The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-11-22

uIoNc OVcE UueT6 WIFI my WIG TWO
or three days before Thanksgiving to get q
chest of tools that one of my men had left,
and | got o to take us in and show us
over the house. 1t did look right down
homelike and pleasant. There was a great
open hearth in the front parlor and sitting
room, and the windows weren't much like
the old small-paned rafting affairs in the
other house.
''The house faced east and there were
great bay-windows in front, and there
was another in the south side of the sit
ting-room, so that the sun would lie there
all day long.
"But there were one or two things that I
noticed. There were a pair of tall, INT
parlor-the kind we call steeple-tops; and
1 thought I knew them, and so I asked
John where his brother got them.
"'Op said he, 'they have always been in
the front room at the old house, but George
rather wanted to have them here, so I
brought them over
"'I shouldn't have thought you would
have wanted to spare them,' said 1; they
were a sort of keepsake.'
"'Well,' said he, n he laughed a little,
what there is is owned between US, and [
suppose George thoughtthat the best things
would be more in keeping here.'
"Andthen l noticedthata an old-fashioned,
swell-front mahogany bureau and a tall
Dutch clock, and a number of other things,
that I knew he must nave taken pride in,
had been brought over, too.
$50 we saw the house and came away;
but driving home l couldn't get rid of the
feeling that I had had from the outset.
sit doesn't take much of a beginning,
when a man lives on d lonely farm, to make
hard feelings. A small vexation grows if he
broods over it; and 1 have seen more than
one.bitter lawsuit that's eaten up a farm
and made life-enimies, grow out of some
very trivial thing. You know the cloud
that was no larger han a mans n at
first, and how it blew up into a storm.
"There is a man in Vest Standish that
lives IN a lot adjoining his sisters, on the
main street, and he has just built a board
fence, forty feet high, or the edge of his
lot within a foot of his sisters windows,
and darkened them. That came from a
dispute about a hu~ndred-dollar legacy. He
wanted me to build the fence, but I told
him he must get some poorer man than I
was for that job.
"And this kept coming up before me;
what a chance there would be for a law
suit there, seeing that the land the house
was built on belonged to John as well as
George; 1 don know what made me think
of that then.
"Driving home that afternoon, I was
turning all this over in my mind, and 1
thought I'd see whether any such idea had
struck my wife; she is pretty level-headed.
Sarah said ], did you ever see a more
sit is a very convenienthouse,' said she.
alt must be a real pleasure said I, 'for
John Nelson and his folks to have George
settled in such good permanent shape right
by them.'
'"fYes, don't doubt it isl said she.
81 didn'ts say anything more, but talked
of other things; but l thought l should hear
something further, and sure enough, my
wife spoke up:
the thousand and one contrivances to save
steps, that they might have spared them,
just for a summer house, and put some of
them into the old house for An2a,'-that's
Johns wife.
into old bottles, you know said l. you
can't blame George for wanting a new
house to be built right up in shape
"'Mother said nothing to that, but just
as we were turning into the yard:
"tAt any rate,' said she, when I noticed
that what few handsome things there were
in the old house had been all brought over
to the new one, l did think that at least
George might have been content without
them.'
Thanksgiving came, and it was a lovely
day. Our main street runs along a ridge,
and in the late fall, when the leaves are
gone, you can look away off, behind the
houses, over the valleys and to the far hills;
and it is as pretty a sight as l want to see.
THAT day my two sons from the Falls
and my married daughter were coming
over, and there were going to be fourteen
children at the table and we were count
| lIS Oh d pTtUOy JOlly lllc alOcT uuc6bluS
1 drove over to the Flume for my married
daughter and her children-there was sick
ness in the family and she could only just
come to a two-o'lock dinner and then go
right back-and going home with them, by
the Nelson house, l saw George standing
out in front of the house. He hailed me
and said he was glad 1 had happened by
just then and asked me if 1 had time to
come in a few minutes-he would like my
daughter to come in, too.
EIN4I - ,~1aaEo hSrn rn --a-k T1,@
dinner was just being put on the table, but
we went through the dining room into the
parlor; and l couldn't think what was
coming when George gave us chairs and
called in his folks and John and his folks.
But / felt that something was going to hap
pen. So Georges he began:
"iSome things that have occurred he
said, have set me to thinking, and l want
them settled now and here.'
81 tell you, I began to be sorry enough
that | had come in.
"'This is my house, George went on, 'but
it stands on land that my brother and 1 own
together, and some day that might lead to
trouble.'
swell, I didn't know what was coming,
and it was still in the room as a funeral.
1--we made up my mind said George,
before my family and my brothers. ever
eat bread together in this house, to have
things settled in black and white; and it's
going to be done here and now,' said he.
W. UCllS q law Y LILY oCltY uC WtuUO jill
and at that word my heart went DOWN.
have drawn up a paper and he then took
out of his breast-pocket a large envelope
and handed it to his youngest boy, and
nodded to him; and the boy took it to his
Uncle John.
"Well, 1 just looked up at John. He
was pale as death. I never saw a man
more taken aback in all my days.
"But he opened the envelope, though his
hand trembled, and took out the document
| and nDanAd If If yv1S q hQQH nntripint
from George to him, of the new house and
all that was in it, as a free gift, and OF
Georges half-interest in the farm; and
George only kept his interest in the old
house.
$50 George he began to laugh, and he
took the deed and told what it was and
passed it around; but John, with his eyes
full of tears, hurried out of the room.
you see, Georges folks had kept it a
complete secret all the time the house was
building, till they sprung it on John SO al
at once.
swell, we shook hands all round, and
congratulated Johns wife, and she cried.
and we went off home and had our Thanks.
giving dinner; and you better Believe ]
enjoyed myself that day.
$50, ever since, George and his folks
have been down summers to the old house.
George says it's just good enough for a
summer vacation, and he likes to keep il
just as it was when he was a boy, only just
to keep it in good repair. And John lives
in the new onc.
"Of course it wasn't forty-eight hours
before everybody in town knew about the
present, and the surprise and all. And il
you were ever to visit for a few days, as
my girls sometimes do, at John Nelson's
house, and saw, every once in a while, 6
carriage slow up as it came by and some
body point out, and all LOOK out, as I said
to begin with, till they got clear by the
bend, you would know mat some one was
telling the story that 1 have just told you.
And l have a suspicion that it doesn't
does dearly love to tell the story himself
YOUTHS Companion.
Only a Burglar.
sfPleaSa mum - called tho chambo,