The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-28
FABLE THE SIXTH.
ONE Is ENOUGH TO WAIT AND WOO.

FABLE THE SIXTH.
ONE Is ENOUGH TO WAIT AND WOO.
1t was another sort of harvest that
was over at Legs Croft; and it had been
as ample in its own way; and prices
ruled high, by reason of the war.
Everything ought to have been well
with Farmer Blackthorn, supposing
farmers to be made for the price of
bread alone. Everything looked admir-
ably well, now that autumn and rest
cad come.
All things except the farmer. The
aew life that had come to him some
sixteen months ago had tiicKered down
again, and left him more broken than
when he had just gone begging for Il
hundred pounds. As he leaned over
his yard gate in the sun, nobody would
gave known him for once hale and
hearty Tom Blackthorn, loud of voice
and carriage. and full of spirit and
pride. 1t was not that he had grown
older by full ten years, but the spirit
seemed withered out of him. The
genial laugh, instead of hardening, had
changed into a feeble sort of smile.
There was plenty for him to do and
to see after-poverty, at any rate, was
no longer n burden. Besides, poverty
makes man fight; and there was no
more fight to be seen in Tom Black
thorn face or shoulders or trembling
hands. All the work he was doing was
to lean over a gate, and even that
seemed too hard; all he was looking
after was drake with a dozen ducks in
the pond. who were perfectly able to
. look after themselves.
But he got tired of even this Occupa-
ton ut last, full of fascination IS it is,
and slowly, very slowly, drew the gate
open. Once it would have been with n
CHATTER and swing, so that all the place
could tell when the master went ont.
and when he had come home. Before
passing through it, he looked carefully
up at every window of the house, and
then round into every corner of the
yard, and up and down the road, as if
he were afraid of his movements being
seen.
But I'll be too sharp for 'em Yet, "
said he, with chuckle. ''Enoch Mar
IRISH amt quite master vet; and till that
happens I'll be my own. Not up to
walking, am l? Well, they'll see
they'll see. I'll walk to the teeches;
and tell EN- all about it at dinner-time
One would think Enoch took me for a
child, or else sixpance that he's afraid
to lose. Well, well: / mustn't COM
plain. He's good farmer, tor all he's
so near. But he's not master yet-no,
no. | can walk; and I'll show EN- i
will"
But he happily had something better
! than will, or rather wilfulneSS, 10 help
him-he still had the stick he used TO
| swing and flourish. He tried to give it
a flourish now. Is soon rs, often looking
behind him, he had escaped out OF
sight. But it was a failure; and he
was presently glad to have something
strong to lean on heavily. The beeches
were the clump on the hill towards
Manchester, over the ridge of which
! Patience had watched in vain for her
lovers coming. 1t was not much of a
walk for n man to scheme after craftily
i with view to a boast: and there was a
good path through the fields all the
way. Moreover, the walk was full oil
interest even to a practical man.
| There were the cows; there were the
fences. And for man with the mem
Dries of life bound up with every
step, there were ten thousand things.
In that brook he had caught not only
his last trout, but his first minnow.
Along this path he had walked every
Sunday to church with his wife till he fol
lowed her into the churchyard; and out
of the ten thousand these were but two.
And then he had inherited memories
for it had been Farmer Blackthorn OF
LeyS CrOfts from father to son from be.
fore the memory of man. Leave LeyS
Croftn' he muttered. "A COOL joke
that; as if there could be a Leys Croft
without a Blackthorn, When l leave
it, at last, they'll have to change the
name-yeS, change the name" But
short and easy Is the walk was, and
varied with cows and memories. he was
Slouching yet more heavily on his stick
by the time he reached the foot of the
slope; and he looked wearily at the
beech clump that had still 10 be gained.
1t has got to be a long ways
very long way, somehow" unused he,
They must have been doing some.
thing to the path to make it longer, OF
shifted the beaches farther away. Oh
may be they've been cutting some o.
the nearest down. ] must see about
that when l get home; and if anv.
bOdy's been up TO mischief. and think
my eye isn't on EN-. they'll find out
who's master still. No-I don't think
I'll 60 up to the heeches today. They
won't run away; I'll do the res
another tme--another t.ale."
There was, to put the case fully. al
exceedingly low, broad AID tempting
Stile on the path at tho loot OF the
slope; and res stance to impulse haC
never been Tom Blackthorn's Stron-
point even in his strongest days. HI:
strength, or weakness. lay ip sticking
to the results of impulse whatever they
might be. So he sat on the stile, and
having once yielded. there he was con
tent to stay. Presently he began t.
want a pipe-which he found in hi
pocket, and his tobacco, too But
alas! when the bowl was filed anC
wanted nothing but fire, he turned on
his pockets for his Undertook in vain.
Millions viii sympathize with Ton
Blackthorn; or at any rate so many a
viii hear of him. What sorrow, afte
all, can be greater in its pathetic help
leSSness than that of worn-out ol'