Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-03-26
OLIVES ADVENTURE.

~ Osh toSs ihoSo-liiHStu anu OuOFOuS,
OF the scented leaves, among which it
had lain all the autumn time, upon the
blazing fire. ssIn the first place, we We
got nothing to steal-and in the second
place, if we were all murdered, can't
see any particular good it would do
anybody. So calculate we may sleep
quietly in our beds. .
"Yes-but father, said Mrs. Jaynes-
ford, with an anxious look (she was a
modern Martha, numbered with many
cares, this angular, Woodworking, vel
low-faced farmers wife); Il really
think you ought to get an extra bolt on
the back door, and never did think a
hook and staple was safe thing for
the little hall door. If there is a gang
of burglars and murderers going
through the country
And Olive Morrison, the little lame
school-mistress. who happened that
week to be boarding. at Farmer
Jayncsford's, moved her seat instinc-
lively closer into the angle of the CHM
ney corner, and lifted pair of large,
gray eyes toward the good-humored
face of the host.
HFiddlestick!" calculated Mr.. Jaynes-
ford, 81 keep loaded rifle and old
Towser has throat like trumpet,
and | guess if they come here they'll
clear out again pretty quick. Anyway.
I'm not afeared of EN-.
There is such a thing as foolhardi-
ness, Jothamr' said his wife senten-
tiously. as she stirred the batter for the
mornings griddle-cakes in SQUAT
stone jar with high-shouldered handles
on either side.
Olive Morrison went to her room that
night, in fear and trembling. after hav-
ing set up by the family fire as long as
she could possibly find any excuse for
so sitting up and lingering. She was
a soft-eyed, rosy-complexioned little
thing, with a tender, tuneful voice-a
girl who would have been very beauti-
full. were it not for the paralysis of one
limb, which made it necessary for her
to walk with crutch, and somewhat
dwarfed her natural height. Every
body liked Olive.
The parsimonious opened their hands
to her simple ds-the.churlish grew
almost courteous hard-hearted in
stinctiyely softened, and those who be-
lieved in the hopeless deprayity of
human nature, made an exception
in favor of Olive Morrison. Even
the riotous, rebellious young horde
of the district school were more
malleab,e, by far, under her gentle
rule than they had been under that of
the male teacher, who had Just re-
signed his position in despair
As she stood before the glass UNI
braiding the brown, shining strands Of
her long and luxuriant hair Mrs. Jaynes-
ford looked into the room.
ats a sharp, frosty night, Miss
Olive" she said: hadn't you better
have an extra comfortable on your
bedp''
Il don't think need it, Mrs. Jaynes-
ford, said the girl. "But do-do you
really think there is any danger of our
being robbed and murderedpn
Il only know what I've heard, there
bcin' gang o. lawless fellers in the
country Mrs. Jaynesford answered
with sort of gloomy satisfaction in
the prospect. ''And don't know why
they shouldn't come here as well as
any place; faint likely they know we
hain't no silver, and lothian keeps all
his money in the county bank Towser's
very well, but I've heard o. better dogs
than he is, bein' settled by dose of
poison, and I'd like to know what good
Jotham's loaded rifles goin' to do ms,
arter he's had has his throat cut from
ear to ear in his sleep!'
''Oh, Mrs. Jaynesford," shuddered
Olive, the brush falling from her ncr-
vous fingers! II can't stay alone to-
night-will you send Bessie to sleep
with me?n
But in spite of little Bessie Jaynes-
ford's peaceful breathing at her side,
Olive Morrison could not go to sleep un-
til midnight, and when at last few
snatches of capricious slumber visited
her eyelids, it was embittered by fright
full dreams of black-crape-mask bur-
glars standing at her bedside, and pis-
tolls presented close to her eyebrows.
..Pshawr said Olive to herself the
next morning, as she viewed her pale
face and swollen eyes. 81 am goose
and I'll be one no longer. What
good could any one gain by hurting a
poor lame girl like me. | don't be-
lieve there are any burglars around
and if there should be, don't believe
they will come to Farmer Jaynes-
ford's.n
But the walk was long and lonely,
and when Olive reached the fallen tree,
just beyond the rocky spring, where
the school children always stopped to
drink, she sat down on the trunk of a
fallen tree, to rest a little, ere pursuing
the remainder of her weary way.
As she did so, the sound of human
voices reached her ear--the gruff, low
voices of two men talking by the spring
beyond. Olives heart Stood still, as
she suspended her breath, in order to
listen! Who could they beP What were
they doing there at that hour? Should
she scream and fly. or should she trust
to her dark dress and the obscurity OF
the twilight to screen her from dis
coveryP She-chose the latter alterna-
tive, and shrank further into the deep
shadow of the withered beech copse.
"a brown house, said one man,
with a big chimbley in the middle and
new stun wall round It'll tell yer
you can't miss it..
A new chill of terror crept through
Olives veins as she recognized the de-
scription of the Jaynesford farmhouse.
.'And how the plague are we to get
in without rousin' the house?" retorted
the second man, rather harsher and
more grating than the first.
He told me. Thar amt no fasten.
in but hasp on the shed door-it' s
easy lifted with bit of crooked wire.
We can slip in when they're asleep,
an whew, the things done in min
ute!''
Il don't believe in no such way Of
goin' to work as that growled the
second man.
"What would you do? Go round to
the front door and rouse EN- all up
Pshaw, Jim, you're deal too soft.
hearted, and that's what I've always
said!"
IL don't like the job. anyhow sui.
lenly retorted the other man.
..It's soon over was the Indifferent
reply, =. and where's the odds? Ain'i
| it all the same hundred years from
now? Pooh, Jim. didn't suppose you
was such soft-stomached Miss Nancy
Of feller.''
II ain no wuss than anybody elser'
growled Jim, ssbut I'm human, and
I've little gal Of my own to home, nc
bigger than Jaynesford's little Bessie,
The ,Javnesfords' heard her tale will