The Newtown bee., 1879-07-23

this class belonged Diah Beales. who wouldn't subscribe to anything if he could help it, but would lend his ears willingly to any one who would give gratuitous information, and looked upon Tom Kennedy as an encyclopedia pre- pared tor his especial benefit.
 Tom happened in one evening with his mind full ofa topic in which hel new Gbadiah would be interested, and W hich i'E Hetty's weekly letter, which he took out of the box on his way to Crowded. It's sure to come," said Tom, refer ring to the tidal wave. The signal service department has announced the fact, and will be able to give the precise day and hour when it will reach our shores"
 "Du tellr' exclaimed Obadiah, his under jaw dropping lower and lower as his interest and amazement increased.
 Yes" replied Tom, as anxious as any story-tctIer to make deep impress sion on his audience. There will probably be a great convulsion of na- ture, and 1t is anticipated that many islands that were once under water will be again submerged.n
 You don't say so n' said Obabiah, who admired Tom's way oftellinga story, though he couldn't understand half the words ne used.
 (Which way is it a-coming?" he in quired. "'Tain't right not to warn them that live on an island to get their goods and chattels together, an give 'em chance to get off with a dry skin. "
 "That's so,'' said Tom. Is there a map handy2"
 Shouldn't wonder. Mandy, hain't we got such a thing in the hOuse?"
 As what?"
 A map, We used ter hev one, I'm sartin sure"
 It ain't no good,n said Mandy, not willing that Tom should know that the rain had washed it so thoroughly it would be impossible to tell where the Gulf of Mexico began or ended, or whether the Mississippi river had not changed places with the Atlantic Ocean
 "Hll run over and get one" said Tom. " It won't take me d minute" and he was off like flash and back again be- fore he was thought to have accom- plished more than half the distance. He gleefully brandished an old and we'll thumbed copy of q school atlas.
 Therem he began, before he had half recovered his breath, ''you sec it's com ing due west, and will strike full tilt very likely knock it into smithereens.
 "Good Lordy" exclaimed Mandy just beginning to realize the probable situation of affairs, and the insecurity of real estate. ''Ain't there nothing to stop it? Why don't the folks go to work and build breakwater, SOS to keep the water from crowding where it's no business tO?"
 "Oh, bless you!n said Tom, " break water wouldn't do mite of good. Why when this tidal wave comes, it'll just hi har any spring freshet you ever saw"
 An it's coming due west?" said Diah. with his forefinger pressed tight " on the east end of Long Island, as if he would thus arrest the incoming of the great wave that threatened such q work of devastation.
 ''So they say" answered Tom, pleased with the interest taken in his bit of news. "Of course there isn't any cer- tainty about it, but it's just as well to be prepared for the worst"
 over this isIand?" said Mandy, as Tom took up his hat to go. "What'll be- come of us?"
 Wen have to take to boats, I reckon ,'' was the laughing reply, which met with no response from the friends to whom he bade "good-night."
 Obadiah Beales went about his work, but was even more taciturn than usual, so that his wife was heartily glad when Hctty MOriah came home for the sum- mer vacation. Whatever happened, they, would be together, and it did brighten up the old house to have a young girl in it who wore white dresses and blue ribbons, and had a world of romance in her heart.
 Father, what in the world are you going to do now?" asked Hetty, one morning in July, when Obadiah and his hired man were seen removing good-sized row-boat from the farm wagon and working it slowly toward the house.
 "Never you mind," said Obadiah. $ I know what I'm about"
 But, dear mel" continued Hetty, the house looks disrcputablc enough now; and with that boat in the fore ground the neighbors will certainly think we have taken leave of our senses.n
 Well. let 'em," said her father What do I care for the neighbors ?"
 Hetty wished that he cared little more for the looks of things. But as re- monstrances were useless, she went into the house to complain to her mother that father was doing his best to make the old house look just like a .junk-shop, and she was sorry enough she'd invited May Carol and her brother Sidney to spend a week with her during the vaca- tion." May was her roommate, and Sidney was making q collection of h. dian curiosities, and she knew Tom would show him where to find arrow heads and other relics, and do his best to make their brief stay agreeable. But if father was going to be queerer than eyer, and would persist in putting an old cellar door on the croquet ground and cluttering up the door-yard with what belonged at the back of the house, why, she would feel more like running away from than receiving her expected visitors.
 But the eye soon accustoms itself to oddities, and after few days the old boat ceased to be an unsightly object to Hetty Moriah, who found it necessary to have frequent talks with Tom Ken nedy in regard to the proper entertain ment of May and Sidney, whom she took pains to eXtol very highly that Tom