The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-08-20

M@x@NMN "
9@A&A
Elder Brown was not, however, q man
for tears. He was a man of action. The
sudden vision which met his wandering
gaze, the donkey calmly chewing scrub
buds, with the green juice already oozing
from the corners of his frothy mouth, acted
upon him like magic. He was, after all,
only human, and when he got hands upon
a piece of brush, he thrashed the poor
already half tanned hide would be eter-
nally ruined. Thoroughly exhausted at
last, he YEARLY straddled his saddle, and
with his chin upon his breast resumed the
early morning tenor of his way.
L.
"Good-mornin', SIR"
Elder Brown leaned over the little pine
picket which divided the book-keepers' de-
partment of a Macon warehouse from the
room in general, and surveyed the we'll
dressed back of a gentleman who was
busily figuring at a desk within. The
apartment was carpetless, and the dust of
a decade lay deep on the old books, shelves,
n the familiar advertisements Of guano
and fertilizers which decorated the room.
An old stove, rusty with the nicotine con-
GTlDuUou DY ldTulcTS uuTluS OnC pTSNlOuS
season while waiting by its glowing sides
for their cotton to be sold, stood straight
up in a bed of sand, and festoons Of cob
webs chung to the upper sashes of the
murky windows. The lower sash of one
window had been raised, mt in the yard
few bales of cotton, with jagged holes in
their ends, just as the sampler had left
them, Elder Brown had time to notice all
these familiar points, for the figure at the
desk kept serenely at his task, and deigned
no reply:
again, in his most digni6ed tones. "Is Mr..
Thomas IMP"
"Good -morning, SIR" said the figure.
"I'n wait on you in a minute" The min
ute passed, and four more joined it. Then
the desk man turned.
"Weil, sir, what can I do for your"
The elder was not in the best of humor
when he arrived, and his state of mind had
not improved. He waited full a minute as
he surveyed the man of business.
ST thought 1 mout be able to make some
arrangements with you to git some money,
but I reckon I was mistaken" The ware
house man came nearer.
"This is Mr.. Brown, I believe. I did not
recognize you at once. You are not in
often to see u.s."
"No; my wife usually tends to the town
bizness, while 1 run the church and farm.
Got a fall from my donkey this morning."
he said, noticing a quiZzical, interrogating
look upon the face before him, and fell
suuar' on the hat" He made a pretense
of smoothing it. TIL man of business had
already lost interest.
"How much money will you want, Mr.
Brown"
"Well, about seven hundred dollars
said the elder, replacing his hat, and turn.
ing a furtive look upon the warehouse
man. The other was tapping with his
pencil upon the little shelf lying across the
rail.
"I can get you five hundred"
"But I oughter have seven"
"Can't arrange for that amount. Wal
| till later in the season, and come again
| Money Is very tight now. How mucf
| cotton will you raiser"
swell, I count on a huudr'd bales. An
| you can't git the sewn hundr'd dollars?"
"Like to oblige you, but can't right now
will fix it for you later on"
"Well," said the elder. slowly, fix III
| the papers for five, an I'll make it go a
far as possible"
The papers were drawn. A note wa
made out for $552.50, for the interest wa
| at one and a half per cent. for sever
longing to the elder was drawna and signed
The elder then promised to send his cottol
to the warehouse to be sold in the fall, ant
| with a curt Anything else?" n
"Thankee, that's all" the two parted.
Elder Brown now made an effort to re
call the supplemental commissions shoute,
to him upon his departure, intending +
execute them first, and then take his writ
ten list item by item. His mental resolve
had just reached this point when a nev
thought made itself known. Passers-by
were puzzled to see the old man suddenl.
snatch his head-piece of and peer with al
intent and awe-struck air int its irregula
caverns. Some of them were shocke
when he suddenly and vigorously ejacu
lated:
"Hannah Maria Jemimy! goldarn al
blue blazes!"
He had suddenly remembered havin
placed his memoranda in that hat, and a
he studied its empty depths his mind pic
tured the important scrap fluttering alon
the sandy scene of his early morning tum
an oath with less margin than he ha
allowed himself in twenty years. Whs
would the old lady say.
Alas! Elder Brown knew too well. Whs
she would not say was what puzzled hin
But as he stood bare-headed in the sunligf
a sense of utter desolation came and dive
with him. His eye rested upon sleepin
Balaam anchored to a post in the stree
and so as he recalled the treachery that la
at the base of all his afliction, glool
was added to the desolation.
To turn back and search for the 10!
/ pdpcT wOulu udNc Dccu Uudh uoclco
Only one course was open to him. and at
went the leader of his people. He Gale
at the grocery; he invaded the recesses
the dry goods establishments he ransacke
the hardware stores; and wherever |
went he made life a burden for the clerk
~overhauling showcases and pulling dow
whole shelves of stock. Occasion
ally an item of his memoranda wou
come to light, and thrusting his hand in
his %capacious pocket, where lay the PR
ceeds of his check, he would pay for
upon the spot, and insist on having
rolled up. To the suggestion of the sla'
whom he had in charge for the time beir
that the articles be laid aside until he hs
finished, he would not listen.
Snow you look here, sonny" he said,
the dry-goods store, Pm conducting th
revival, am don't need no help in my lin
, Just you tie them stockin's up an lemn
have 'em. Then l EROto I've got 'em." /
each purchase was promptly paid for, al
change had to be secured, the clerk earnt
+, his salary for that day at least.
. So it was, when near the heat of the da
: the good man arrived at the drug ST.
: the last and only unvisited division
l with half a hundred packages, wifi
nestled in his arms and bulged out abo
the sections of his clothing that boosted
pockets. AS he deposited his deck-lo
upon the counter, great drops of perspir
i tion rolled down his face and over l
water-logged collar to the floor.
There was something exquisitely refres
t ing in the great glasses of foaming so
t that a spruce young man was drawi
from a marble fountain, above which b,
: a dozen polar bears in an ambitious pri