Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-02-07

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money, and thought he would get it
off this out-of-the-way property. So
he asked me to sign away my third.
and did it. Inever did know much
about business you see, and I'm sure /
never supposed that putt ng down my
name to thas bit of paper would make
any difference Mr.. Grumbledon dined
with us. | remember him very well.
A tall, bony man, with thin lips and
nose like hawks. Very ill-bred
ate with his knife A miserly fellow, i
should Judge, and not the kind of
man to be bit Welding in money
matters. But. my dears, what shall we
do?n helpiessly,
We were all too bswildered to sug-
gest any plan just then. 1t did seem
very hard. now that we were just get
ting on, to have this new trouble. At
last Ruth said, in voice which she
strove hard to make cheerful:
"Come, don't let us look SO blue!
We'll pull through somehow y
. But four hundred dollars! +"
groaned.
1T isn't so great a sum, after all.
The mean part of it is to have to pay it
out when we thought We didn't have a
debt in the worldn'
'.Well, we have hundred and thirty
three dollars to start towards it, said
Agnes. '.And then this terms salary
will be fifty more
s'And Mrs. Rogers owes for that
twenty pound crock of butter,' Aunt
Betsey observed.
well, the long and short of it is that
we shall have to make about two hum
dred dollars in six months. We've got
to do it, solemnly. eve must cut
down every expense.
And SO the summer wore away in
hard work and self-denial, for, on
counting the bills and coins in the old
gray stocking, we found that we had
at last the requisite sum. And in three
days the mortgage would be due, and
on the morning of the day Ruth was
going down to the city to pay off the
dreadful burden.
But how we did worry over that
money! For fear it would get stolen,
you knowi We were very foolish, for
everybody knew we Were poor, and not
at all likely to have so large sum
about us in our humble dwelling. But
our alarm was mainly caused by the
fact that there had been of late several
| daring robberies committed in the
neighborhood
Lawyer Griggs, down at the village
| had his house entered and large
| amount of money abstracted. Mrs.
Peters gold watch and Widow Par
sons earrings were also taken. Anoth-
er night the thieves broke into the
house of Mr.. Elias, the mill proprietor,
while he and his wife were away alta
party, and took a rich silk dress and a
set of furs. Smaller robberies were
co lstantly taking place, such as spoons,
preserves, poultry, clothing nothing,
in fact, escaped the hands OF the preda-
tory rascals. The universal opinion was
that there was a gang of them who
came up nightly from the city. There
was talk, too, of their selecting various
/ houses and making certain mark on
the door or gate-post.
'.Yes, they do make mark-regula1
tramp STYLE said Miss Tabitha Tuck
| er, the village dress-maker, to Ruth
/ and me, when, one day, we had stopped
/ in her shop to borrow a pattern. II
seen the mark myself on Miss Perkins
gate-post. 1t was a great big X. II
wa, when went over to cut out heI
new polonay. My dress ketched in the
| gate-latch when went in the yard, and
as / stopped downto get it out my eyes
lit on that ere mark. and says to my
self, says I, I wonder what that $ fur?
but furgot all about it when | got uI
to the house, cause Miss Perkins little
Tommy was jest took with an awfu
| nose-bleed, and everything was in 9
hubbub fur one while. But that night
sure enough. Miss Perkins cellar was
broken into and two dozen jars of pre-
scry, s-best kind of sass, pu. dowr
pound fur peund-was sto'en. And 6
quarter OF beef taken out of the pickle
too! Tell you what, folks has got tx
/ keep lookout for marks nowadays
You'd better take care, Ruth, you Nv,
in sech a lonesome place.
/ We laughed at her warning; still,
think we all felt little bit timid, anC
I'll venture to say that after this there
was not one of us who did not occa
sionally examine the gate-pos $.
And at last, sure enough, on tht
morning before Christmas jamie cam,
running in, her black eyes wide will
excitement, as she exclaimed:
..Oh, girlsr she cried, '.there's {
mark on our gate-post- truly there is
A great white chalk X.n
At this we all rushed out of tn,
house, Aunt Betsey even leaving hel
pancake griddle with batch of cakes
on it, and ran down the frozen path t.
view this new and startling discovery
And thereit was, sure enough!
big white x, freshly made, too!
! ''Well,n said Ruth, after we hat
stared while at it, sits lucky WI
/ have seen it, for now we can be oil
our guard. But, for goodness sake
don't say anything to mamma about it
She would be so frightened that She
get one Of her low, nervous spells.
.sShall we have the constable com
over?r asked Aunt Betsey.
s.No'' said Ruth, deiiantly. ''Fo
YOU see this mark may be nothing, afte
, all; passing school-boy may hav
. scratched it on the post. And if w
were to make fuss about it, and sen,
for an officer, and nothing should hap
pen, why we should be laughed at lik
everything. No; | guess we can tax
care of ourselves; there are enoug
of us.
That's sot' Aunt Betsey exclaimed
Touring the pancake-turner which a
this time she had held in her hand
IF them burglars come we'll jest CIV
J them fits.''
OF course we were in flutter of e,
citement all that day. When night
cold, cloudy, windy night-set in, "
began to make preparations for on tt'
tense. Every door and window was $,
curely fastened. A pile of tinware W.