The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-08-14
THE BOTTOMLESS JUG.

| saw it hanging up i'll the kitchen of a
thrifty, healthy, sturdy farmer in Oxford
county, Maine-a bottomless jug Tie
host saw that the curious thing caught my
eye, and smiled.
You are wondering what that jug is
hanging up there for, with its bottom
knocked out he said: MY wife, per-
haps, can tell you the story better than
can but she is bashful, and amt. so I'll
tell it.
My father, as you are probably aware,
owned this farm before me. He lived to
good old age, worked hard all his life,
never squandered money, was a cautious
trader and a good calculator and, as
men were accounted in his day and gener-
alton, he was temperate man. | was
tie youngest boy, and when the old gem
tleman was ready to go-and he knew it
the others agreed that, since | had stayed
at home and taken care of the old folks
the farm should be mine. And to me
it was willed. | had been married then
three years.
Well, father died--mother had gone
three years beforehand left the farm to me
with mortgage on it for 81, 900. said
to Mollie, my wife
Molie, look here Here fathers had
this farm in it's first strength Of soil, with
all its magnificent timber. and his six boys,
as they grew up, equal to SO many men to
help him and he worked hard-worked
hard-worked early and late-and yet,
look at it . A mortgage of two Thousand
dollars What can do p
. And | went to that jug-it had its bot
tom in then-and took good stiff drink
of old Medford rum from it.
. noticed the curious look ON the face
of my wife just then, and asked her what
she thought of it, for | supposed she was
thinking of what I'd been talking about.
And so she was, for she said:
g. Charles, I've thought of this a great
deal, and Eve thought of a way in which
| believe you can clear this mortgage off
before five years are ended
Says 1: Molly. tell me how You'll
do it.
. She thought for awhile, and then said,
with funny twinkle in her blue eyes
says she:
.'Charles, you must promise me this,
and promise me solemnly and sacredly
promise me that you will never bring
home for the purpose of drinking as a bev-
erage, at any time. any more spirits than
you can bring in that old jug-the jug
your father has used ever since I knew
him, and which you have used since he
has done with it.
:. Well, | knew father used once in a
while, especially in haying time and in
winter when we We're at work in the
woods, to get an old gallon jug filled so
thought that she meant that | should never
buy more than two quarts at time.
thought it over, and after little while
told her | would agree to it.
- Now mind, says she you are never,
never to bring home any more spirits than
you can bring in that identical jug And
| gave her the promise.
And before went to bed that night
took the last pull at that jug. AS was
turning it out for a sort of night cap,
Molie looked up and says she
Charles, have you got drop left .
There was just about a drop. We'd
have to get it filled on the morrow. Then
she said, if had no objections, she would
drink that last drop with me. shall never
forget how she said it, that last drop
However tipped the old jug bottom up and
got about great spoonful, and Mollie said
that was enough. She took the tumbler
and poured a few drops of hot water into
it and bit of sugar, and then she tinkled
her glass against mine, just as she'd seen us
bows do when we'd been drinking to good
luck, and says she:
Here's to the old brown iugr
''Sakes alive! | thought to myself that
poor Molie had been drinking more of the
rum than was good for her, and tell you
it kind of cut me to the heart. | forgot
all about how many times she'd seen me
when my tongue was thicker than it ought
TO be and my legs not so steady as good
legs should be: but | said nothing. |
drank the sentiment: THE old brown Jug
and let it so.
'sWen. | went out after that and did my
chores and then went to bed and the last
thing said before leaving the kitchen
this very room where we now sit-was;
s.We'H have the old brown jug filled
tomorrow.
"And then I went off to bed. And l
have remembered even since that | went
to bed that night as had done hundreds
of times before with buzzing in my head
that healthy man ought not to have.
didn't think of it then, nor had | ever
thought of it before, but have thought of
it a good many times since. and have
thought of it with wonder and awe.
..Well, got up the next morning and
did my work at the barn and then came
in and ate my breakfast, but with no such an
appetite as farmer ought to have, and
could not think then that my appetite had
begun to fail me. However. ate my break
fast and then went out and hitched
mp the old mare, for to tell the plain truth
was feeling in need of a glass of spirits,