Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-10-09
CHAPTER XXU.-CoNT1NUED.


Co., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO.
CHAPTER xXu.-CoNr1HuEp
So it was decided to sell the calves
and buy the lumber for an addition to
the shanty, and the next day John Par
sons took them over to Mr. Meeker and
got the money for them.
On the way home he stopped at an
other neighbor's and borrowed heavy
wagon, and the day following started
to town bright and early with the letter
to Erastus still carefully concealed in
his inside pocket
"Bet that'll fetch him homo on a
rum" he muscd as he dropped it into
the Office at the landing just in time to
have it get into the mail bag as it was
being got ready for the down boat.
''He'll be here in week cf that letter
goes straight, er else he amt as good
at takin' hint as | think he is. "
Mrs. Parsons noticed that her hus-
band was unusually jolly that night
when he returned home, and all the
next day and the days that followed
after it.
He had always tried to appear cheer
full in the presence of his family, and
had never failed to respond to any eff
fort of Johnny's to get up laugh,
though it of en- caused him an effort to
do so; but on this particular evening
although it was late and he must have
been tired, he really felt jolly, and he
joked Lucy about one of the clerks at
the store, where she and her mother
had traded when in town, and also
about q neighbours son, who had shown
disposition to seek her society, but
who not receiving any encouragement,
had decided that she was ''stuck up"
and so informed the other young peo-
pie of his acqua 'ntance.
The letter was three days in reaching
its destination, and then lay in the
post-ofice several days more before
being called for.
Erastus had no correspondents other
than the members of Mr.. Parsons
family; and as there had been little that
was pleasant to write about on either
side, letters had not been frequent be-
tween them OF late, and the young man
seldom went to the post Office.
One day as he WAS working with
several Of his neighbors upon ditch
wh ch was to be the means of irrieating
their claims, another neighbor, who
had been to town, rode up and, stop.
ping his horse, called out:
"Here, Hemm ngway; here's letter
for YOU"
Eristus was in his shirt sleeves in the
ditch, shoveing, and the horseman
leaned from his saddle and handed him
the letter.
'.If that's from your girl, she don t
write very purity hand" he said, with
wink at the other ditchers, who had
stopped work and stood leaning on
their spades.
Glancing at the superscription, Eras-
tus saw that it was in strange hand.
The post mark, however, proclaimed it
to be from Phippsburg, and his first
thought was that something ter ible
had again happened to Unc'e John and
his family-that they were all dead,
may be, and q stranger had written to
inform him.
Hastily tearing off the envelope, he
looked at the signature and saw the
name, John Parsons" in stiff, awk-
ward letters, at the bottom of the page,
and it flashed over him that Lucy was
married and that Uncle John had writ
ten to tell him of it because no one else
liked to do-so, and the blood rushed to
his heart, which beat SO that it seemed
his companions must hear it.
But no; the letter said: "Lucy and
her mother had gone to town"
Then she was not married yet The
blood began to return to its proper
channels.
Lucy has given Annelsey his walkln'
papers"
Could it be possible that she was not
going to marry the New Yorker after
all!
And if not, what thenP
The letter seemed plain enough to be
understood without possibility of mis-
take, yet he read it the second time be-
fore its full import came to him, aud
then the blood rushed to his heart even
more violently than before.
"Lucy might be his yet-that is what
Uncle John meant" he said to him
self "If she had not loved some one
else better she would not have dis
missed Annelsey" And "she did not
encourage any of the young men
there that was what the letter said,
nhu ~ Salu nc WIS W come AT once.
He had climbed out of the ditch and
was brush ,ng the dirt from his oyeralls
with his hands.
"Mr. Johnson" he said, addressing
the nelghbor with whom he boarded
twill you let me have your roam horse
for couple of weeks and use my colts
while Pm gomez I'm going home and
want to make the trip as quickly as
possible, and neither of the colts can
stand a hard jaunt under the saddle
very well. I'll take good care of the
roam and promise not to hurt him. II
i do you may take your choice of the
colts TO pay the damage"
whats up?"
"Folks sickP'
"Why don't you go to Frisco and
take the steamer" came from one and
another of the crowd.
1.-The fact isl replied Erastus, with
his usual straightforward honesty, "I
have not got money enough. Yon fell
lows know how II Is yourselves. Money
don't grow on those sand ridges until