Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1881-12-14
GILL PERKINS sEREEADs,

ItIL L'lslsS St-'-H''S''
Come, Uncle Bill, give rs another
story tonight something Of the days
when you wa' q young man and hunt
cd bears 0pl cleared up Your farm
know tlnt there l. more Of the same
SOY, we've. had, ia store in tha; head ol
yours
So said | one night MS ran up tc
the old qcn,lcnan's cottage to pass
away al evening and liston 10 IL story
TINT knew ] wa, surt t. got,
Wal,' said old Eli, hlchius bacl,
from the fire lho, roarcl like furnace
in the broad Fireplace aud making hi
position on The hearth decidedly ncom'
Portable, i knowcd what you was
aricr the moment | seed You coming
over the hill, and 50 | fell 10 ranMck'
ing my brains, and all at once it oc'
curcd to ,nc to tell you about my sere.
made.
not yours. or mine, b. II good
deal. Bill | never was such pcShy
fool as to have anything to do with
such scrapc MS that
No, Nancy, 'twant ours; but
cnll it mine because was the one thai
got it up, started the thing, you sec
sort Of Il ringlcadcr as The saying is.
And the more shame to you. Bill
It was bad enough TO be in that scrapc
wi,hou, taking the credit to yourself OF
gctting'it up
There, Nancy. don't say any more
if yc can't tel the truth. You know
when got home and told You abou
it that yon was ticklca nigh about tc
death. That screDadc beat anythin!
that ever happened in these parts. No
much like the carrying-on now-a-day'
when couple gets hiiched.
i suppose not Uncle Bill but hcav'
ahead with your story. I'm curiou
to know how you managed affairs il
those days.
Wal, ito begin at the beginning, i
was some half II dozen years artcr
Nancy and ! had set up for ourselves
that Ben Potter lost his wife. Bel
had moved up into these parts the mex
year arter | did, along with about
dozen other families. The next sprin:
there was a lot more come so at th,
end Of half dozen years we had quit
settlement here. Ben was always
wild, harrlm-scarem sort of a chap
and his wife had not been able to tam
him as Nancy had me; but they al
ways got along well together, anC
when at last she died, you never in al
your life see fellow take on as he did
lie declared that he would kill himsel
and be laid in the same grave with hi
Sally; and some of the timid ones was
really afraid that he would do it; bu
he survived the inflction, though he
did act mastery at the grave, an'
some folks was afraid that he woulC
Jump town in, and so they kept hole
on him and led him back to his cabin
which wan't but Il little ways from til,
burrying yard.
Wal for whole week Ben didn't dc
anything. He declared that his hear
was buried with his Sally, and that
he should never be the same chap h,
had been. Nancy here, believed him
but | didn't. knowed that he woult
soon get over it, and have another
wife before six months Nancy be-
lieved that | was a hard-hearted wretcl
to say so but was right all but the
time, for in Jest two months from the
day his wife was kivered up, Ben
married Polly Knot, widder woman
that had just come into the place about
the time his wife was taken sick. Wal
you had better believe folks talked some
about that TING, Nancy, here, declar'
ed that he was miserable scamp, and
that she was no better than she ought
to be, and atween ycn and l, and the
back chimney, l don't think she was
| y Il, al .l,