Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-11-28
SALLY WAGES, OF DANBURY.

By all accounts 1t was more than q
century ago that Miss Sally Wages so
Sstonished the people of this place that
hey made the remark then, and were
Jiven to frequent repetitions of it after
yard, that Sally Wages would have
made great stir in the world had she
been man. Whether it was in 1873 OF
a few years earlier is not SO certain as
that it was just as the pumpkin pie of a
Thanksgiving dinner had been eaten,
and the hickory nuts and hard cider were
brought from the pantry. It was while
all the company was at this dinner that
Miss Sally Wages said thing to the
people that made the grandfather look
very stern, and the son go for his gun.
and the others, y dozen of them old and
young, forget the heaviness that followed
their eating
What Sally Wages then said, and what
she did for an hour or two thereafter. is
story that has been told in the old
Scribner mansion on the Litchfield turn
pike over the nuts and cider at every
Thanksgiving night since, and the fresh
ness. and delight of it are always the same.
1t was told tonight again, and the faded
coat that Sally Wages wore was held lid
and reverentially touched, as it has been
on hundred or more anniversaries.
Now the wonder of it all seems to
have been that such damsel as this
young Sally Wages should have turned
such corner in her manner of life of q
sudden. For her character, or rather
her disposition, like her name, appears
to have been, up to the time she was
20 years old, very fiat. Moreover.
her father, old Timothy Wages, was Of
no more account in the community than
to be regarded as just the man to dig
the graves for the dead, and toll the bell
for their funerals, and to touch off the
swivel On Kick hill at suspicious mo-
pents. When he did not do these
Kings, he seemed to make q business of
nrtaking OF rum Or hard cider, and it is
aid of him that there never was a time
Ihen he did not have this failing, be-
ause it appears In the old records of the
OWN that about the time when the CAP
vAre of Louisburg was celebrated he
went SO much further than his compan-
ions as to make merry on the Lords
day. This was more serious by far than
to be little merry on any other day,
and they sent him to the common Jail
for three weeks therefor.
So, by reason of her fathers business
and position, and perhaps because of his
name, Miss Sally Wages had nothing to
commend her to anybody. And yet Of
all the girls in that day there was none
who could milk cow with her. nor
sooner find one that had strayed into the
woods. This doubtless led Squire
Scribner to take her into his family for
a help to his wife, and Mrs. Scribner
used to say that she was past dispute
stupid in her speech and brisk about her
York beyond comparison with any dam
lei Whereabouts.
There happened to be at the Thanks
living dinner at which Sally made the
jevelation of herself young gentleman
who was regarded as man of parts,
Ind especially worthy of consideration,
because his father sent brigantine to
the West Indies from New Haven once
in while laden with goods, and brought
her back filed with sugar and rum.
This young fellow was thought to have
addressed than one missive o'Squire
Scribner's daughter Jerusha. At all
events, he was friendly with the family,
and had tried his wit at jest with Sal
~ and came off sadly worsted, because
she said nothing to him, but only looked
at him with vacant stare in her brown
eyes.
He did not like being laughed at, for
he had vowed, as jest, as he was COM
ing home from the Thanksgiving ser
mon, that he would make Sally Wages
lay something that would astonish them
That day.
"Ninepence ha'penny to sixpence
you fail +" said the Squire.
"I'll win that, and wear the silver as
token" said young Lathrop.
So he said to Sally, as she brought a
pitcher of cider in and put it by the
'Squire's place:
"Sally, what would you do if you was
King George of England"
She looked at him only, and the 9TH
ers smiled.
"SalIy," he continued, perhaps lit
tie irritated, "would you 'troth yourself
to me if asked you?"
"Not till you won me, she answered,
without seeming to be conscious of any
sharpness in the reply.
AND how could Win you?" he per-
severed.
"By fighting ten red coats at once. -
"Give me the chance and I'll do it. ~
Sally quilted the room for the nuts or
some such dessert, and young Lathrop
demanded his silver piece Of the Squire.
But the old gentleman refused it, and
they mad an argument about the merits
OF the wager. that was so interastino and
made such laughter that they minded
not the lapse of time.
1t was getting SO dusk that the forms.
but not the faces, were visible, and the
Squire was for lighting the candles.
when the kitchen door was throw,
open.
"Don't you hear them" said Sally
Wages. But as long as he lived Squire
Scribner insisted that it was not Sally
Wages who spoke, albeit he could moi
beny that her body stood in the door.
way, and that her eyes. even in the dusk