Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-05-18

the decline of the dish in the center o.
the table, he said with an air of grea
pentility: ga little more of the beans
If you please; see they are going very
fast"
But the carnal and natural mar
most strongly asserted itself in Mr.
Greenleaf in the matter of tea. He
had truly Chinese appreciation of that
cheerful beverage, and, like China
man, thought that nobody knew how tc
make it but himself. The process was
simple enough when Mr.. Greenleaf
had "fair field" but in my mothers
kitchen was wont TO dwell a genius
who made the concoction of his favor.
| tie drink a burden and a trial to Mr..
Greenleaf's soul. With him the "time
and the hour were everything; but,
unhappily, he alwayes chose the hour
which was also everything to Aurilla
Mr.. Greenleaf, with an eye to brevity
in boiling of his tea, always wanted to
make it precisely five minutes before
the dinner hour; Aurilla, with an eye
to the nice preparation of vegetables at
that tire, in critical stage of develop.
ment, objected to this procedure with
a determination as invariable as Mr..
Greenleafs own. But whoever was
victorious in the struggle thus involved
whenever Mr.. Greenleaf wanted to
make tea scientifically, the contest it
self was interesting to observe. Mr..
Greenleaf was always deprecatory,
silent, but persistent; Aurilla was ire
mendously aggressive, and inclined to
offensive warfare. But, be it said to
the credit of cunning, Mr.. Greenleaf
usually won the day, no, the stove
while Aurilla and the vegetables came
off very much overheated.
Our friends itinerate ways had bred
In him habit of carrying all his DOS
sessions in bags, and these he refused
to have made of any other material
than green cambria. He also laid
great stress on that point of uniformity !:
their shape must be oblong, though
rather wide, and they must have
capacious mouths at the tops. He
would, L think. have challenged any
person to single combat who should
have suggested different plan. But
one thing about them was indefnite.
and that was their number. Every
new possess on demanded fresh bag.
He had very large one for his over
coat, moderate sized one for his vest.
and diminutive one for his thimble:
for he made all his bags for himself.
suffering the interference Of no femi-
nine hand. At first used as a conye-
nient means Of transportation, these
cambria shapes came at last to be al
most as much mania with him as
his grammar. Perhaps it was from
carrying his manuscripts so much in
bags that be came at last to regard the
connection between them and his
work IA something vital. Certainly
their number would have warranted
extreme opinions. 1 think moreover,
that he knew where they all were at
one time, but dropped them here and
there as he travelled, happy if his
journeys end brought him to a pre-
vious deposit of his beloved green
bags.
AS for his grammar, it never seemed
much nearer completion than at first;
although now and then he published.
in an abbreviated form, sort of per
cursor of what would follow when his
anxious labor should be at an end.
Did he purposely delay their end,
recognizing dlmly that even possible
fame would not take the place of the
work for which he had sacrificed every
other passion of his life? At any
rate, he still wrote, and travelled; was
still familiar, if exceptionable figure,
in his circuit of hundred miles or so.
Years only added emphasis TO the
oddities Of his nature, and numbers TO
his bags. He grew daily more sensi-
tive TO offers of charity, and more
restlessly industrious in his pointless
work.
His personal aversions, ALWAYS
marked, were now often ludicrously
prominent. But strangely enough, as
he approached the end of his life. the
studied reserve which had al WAYS
made his nature a mystery, seemed
threatening to desert him. He said
sometimes that there was something
which at the proper time, he should
like to communicate" but too urgent
responsiveness only provoked him to
answer that cat present his attention
was occupied with other matters"
and as if his instinct of confession
were harbinger of the time when
Old Greenleaf must make his own con-
tession, his restless life was, indeed.
now drawing to its close.
The household with which he hap
pened then to be staying found, one
winter morning, that Mr.. Greenleaf
had died quietly in his bed. Fortune
favored his within of independence to
the last. In one of the pockets of his
coat was found money enough to pay
his funeral expenses, and in three DAYS
the only lasting impression which
Charles Greenleaf had left on humani-
ty was an uneasy sense, among his
former benefactors, that something
ought to be done with his old papers
and his pathetic old coats and hats.
But his bags gradually took their plac-
eS in neglected Qarrets- and Uero coon