Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1881-01-29
SALLY Wages, OF DANBURY,

SALLY Wages, OF DANBURY,
By all accounts it was more than a
century ago that Miss Sally wages SO
astonished the people of this place that
they made the remark then, ana were
given to frequent repetitlOns or III AFTER
ward, that Sally Wages would have
made great stir in the world mad she
been a man. Whether 1T was In l!'O or
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. 1t was while
all the company was at this dinner tnat
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, dozen OF them Old and
young, forget the heavinesS that follow
ed their eating.
What Sally Wages then said, and what
she did for an hour or two thereafter, Is
a story that has been told in the old
Scribner mansion on the Lltchteld 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
held up and reverentially touched, as it
has been on hundred or more anniver-
saries.
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 sudden.
For her character, or rather her DISPOSE
ton, 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 of the dead.
and toll the bell for their funerals, and
to touch off the swivel on Kick hill at
auspiciOus moments. When he did not
do these things, he seemed to make a
business of partaking of rum or hard
cider, and it is said of him that there
never was time when he did not have
this failing, because it appears in the
old records of the town that about the
time when the capture of LOulsburg was
celebrated he went so much further than
his companions as to make merry on the
Lords day. This was more serious by
far than to be little merry on any 9TH
er 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 i'm 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 help to his
wife, and Mrs. Scribner used to say that
she was past dispute stupid in her
speech. and brisk about her work be-
yond comparison with any damsel there
abOuts. Ar4
There happened to be at the Thanks
giving dinner at which Sally made the
revelation of herself young gentleman
who was regarded as a man of parts,
and especially worthy iOf consideration,
because his father sent brigantine to
the West Indies from New Haven once
in while laden with goods, and brought
her back we'll filled with sugar and
rum.
This young fellow was thought to have
addressed more than one missive to
Squire Scribner's daughter, Jerusha.
At all events, he was friendly with the
family, and had tried his wit at a jest
with Sally 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 a jest. as he was COM
ing home from the Thanksgiving SER
mon, that he would make Sally Wages
say something that would astOnish them
that day.
"Ninepence ha'penny to a sixpence you
fail" said the Squire.
I'll win that, and wear the silver as a
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 others
smiled:
sally" he continued, perhaps little
irritated, would you 'trOth yourself to
me if / asked your"
Not till you won me-" she answered,
without seeming to be conscious of any
sharpness in the reply.
"And how could win yOu?" he perse-
vered.
by ngnIlHg Tell Itu Codlo az OuCt.
"Giye 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 esquire.
But the old gentleman refused 1t, and
thew had an argument about the merits
of the wager, that was so interesting
aud made such laughter that they mind
ed 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 thrown open
"Don't you hear them?" said sally
Wages. But as long as he lived squire
Scribner insisted that 1t was not sally
Wages who spoke, albeit he could not
DENY that her body was in the doorway
and that her eyes, even in the dusk that
the freight frightened, sparkled, and
her Inns moved