Connecticut western news., 1881-09-07
THE MYSTERIOUS THIEF.
A New England Story.

In a certain rural district of New England with which the writer is ia miliar, it used sometimes to happen, il the spring of the year, that the farmers pork would be mysteriously missing from the pork barrels in their cellars,
 Each we'll. farmer salted down at least one plump hog every fall fol winters use, and most of them would, in the spring, have pork left over. But there were families who were not sc well-to-do-nearly always large ones the households of lumbermen, river drivers and wood choppers, and these sometimes exhausted the supply before spring. |
 Hunger, of course, is haad to bear the world over and when the well-to-do farmer came to shovel away the winter banking" from his cellar windows and outside bulkhead doors-none of which commonly had bars or locks on them there was opportunity for his poor and hungry neighbor to slip into the cellar by night and carry off pork and pota- toes; no very difficult matter in the dark nights of April, when the farmer and his sons were sound asleep after the first hard day's work of spring. "a.,
 Now and then, too, the farmer may have had less pork in his barrel than'he thought he had, and was led to suspect his poorer neighbor wrongfully. Nearly every spring Gas the writer well remern- bere) there were rumors of cellar thieves; yet singular enough, few ever resorted to locks often the old bulk head doors had not even hinges.
 During the spring to which my story relates, the usual hints of pork-theft had been circulating. Nor was it pork alone that was missed, for corn disap- peared, and even clothes that were left on the clothes lines over night.
 Particularly was one young fellows temper reused over the disappearance of his fine "boiled shirt" hanging out to dry for Saturday evening" 3, Cautiously enough one of the cuffs was found torn off and lying in the road little distance away. Not only had this fine and high. ly-prized garment been stolen, but it had been most unappreciatively mutilated.
 About this time another neighbor lost his whole stock of seed. corn, which he had set out in shed to soak over night in copperas water, it being his pet whim that the crows would not pull up corn thus prepared. The very same night, too, one of his bee hives was disturbed.
 The hive was found lying upset on the ground few yards from the shelf on which the hives were placed, the infer ence being that the thief, trying to carry it of, had found the bees too trouble some to accomplish his purpose.
 One or two persons pretended to have seen the robber, at least, to have had a glimpse of him in the night. He was a short, thick-set man, they said, in his shirt sleeves, and from the way he ran, they thought he had on heavy cowhide, or rubber, boots. res .es '. ,.4t. .sfe.
 At the writer's home we met with even worse loss. The previous spring we had bought four pounds of the Early Rose potatoes for seed, paying as high as dollar per pound. For at that time the Early Rose had but recently been propagated from the potato "ball, :" and on account of it's marked excellence over the Lapland, Peach blow, Christy and other degenerate varieties of potato, was in great demand among farmers, who wished to raise it on their farms.
 For these precious four pounds ot Early Rose seeds I recollect that my cousin George and I prepared piece oi ground with great care. Later on, we hood them faithfully. In the fall, we dug rather over bushel and half as our crop from the four pounds.
 These were put in box by themselves in the cellar and Nelly, the house-girl, and indeed everyone else, was particu larly charged and enjoined not to ge those for use during the winter; fo, every one of them was to be kept to seed the following spring.
 | Dub 4O 10 d AOuS bAI4o 1EOm OCUOD0r G( April and one day in March, Nelly for got. Going down cellar in hurry t, get potatoes to boil for the pigs, sh failed to discriminate, there being othe boxes and barrels of potatoes settinI about. The first we knew of the mis take, she had bushel of our Early Rose in the great kettle boiling smartly. l was too late to rescue them, and of n use to fret at poor Nelly, who felt badl enough; but we cherished the remain ing half-bushel with an almost religion care.
 On enc of the last days of April W brouget them up from the cellar in basket and set them out to sun that If to warm them so the "eyes," or germs
 would start, preparatory to plantin