Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-03-04
OLIVES ADVENTURE.


blazing fire. ''ln the first place, we We
GOT nothing TO Steal-and in the second
place. if we were all murdered, | cant
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, hard working. yell
low-faced farmers wife); Il really
thirk YOU ought to get an extra bolt on
the Dack door, and never did think a
hook and staple was a safe thing for
the little hall door. If there is n 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
Jaynesford's moved her seat instinc-
lively closer into the angle of the CHM
nev corner. and lifted pair of large,
gray eyes toward the good-humored
face of the host.
.Fiddlestick" calculated Mr.. Jaynes-
ford. Il keep a 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 thing as foolhardi-
ness. JOHANN 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-eved. rosy-compleNioned little
thing. with a tender. tuneful voice-a
girl who would have been very beauti-
ful. 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 needs-th churlish grew
| almost courteous-the hard-hearted in
| stinctively softened, and those who be-
lieved in the hopeless depravity of
human nature. made an exception
| in favor of Olive Morrison. Even
| the riotous. rebcllious young horde
of the district school We're more
malleable, 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 un-
braiding the brown, shining strands of
her long and luNuriant hair Mrs. Jaynes-
ford looked into the room.
ITS a sharp. frosty night, Miss
Olive" she said: hadn't you better
have an extra comfortable on your
bed?'
Il don't think l need it. Mrs. Jaynes-
ford" said the girl. But do-do you
really think there is any danger of our
being robbed and murdered?"
Il only know what I've heard, there
bein' a 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 Jotham keeps all
his money in the county bank. Towser's 5
very well. but Eve heard O better dogs
than he is, bein' settled by dose of
pois IN, and I'd like to know what good
Jotham's loaded rifles goin' to do us,
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 ner-
vous fingers! Il can't stay alone to-
night-will you send Bessie to sleep
| with me?'
But in spite of little Bessie Jaynes-
Olive Morrison could not go to sleep un-
I'll 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.
..Pshaww said Olive to herself the
next morning, as she viewed her pale
face and swollen eyes. Il 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."
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
fallen tree, to rest 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 be? 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
coyeryp 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 big chimbley in the middle and
new stun wall round it tell yer
you can miss 1t. "
| 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 a hasp on the shed door-it's
| easy lifted with bit of crooked wire.
We can slip in when they'r asleep,
an whew, the things done in min
uter'
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 'em 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
lenlv retorted the other man.
Its soon over" was the indifferent
reply, land where's the odds? Amt
it all the same hundred Years from
| pou,D pnnb linn | 6iJn' = SupnoSa ynu