Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-04-05


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 last'sad offices him
sell, and only a select few of his nearer
neighbOrs 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
grave was filed, he dismissed even these
cygrtlly, shut himself up in his cabin, and
dent that he was no longer in his right
mind.
His harmless alteration was accepted
and treated with a degree OF intelligent
delicacy hardly to be believed of 50
rough community. During his wife's
sudden and severe illness, the safe
containing the funds intrusted to his
care by the various benevolent asso-
Citations, was broken into and rob-
bed, and although the act was clearly
attributable. to his carelessness and
preoccupation, all allusion to the fact
was withheld from him in his severe
affection. When he appeared again
before the camp, and the circumstances
were considerably explained to him with
the remark that "the boys had made
it all right" the vacant, hopeless, unin-
telligent eye that he turned upon the
speaker showed too plainly that he had
forgotten all about it. "Don't trouble
the old man," said Whisky Dick, with
burst of honest poetry. "Don't We see
his memory'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 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 l 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
and awful ez the grave. And then that
dancer, Miss Grace Somerset, comes in,
and blame my skin, if the old man didn't
git to trembling and fidgeting all over,
as she cut them pidgin wings. l 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 at last that gal herself didn t
notice him and she ups, suddenly, and
blows him kiss-so! with her fingers p
Whether this narration were exagger-
ated or not, it is certain that old man
Downey every succeeding night of the
performance was a spectator. That
he may have aspired to be more than
that was suggested . day or two later
in the following incident. A number
of the boys were sitting around the
stove in the. Magnolia saloon, listening
to the onset of winter storm against
the windows, when Whisky Dick, tremu-
lous, excited and bristling with rain
drops and information, broke in upon
them.
"Well, boys, I've got just the biggest
thing out. Eff hadn't seed it myself,
I wouldn't hev believed it !"
"It amt thet ghost ag'in ?" growled
Robinson, from the depths of his arm
chair " thet ghosts about played"
"Wot ghost ?" asked a newcomer.
"Why, ole Mammy's ghost, that
every feller about yer sees when he's
half full and out late O. nights"
"Where?"
"Where? Why, where should n
ghost be? Meanderin' round her grave
on the hill yonder, in course"
"It's suthin bigger nor thet, pard,"
said Dick, confidently; "no ghost kin
rake down the pot ag'in the keerds I've
got here. This amt no bluff p
"Well, go on !" said dozen excited
voices.
Dick paused a moment, diffidently,
with the hesitation of an artistic rdcOn-
teaH.
"Well," he said, with affected delib-
Grafton, "let's see 1t is nigh onto an
hour ago ez l was down thar at the
show. When the curtain was down be-
twixt the ak, I looks round fer Daddy.
No Daddy thar! l goes out and asks
some O. the boys. Daddy was there a
} minnit ago, they said must hev gone
: home Bein' kinder responsible for
r the old man, 1 hangs around, and goes
out in the hall and sees a passage lead
! in behind the scenes. Now the queer
thing about this, boys, ez that suthin in
; my bones told me the old man is thar.
} [ pushes in, and, sure as gun, I hears
, his voice. Kinder pathetic, kinder
pleadin', kinder"
} "Love-makin'p' broke in the impa-
, tient Robinson.
: "You've hit it, pard,-you've rung
the bell every time But she says, i
: wants thet money down, or I'll -
and here I couldn't get to hear the
rest. And then he kinder coaxes, and
she says, sorter sassy, but listenin' all
the time, women like, ye know, Eve
and the sarpint and she says, III
see tomorrow. And he says, you
won't blow on me?' and I gets excited
} and peeps in, and may be teetotally
, blamed ef 1 didn't sec"
"What ?" yelled the crowd.
"Why, Daddy on has knees to ha,
there dancer, Grace Somerset Now,
if Mammy's ghost is meanderin' round,
I why, cts about time she left the GENE.
terry and put in an appearance in Jack.
sons Hall. Thet's all |"
, "Look var, boys" said Robinson,
rising, 81 don't know ez it's the square
! thing to spile Daddy's fun. I don't ob.
ject to it, provided she aint takin in the
J old man and givin' him dead away. But
ez we're his guardeens, I propose thai
we go down thar and see the lady, and
find out ef her intentions is honorable
If she means marry, and the old man
persists, why, reckon we kin give the
young couple send-off thet won't dis
grace this yer camp Hey, boys? ?"
It is unnecessary to say that the
proposition was received with acclama
ton, and that the crowd OF once departed