Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-03-12
FACE TO FACE.
a Fact Related in +. 80 We'll
Told Fables. IA
BY r. z. FRANCILLoN,
AUTHOR OF "a GREAT RR1Rpssn aor,r.
AT LAST" GA REAL QUEEN" "EARL,s
DIVE" ETC ETC
FABLE THE FIhoT.-CoNTINuEp

FABLE THE FIh0T.-CoNTINUED
"Put up with my land-you! Why
1t can't be; it can't be. There's never
been when Legs Croft didn't belong tc
Blackthorn. 'Twouldn't be in the
nature of thingsr' he exclaimed, still
half bewildered from such blow. bu
with glow again in his eyes; the while
Marr1sh, the mortgage, sat stern anc
stolld, pressing his broad-brimmed
beaver between his knees. "We've
owned and farmed Legs Croft, me and
my forebears, for hundreds of years
thousands, more Gke-and there isn't
one of 'em but would turn round and
curse me out of his grave. 'Twould be
worse than being beggar to that old
curmudgeon up in London for me to
give up the land that goes down from
father to son. l say, 'twould be like
Hing George giving up England to
boney, If L was to give up Legs Croft to
any but Blackthorn of the straight
line. My grandfather was born in this
house, like his grandfather before him,
and so was /, and so was my-my girl.
L know every clod in the fields since |
was that high; and to be told / must
SN0 up Tie IduU. NO.
His voice was prematurely old, but it
trembled rather from sense of supreme
outrage than from age. and, after al
most breaking down when it spoke of
the girl, it came down upon the 'No'
startlingly round and full.
''Well, Tom Blackthorn," said the
creditor, you've only got to raise the
money, and Legs Croft is yours as sure
as Welstead's NINE
"Welstead, indeed-that you bought
for money; as if money could make a
thing mans own, like mines mine. -
'Td like to see a better title than
hard cash, though said Marrish,
with something distantly akin to a
smile. The question is-can YOU
raise a hundred pound?"
mo
''Then you must give up the land.''
'No!'
''Then, Tom Blackthorn. you're an
obstinate old fool. And if 'twasn't
you, I'd call man that won't take the
only way he's got to pay his good law
full debts long way worse name than
fool. Howsoever, the laws on my
side; you ride over. or walk over to
Manchester, and ask Lawyer Lake. and
learn for siX-and-eightpence, if you've
got it, what 1 tell you for nothing at
all. You are an unlucky devil, Tom
Blackthorn; but that's no call why the
piper's to be paid by me-"
''Ah! You've come to turn me and
my girl out of house and home?h
'1'll have to foreclose on Legs Croft.
That was the bond''
The brOken-dOwn yeOman, whose land
was the core of his heart, gulped down
q hard sob took down his hat from
peg and put it on, armed himself with
a tough walking-stick out of corner,
and then, from the depth of a drawer,
fished up big key, which he handed to
his creditor. Goodbye. Enoch Mar
rish,' said he, without looking him in
the face. Il can't shake hands, but"
He strobe towards the door.
whats this for?'' asked Marrish,
lingering the key. where are you off
to now?"
.'Off the land that isn't mine-that's
all. I'm going to fetch Patiencei and
then we'll 60"
go! Whereof
"What's that to you?'
''Of all the obstinate old fools! I've
got to foreclose yet; and if l hadn't,
there's no call to turn out as if the house
was afire-"
'.And do you think" said Blackthorn,
facing round and looking him full in the
face: I'm sleep another night on the
place I've sold for a mess Of pottage?
I'll find the lee of haystack some
where off the land for my lass; and
but that's naught to you. If you was
Blackthorn, you d understand. I'll put
you to no expense nor trouble. I'll
Ialy nd fho
clothes 1 stand in, and the girl. She's
mine. But 1 won't carry off out of
Leys Croft so much as the muck on my
boots; I'll wipe them clean by the gate
on the Four-Acre; and"
..Come. Tom-if you'd only hear a
man out, instead of being such an OBJ
IT'S true I can't afford to 60 without
money or land these war times are
cruel hard. can't; butt willr'
"What?'' cried Blackthorn, facing
round again.
II will. That's what say. I'll take
Patience instead of both of EN-
there"
you'll take Patiencer' exclaimed
the poor old fellow, amazed and bewil-
dered once more.
'.Ay-without a penny!" said Mar
rish. And well he might say so, if he
meant it, for without getting his full
pennyworth Farmer Marrish, of We'll
stead, had never been known to do a
mortal thing. He had always been a
model man of business; up before the
bird, nay, even before the worm, and
early to bed, only for the sake of saving
candles in those hard times. He had
PLAYED ant to Tom Blackthorn's grass
hopper. He had scraped together
penny by penny, pound by pound. field
by field, until, as now, he could add
farm to farm; and always in such wise
that he had earned the nickname of
..Miser Marrish" at Manchester, the
market town, where he was as well
known on Thursdays as the parson on
SUNDAYS The idea of him saddling
himself, at his time of life, with a pen
niless lass from boarding-school, who
came, to boot, from such a wastrei
stock rs the Blackthorns, was incred-
ible. No wonder the girls own father
was bewIldered and amazed.
You'll take my Patience! he ex-
claimed again, with open eyes.
..Look here, Tom Blackthorn. Per
haps it may look odd, but I'd sooner
have that lass to wife without a penny
than ever another with q thousand
pound. 1t may seem like q fool
Whim; but it's mine. I've watcher |
Patience grow up from her cradle, as
one may say; and ever since she last
came home from school l said to my
self, that's the lass for me-"
s.Bless my soul aliver'
GAY, it's true. You needn't be afraid |
/ can't keep a wife, though she does
come from boardinp-school I'm not |