Church fair ?" staring at the little
very new, very Gothic stone house al
the foot of the hill. "Religious com
munity here, | reckon? Pays thump-
ing salary? Good fat ground for q
young preacher to settle down in.
heh ?''
eyes," said Bryce. "Pretty fair sal
ary. Though our clergyman don't need
it. He has a good income of his own.'
"Oh! A good income ?" the man re,
peated with the same peculiar smile
"a rich man preaching the gospel for {
big salary. Yes"
The Judge turned sternly on him
Something in his voice and manner
made the men forget his squalid clothes
|
breaches the gospel, sir, because he was
called of the Lord to do it. Money
would be no temptation to him. He
belongs, | believe, to one of the wealth
lest families in Western New York-tht
Harbours."
"Harbour ?" with a sudden stride
to Bryce's. "Nicholas Harbour ?n
| - Oh l.
comes, by the way. You'd better come
in and take something" said Bryce un
easily. The clergyman was the EN-.
bodiment in his eyes of gentility as wei
as gOdliness, and he had no mind to bt
seen by him in company with his new
companion.
Clergyman, ell +? Good income p
muttered the fellow, watching til,
slight, black-coated Fl CURE as it came
alertly up the shaded street. "No, Fl
not go in; want nothing to drink
I've drunk too much already"
The men laughed as he skunk quickl,
away, going down an alley. 81 Offered
a guess" the Colonel used to say, wheI
telling the circumstance, "as to how
much liquor he had put out of sight in
the year, and told 'em he would Gu
any mans throat for 'levenpence. Bu
if I'd foreseen that he'd have upturnet
Kerr's Ford as he did--tOOk out th,
under-pinnings from the foundations, a
one might say-me aud Phipps, bein;
burgesses, would have made short worl
of him that very day."
The young clergyman came up tn
street with quick, buoyant step. Th
wind was bracing; the sky arched high
er to-day over this hill and river tla
he had ever seen it before; the distanc
, was vivid sunny blue. The villag
lay on rising ground, and stretches q
} autumn woods and rich, peaceful farm
+ sloped down from it on every side. Hi
| phuTch UaS naw and 6niSha1 oooorJ;,