The Portland daily press., 1880-06-23
Vacation Of Mustapha.
Delights of the Country Delicately Out
lined
IBurlinpton Hawkeye1

Now in the sixth month of the reign of the
good Caliph, it was so that Mustapha said: 81
am wearied with much work; thought, care
worry have worn me out; need repose, fol
the hand of exhaustion is upon me and death
even now lieth at the door"
and he called the physician who felt of his
pulse and looked upon his tongue and said:
"Two dollahs!" (For this was the oath by
which all physicians swore). "Of verify thou
must have rest. Flee unto the valley of quiet,
and close thine eyes in dreamful rest; hold
back thy brain from thought, and thy hand
from labor, or you will be a candidate fof the
asylum in three weeks" hsE
And he heard him and went out and put the
business in the hands of the clerk and went
away to rest in the valley of quiet. And he
wentto his Uncle Ben's, whom he had not
seen for 10! these fourteen years. Now, his
Uncle Ben was farmer and abode in the val
ley of quiet. And he was rich and we'll ia
vored, and strong as an OK, and healthy as an
onion crop. Oftentimes he boasted to his
neighbors that there was not lazy bone in
his body, and he swore that he hated lazy
man.
And Mustapha wist not that it was so.
But when he reached his Uncle Ben's they
received him with great joy, and placed before
him a supper of hOmely viandS well cooked,
ard piled upon his plate like the wreck of a
box car. And when he could not eat they
laughed him to scorn.
After supper they sat up with him and
talked with him about relatives whereof he
had never, in all his life SO much as heard.
And he answered their questions at random,
and lied unto them, protesting to know Uncle
Ezra and Aunt Bethesda, and once he said
that he had letter from Uncle George last
week. .r
Now they all knew that Uncle George was
shot in neighbor's sheep field three years ago
but Mustapha wist not that it was so, and he
was sleepy and talked to fill up the time. And
then they talked politics to him, and he hated
politics. So about one o'clock in the morning
they sent him to bed.
Now the spare room, wherein he slept, was
right under the roof, and there ears and bound
less ears of seed corn hung from the rafters,
and he bunged his eye with the same, and he
hooked his chin in festoons of dried apples and
shook dried herbs and seeds down his back as
he walked along, for it was dark. And when
he sat up in bed in the night he ran scytbe
in his ear. Z
And it was so that the four boys slept with
him, for the bed was wide. And they were
restless and slumbered crosswise and kicked so
that Mustapha slope not a wink that night,
neither closed he his eyes.
When about the fourth hour after midnight
his Uncle Ben smote him on the back and
spake unto him saying: .s
Awake, arise, rustic out of this and wash
your face, for the liver and bacon are fried
and the breakfast waiteth. You will find the
well down at the other end Of the COW lot.
Take a towel with you."
When they had eaten, his Uncle Ben spake
unto him, saying: Come, let us stroll around
the farm"
And ti,oy--,ualked abont eleven miles. And
his Uncle Ben sat him upon wagon and
taugh him how to load hay. Then they drove
into the barn and he taught him how to un-
load it. Then they girded up their loins and
walked four miles, even unto the forest and
his Uncle Ben taught him how to chop wood,
and they walked sback to supper. And the
morning and the evening were the first days
Mustapha wished that he were dead
And after supper his Uncle Ben spake once
more and said, Come, let us have some fun"
And so they hooked up team and drove nine
miles down to Belcher's Branch, where there
was hop. And they danced until the second
hour in the morning.
When the next day was come-which wasn't
long, for already the night was far spent-his
to make rail fence. And that night there was
wedding, and they danced, and made merry,
and drank, and ate, and when they went to
bed at three o'clock Mustapha prayed that
death might come to him before breakfast
time.
But breakfast time had an early start, and
got there first. And his Uncle Ben took him
down to the creek and taught him how to wash
and shear sheep. And when the evening was
come they went to spelling school, and they
got home at the first hour after midnight, and
Uncle Ben marveled that it was so early.
And he lighted his pipe and sat up for an hour
and told Mustapha all about the forty he
bought last spring of Moses Stringe to finish
out that north half, and about the new colt
that was foaled last spring.
And when Mustapha went to bed that morn
ing he bethought him of a dose of strychnine
he had with him, and he said his prayers
wearlly, and he took it.
But the youngest boy was restless that night
and kicked all the poison out of him in less
than ten seconds.
And in the morning, while it was yet night,
they ate breakfast And his Uncle Ben took
him out and taught him how to dig ditch.
And when evening was come there was
revival meeting at Ebenezer Methodist church,
and they all went. And there were three reg
ular preachers and two exhorters and a Baptist
evangelist. And when midnight was come
they went home, and sat up and talked over
the meeting until it was bed time.
Now when Mustapha was at home he left
his desk at the fifth hour in the afternoon, and
he went to bed at the third hour after sunset,
and he arose not until the sun was high in the
heavens.
So the next day when his Uncle Ben would
take him out into the field and show him how
to make a post and rail fence, Mustapha would
swear at him and smote him with an axe
helve, and fled and got himself home.
And MuStapha sent for his physician and
cursed him. And he said he was tired to
death; he turned his face to the wall and died.
So Mustapha was gathered to his fathers.
And his physicians and his friends mourned
and said: "Alas, he did not rest soon enough.
He tarried at his desk too long"
But his Uncle Ben, who came in to attend
the funeral, and had to do all his weeping out
of one eye, because the other was blacked half
way down to his chin, said it was pity, but
Mustapha was too awfully lazy to live, and he
had no get up about him.
But Mustapha wist not what they said, be-
cause he was dead. So they divided his prop
erty among them, and said if he wanted a
tombstone he might have attended to it him.
self while he was yet alive, because they had