Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-28

Practlced hand; he could do all sorts Of
JOBS, from cleaning q watch to building
q chimney, but nobody saw fit to have
making or mending done. There had
been only four or five pieces of work
n fall for Tinker Pete. for none Of
winch could he in conscience ask o
man n1teen cents. His wife fell sick,
the children's clothes were too shabby
1or school, and just then some n
tapped him on the arm and tempted
| him.
One morning q stranger strolled into
town and stopped at Pete's little shop
to ask his way. He was travelling to
Southfield, so he said.
"Where had he been?"
"Oh, anywhere" airily and iauntily:
travelling about the country. Might
take up with work somewhere. IS I
find any worth doing.
"Hard times" said Pete, looking
moodily ut the little red stove. s.What'ss
your trader"
Give been a sailor" said the man
filling his pipe-a process Pete watched
greedily, for his w tobacco-box was
empty. "Twenty years before the
mast. | should have been q Captain be-
fore this time-but there's iealousies.
SO l got sick of it. I call myself a
landsman now"
"You don't have the look of sailor"
sad Pete, his eyes travelling from the
shabby fur cap and the dark face with
rather narrow bold black eyes down
over the shabby suit Of brown.
The man gave a slight start and
glanced at him keenly: "You don't
think so? Well, I've been on land
some time now. Salt waters easy to
shake off. What might your name be?"
"Haydon-Pete Haydon."
"And mines Job Whettles. Queer
name. amt it? Don't believe there's
another like it in the country. Good
day, mate. If I'm around this way
again FL look in on you."
And he did.
One day, as Pete was soldering q
milk-pail for Mrs. Burge, this time
wfistling a little, having work to whistle
over, the man came IN without warning
of rap or voice. y
Thought yop's twenty-five mile
away afore this" said Pete, playing his
iron. ''Take a seat"
"Things don't please me much over
that way" said the fellow, pompously,
again beginning to cut his tobacco, per
haps as a owe to his furtive chances.
81 may stay round here a spell. Per-
haps I'll do a bit of work on somebody's
farm"
"Canat get it," said Pete, briefly,
viewing his completed job with approx
al. "Ain't no Framework to be had
just now"
"Well, doing chores, I mean-Gght
work. I'm not particular how little I
do for my board" with u coarse laugh.
"Folks do their own work around
here" said Pete. "Some of 'em have
got money enough to pay, but they're
able-bodied, as it happens, and don't
want a hired man around in the winter"
"Seems a pity-don't it?-that things
cant be equally divided, so that you and
L could have u SHARE" said the stran-
ger, putting industriously at his pipe,
but not forgetting to watch the tinker.
81 should like to help myself to some-
body's pile; now, shouldn't you? Hon
estly enough, Of course, man. You
needn't jump. I mean, suppose the
young fellow that owns the big farm
over there - Poyset? should say:
'Whettles, take half my bank-stock, L
don't need it all; do you think 1 should
say mop"
OF course the tinker laughed at the
fanciful notion. He was Il sunny-tem-
pered fellow; it hardly needed a very
bright thing to provoke his mirth.
Where Whettles stayed at night was
a mystery. Sometimes Pete suspected
he might have slept in Il barn, he turned
up so tousled in the morning; often he
guessed that Toppan, the saloon-keeper,
had given him alodging,f from the fumes
that fingered about his shabby person.
He had money at times, for again and
again he treated Pete to q cheering
glass of whisky. Pete was not used to
frequenting the saloon; he did not in
the least approve OF it; but it happened
that about this time this evil bird OF
prey sought his company more persist
entity than did any more respectable
person. And Whettles was a sociable
fellow; he could tell more stories in half
an hour than any six of the honest
people Pete knew taken together. He
was, so Pete concluded, nobody's enemy
but his own. 1t would take more time
than you are willing to give, and a
deeper knowledge of mental intricacies
than 1 possess, to, detail the process
through which Pete was brought to the
point Of promising to creep into the
Poysett farmhouse and rifle the old desk
that stood between the sitting-room
windows. The grocer's bill was grow
ing longer, his wife was paler, and she
worried him by entreaties to let Whct-
ties alone and forsake Toppan's; the
aggregate Of such straws is not small.
The opportunity came, fitting the
mood IS exactly as if the mood had
made it. Frank Poysett was going to
Boston to meet John Wiley; the
''women-folks" would be alone.
"You take Poysett's," said Whettles;
''you know the lay of the land there;
and the same night I'll try Turner's,
over on the hill. Well meet somewhere
about one, down there under the big
elm. and divide. After that I'll make
tracks across lots and take q train
somewhere; nobodyll think of YOU"
Tinker Pete was equally sure OF no
boly.o c,,cnaotipr him He had ALWAYS