New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-12-05

And then came the man who had
mortgage on the place. grim, square,
business-like parsonage, who chewed a
cherry tree leaf as he talked, and had a
particularly aggravating way of half
closing one eye.
Cant pay it?'' said Mr.. Bliil. ..But
it runs out in October, and I was led to
believe it would be paid up promptly"
II was a-calculatin' to pay it" said
Simeon Chudwell sadly. ''But I've had
such bad luck.
eve don't allow for no such thing as
luck where business is concerned" said
Mr.. Blifl.
''Couldn't you give me another year?"
said Simeon imploringly.
"Well, no. said BlitiI, still masticat-
ing the cherry-leaf ''The fact is, Mr..
Chudwell, I've got better investments
for my money than six per cent. mort
cages. Capital is capital, nowadays!
And moneys worth its face value.''
''Well, I'll see what I can do said
Mr.. Chudwell with sinking heart.
He did. But, so far as his vision ex-
tended, nothing could be done. And
SO he sat and waited grimly for fate to
do its worst.
Not the least of his griefs was the
being compelled to sit, like superan-
uated old man, at the window, and see
Joseph Fielding's strong arm doing
what he had been wont to do, Joseph
Fielding's brain planning out the work
which he alone had hitherto had the
charge Of
You're such master hand at work,
Joe," he said one day in the bitterness
of his spirit, II wonder you lower your
self to hire out. should suppose you'd
got enough money laid up to live on
Independent
''Oh,' said Joe mildly ignoring the
| sarcastic sting of the remark, II have
got little. I'm one of the kind, you
know, that's always lookin' forward to
a rainy day. And I don't mean to be
caught without an umbrella.
But on this especial day it seemed to
him that Joseph Fielding had heaped
up the measure of his offences, in this
matter of the tiger-lilies, past endur-
ance.
''I'll teach him." said Mr.. Chudwell
to himself. .And I'll teach her too.
Tiger-lilies, indeed!'
/ How he contrived to limp as far as
the front porch, he who had not left
his armchair without help for weeks, no
one knew. But when Tiny went out to
look at her tiger-lily roots that evening,
just between daylight and dark, the
ground was all plowed and riddled, as
if some infuriated beast had torn it
| with its hoofs. While the lily bulbs,
withered by the sun and torn apart, lay
scattered wildly about.
''Who has done this?" she cried with
a gasp of grief and terror.
II did?' defiantly answered Chud-
well, looking up from the newspaper
he was reading by the light Of the
lamp. "With my stick! I'll have
none of this posy and tiger-lily bust
ness on my farm, and you and Joe
Fielding may as well understand it first
| as last. 2"
Poor Tiny! Well, what else could
she have expected Had it not been
80 all her life longP
The summer went by, and Tiny Chud-
we'll had no tiger-lilies blossoming
by the door-stone. Yet Joe Fielding
always kept a tall stalk of the vivid
Orange-flowers in the broken tumbler
on the sink, where Tiny washed the
dishes.
$50 Blifl has sold the mortgage,
said. Mr.. Chudwell, one day, with a
strange working of his thin and wrin-
killed. lips. ''Well, I don't know as 1
could have expected anything different
of him. But I would like to know who
has bought it! No man likes to have a
trap sprung upon him unexpectedly.
They needn't think I'm going to make
them any trouble, though.
''Tm ready to move into the little
house at Flinn's Corners any day re-
ceive legal notice. Though 1 little
thought, when [ borrowed. that two
thousand pounds, it would ever be fore
closed on me like this!''
"Well,' y said Joseph Fielding, who
had come into the house to get new
buckle for the harness he was mending.
II don't calculate the new mans going
to be SO dreadful hard on you, squirrel"
'Do you know him?' said 'Chudwell
sharply.
..Do 1 know him?" repeated Fielding.
Like a book! And he says you're
kindly welcome to live on here all your
days, just as if there hadn't been no
mortgage on the place, so long as you
don't object to his moving into the
other part of the house. !"
'What!" cried Chudwell.
Father, father!'' exclaimed Tiny,
flinging both arms around his neck,
''it's Joe has bought the mortgage!
And we are engaged to be married.
And he has decided the place over to
me. And you are to stay here always
always, father!''
II don't deserve this,' said the old
man huskily. II hain't been pleasant
to neither Of ye. But with sudden
brightness coming over his face, "Pd
rather owe the money to my own chill
dren than to anyone else"
Joe came and sat down on the table.
Tiny brought her knitting to the foot
stool close by, and thus they discussed
the new future which lay before them.
And Chudwell, strangely softened, laid
his hand on Tiny's dark brown head.
'sTiny,'' said he, ''I'm sorry about
them tiger-lilies. I've been sorry ever
since l dug 'em up
"You needn't worry, SQUIRE" said
Joe cheer1ully. 'lVe set out row OF
new bulbs all the way to the arbor in
the garden, and lot of rose-bushes
ready for the spring blooming, and a
hardy magnolia-bush. Tiny shall have
all the flowers she wants, God bless
hertz
And Tiny, glancing with shy happi-
ness into her lovers face, felt that the
blossom-time of her life had just begun,
while Mr.. Chudwell, musing in his old
chair, was beginning to wonder whether
it was just possible that he might have
been mistaken all these years about his
theory of life and its accessories.
''P'r'aps the young folks are right,
he said to himself. Eyes, it's very pos
sible that they may be right. I'm
wrong, anyhow that's certain