Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-06-22
CHE Sturv Teller.
GRAND MOTHERS MONEY.

doin' 20 demanded Farmer Martin, IN great
amazement as he came in at the Kitchen door
for Jug of moIasses and water.
+tI'm cleanin' house." said Mrs. Martin.
If Mrs. Hosea Martin had been going to a
masquerade party she could scarcely have dis
guised herself more Systematically. Her head
was tied up in a roller towel, whose end, es-
Gaping behind, ''streamed like meteor to the
troubled air, her portly figure was incased in
acoarse working apron, her skirts were pinned
up and her sleeves rolled high above the elbow
ssDidn't know ye calkelated to commence
to-day" said the farmer.
s'Well, 1 didn't exactly" owned his wife.
''But the minute your mother made up her
mind she'd have the horse ard wagon and go
over to Deacon Trudge's Widows to spend the
day, made up my mind to begin house-clean-
in. You see, Hosea, you know yourself that
Mother Martin is pleasant old lady, and set
deal of store by her, but she can't bear to
have nothin' disturbed, and them files Of old
papers up in the garret, and heaps of rusty
tins and old bottles down in the cellar, and the
broken crockery back of the pantry door, that
she always says she's going to mend when she
gets time, and the barrels of rags in the store
room she's goin' to sort over in minute OF
leisure"
'What be you goin' to do with 'em ?" asked
Farmer Martin, as his wife paused to draw
long despairng breath.
They're gone J" said Mrs. Martin, with
roguish twinkle in her eyes.
"Gone where 20
matilda sold the rags to rag-man before
grandma's wagon was out of sight" said the
enterprising matron. The papers Elder Box
ley gave me FIVE dollars for, cause they dated
back to President Zach Taylor's times, an he
said they'd be curiosity for the Young Mems
Reading Room. Much of curiosity, indeed!
And the crockery and the old tin cans and the
bottles, as amt good for nothin' under crea-
tion, gave Bill Belts quarter to take em
down to the old well, by the stone fence, and
fling 'em all in."
'What |" cried Mr.. Martin. "Fillin' up
my old well, eh? Where be goin' to water
the cattle dye s'pose ?"
''It amt but a little further to the brook" :"
said Mrs. Martin, who was one of those bust
ling, authoritative females, who are law un-
to themselves. "And that we'll amt safe.
Never was, since the curb rotted away ~
'sMany the gourd-shell of pure cold water
I've drunk there, when the old house stood
close by, under the butternut tree," said the
farmer, with sigh, ''afore we pulled it down
and built the new one"
"Well, We won't never drink no more"
said Mrs. Martin. ''The waters most all run
out since we dug the new well down here, and
I've had the children carrying cobble stones
there all the spring, at penny hundred, to
get the huckleberry pasture cleared out a little.
And now the old truck has gone atop OF it
and d good riddance to two bad things at
once, says I!'
Mr.. Martin groaned.
''Well, MOTHER" said he, ''you always did
have your own way, and you always will, l
s'pose. But what bothers me is-what will
Grandma say ?"
81 don't s'pose she'll be pleased" said Mrs.
Martin, stirring vigorously at the pail of
whitewash. "But it's done, and it can't be
undone, and, after ALL what is the use OF turn
ing ones house into magpie's nest 20
The farmer filled up his jug, and retreated
to the remotest Businesses of the timothy
meadow, resolved to be as far as possible out
of the way when the old lady came home.
''Hetty likes her own way" said he. "And
so does mother. And when flint and steel
comes together, there's most generally fire ~
But poor Mother Martin came home in quite
different fashion from what they had expect
ed Struck down with apoplexy at the neigh
boris house, she was carried back across her
own threshold-dead!
And Mrs Martin, who, in spite of their mu-
tual peculiarities, had been fond of her moth
er-in-law, wept real tears of genuine grief, and
audibly rejOiced that Grandma had never
KNOWN dDOuC CUe SelllS vi lHe Olti pttpelS, dllll
the filling up Of the ancient well.
So Mrs. Martin, senoir, was dead and buried
in the old cemetery on the mountain side.
''Strange, amt it 20 said Mrs. Deacon
Trudge. Everybody s'posed old Mrs. Martin
had money in the bank, and now there amt a
sign of it to be found ~
''All fooled away in them deceivin' shares
that her son Josiah was ruined WITH" said
Miss Grundy. "Unbeknown to Hosea and
his wife . That's the way it's gone, you may
depend -
But Mr.. and Mrs Hosea Martin could not
believe that Grandma could so far have lost
her senses as to fritter solid money away like
that. :.
GAS sure as you live, Hosea, y said the wife
s.she's nut it away somewhere In stocking
or a bag, or up a chimbly, or under the bricks
of the old kitchen hearth And 1t must De
found. For Matilda's sake Grandma always
said Matty was to have her money, and now
that she's engaged to Rufus Burton, ano
all-''
Its my private opinion, Hetty," said the
farmer, shaking his head in a sort of discour
aging way" that you sold that money, done
up in the rag bags -
s'Nonsense p said Mrs. Martin, growing
pale. "It might have been in the files OF news
papers, laid fiat and stitched down. I've heard
tell o. such things! And to speak the truth
Hosea, I've been to the Elders and looked
over every identical one of them papers, BY
good luck the package hadn't even been un
tied. But there wasn't nothln' there Dul
printers ink But the rags-oh, Hosea,