The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-06-05


hurt but yourself !" But he sent her
the piece Of cloth.
"Seems as if I hadn't gone to work
the right way with him In the first
place." said Mrs. Upton to herself. 81
ought to have stood rightly up tohim, and
put my foot down then!"
But she ven to work the right way
with her cloth, and cut, and skimped,
and pieced her cores. and picked up
her threads, and saw her rag-bag swell
with a heart that swelled too with hope
and satisfaction. She had looked at the
muslin that she meant to have down in
Rainey's store, thirty cents a yard; she
began already to see its luminous sheer
ness floating about her dear child's
pretty shape.
"Ah, Mr.. DUSTIN" she said, when
next the tinman came along with his
cart, chow are rags to-day? No higher?
And paper just the same, you say?
swell, now, Miss Upton, old papers
brings me just about the same's they
have this two year, excep' pamphlets
they're q cent an a half a pound. But
I'm a leetle expecting rags to rise.
.sYou are" she exclaimed, in joyful
accents, and thrust her bag behind her.
SHsYes; rags is sensitive. They feel
the affairs of men as if they was still
a-clothing of 'em. You let a gen'ral
Europefng war come on, and rags will
go kiting. It's sometimes an excellent
thing for the market if a plague or an
| epidemic breaks but in the East rags
60 up as if they knew it. That's odd,
now?" =
IT should say so. How do you ac-
count for it,"
"Well, / don knows l do account.
It's n of the mysteries, like the mys-
teries of tides. Pears as if rags could
feel. And you don't want a new dip
per to day? Got one "a good one;
thought of you when l slung it on;
block-tin, double bottom. No? Well,
another time, I reckon. I'll trouble
you, though, for a drink of water. if it's
handy" And he saw that she had
plugged the hole in the dipper with a
bit of a match, aud cut the ends Oh
smooth, and he knew there was a great
haul in reserve for him before long.
Poor Mrs. Upton saw that he had
seen it. "He's always getting the bet
ter of me- she said. eff I was some
women Ptwetmyrags till they weighed
like water!h But as she wasn't some
women she took it out in watching the
newspapers and trying to keep. up with
the in~extricable confusion of the foreign
news, hoping to be able to see the war
cloud in season for her rags; and il
ever woman prayed devoutly for an ep-
idemic in the East, Mrs. Upton was
certainly the n But then / doubt il
any woman over did.
Day by day Mrs Upton added to her
marketable store She did not go to
walk but she scuffed along a bit OF
paper in the street till, getting it where
she could secure it unobserved, to bring
home; she stole out sometimes in the
evening and tore down such of the adj
vertising bills and posters as were not
faithfully pasted, that she might by SO
much increase the sum of her revenue,
when she should be ready to call in her
treasurer. She tore certain old books
from their bindings, and even soaked
and looseEed the binding for what they
were worth. She went up in the attic
and ran her fingers through the bundle
of old family letters there. These her
mother had written her when she was
at school herself; these had come from
her dear father when he was last at sea.
No, she couldn't. These were hel
sisters letters; they told o; troubles and
sorrows and small wants. Well, they
might go. But then if Matte died they
they would be just as precious Is the
others: no. Still, she might die herself
and then who would care for themi
And they would be at any ones mercy
all the private things in Mattie's
She wasn't going to have that. She
never did approve of keeping family
letters-and there would be more a:
time went on. But if Mattie's went
she would have no Partially; all must.
All did.
Here vas another old trunk-old
letters, old deeds, old totes long paid
old account books of a hundred year
ago, papers showing were the old Tip
tons had gotten the better of the neigh
bors with whom they dealt, maps o
old farms, notebooks, almanacs
What conceivable value had they TO
anybody but Eddie Ochiltree? The,
might go with the rest; and go the,
did. And if any missing documen
that would have supplied the gaps il
the history of Captain John Mason, o
have touched a new point about Raleigl
or Sir Ferdinando Gorges, went int
eternal oblivion with them, Mrs. TiptoI
neither knew nor cared. What wa
Lanything of that sort besides the re
solve that her darling should not be pu
to shamep
That was great plumber; but of cours
that vas not enough. Let her gathe
whatever there might be. Straight
way, then, she cut down all her stock
ings, for one thing, and made then
, over, in order to throw the disearde
part into the common receptacle, leay
!, them long or short as it might; Their
was an old window curtain up-stair
that c to strips every time she washe
tit wasted thread to mend it-ths
!, might as well add its weight; tn
! fringes on most of the towels were rag
ged-she cut them of; there was a
I old hoop skirt, long abandoned, tn
I only one she ever had, and that ha
: carried her through the reign, of crir
Q oline -she cut away the tapes an
stripped the steels of their woven CO,
r erings, which perhaps weighed tn
e fiftieth part of a half-ounce. Anna
y copy-books?: Let them 90. And NJ
Tipton's love letters? MI. Upton hin
self had read them over not long since
and filed them, and for the time ha
felt rs if all their sentiments were b
Y still, and that he "a a very good hui
1 band because he had been a tendt
lover. They had caused him to plum
5 himself a good deal on his domesti
e virtues for two or three days, till h
forgot them. The bundle SCENE
heavier and bulkier than it used, bt
It then her husband had folded round an
e covered the letters, AID perhaps mad
e more of them that way. He had tie
e up some other old truck with them,
e any rate, maybe just to steady then
He'd never look at them again. B,
sides, they were her own; why shout
e she leave her love-letters for all til
d world to read? The love letters fo