The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-10-23

Friend Decker, as he folded up his spec
''or else my sight isn't what it used to be.
Well-a-day, one can't expect to be Young
always. Is it thee, Leah? | didn't look
for thee so soon.
Leah Decker came into the room like q
breezy young whirlwind. She had none of
the repose of manner which at present is so
much in vogue. Born and bred a Quaker
ess, there was zone of the Quakeress about
her, except her quaint S%criptural name.
''Yes, it's mev' said Leah, shortly.
''Did thee go to Friend Anastasia's ?f
gently queried the old man, readjusting
the big pine logs, so that they should burn
brighter for Leah's benefit.
'Oh, yes, | went there!.'
81 hope she is better Of her rheumatism ?"
Eyes, she is better. But-but-she
would not buy the apples, father. The
mean, stingy old thing!'i cried Leah wrath
fully finging her coal scuttle bonnet on the
table. ''She says she can buy all she wants
at fifty cents a barrel from old Jacob Joyce.
So she can, perhaps-wretched, gnarly,
wormy knots, not fit for the pigs! Ours are
apples, She says thee asks a e%xorbitant
price"
Friend Decker slowly shook his head.
"Friend Anastasia is under a misappre-
h~ension,' he said. Eighty cents a bar
rel is what they are paying at the cider
mill. Only one does not like to see such
beautiful, rare-colored fruit ground up into
baleful spirits to set mems brains on fire."
'sMuch she would stop to think about
that said Leah, still rutfled.
II am sorry" said Friend Decker, mild
ly. 81 need the money much; and | think
she would have been better satisfied with
my apples thar with Friend Jacob
Joyce's."
"And after all that" flashed out Leah,
the spirit of indignation rife within her,
''she had the %impudence to ask me for a
jar of that plum-sauce | made. She says
Friend Mary Moore told her now nice it
was, and"
%hhN- IoiNttl ia pFt' ~ iNtAt'
''thce said, hope, that thee would be
glad to oblige herr
"No, | didn't bluntly aswered Leah.
Il said that | gathered the wild plums my
self in the Crook woods. and cooked them
after Auut Mahala's recipe, and that there
were four jars, and that | wanted to keep
them for thee; especially since thy health
had failed and thy appetite was so yaria-
BILE
II am sorry, dear" said Friend Decker.
"Friend Anastasia is very old, and old
people are apt to be ~fanciful about triiles.
Moreover, she's our kinswoman, n degree
or so removed, perhaps, but
"Then why don't she do something for
us, = flashed Leah, ''beside giving us good
advice, and tormenting us with her fault
finding? | didn't mean to mention it
father, but she told me out and out that
she had adopted Moses Sawyer, and meant
to make him her heir.
"Well, daughter, why should she not
composedly questioned the old man.
Because he is no relation to her at all, :"
cried Leah; ''and the property all came
from our great grandfather, Lennox. thee
knows
'Thee attaches too much Importance to
mere dross, Leah" said Friend Decker.
''Thee must study the text of the lilies of
the field in the Bible. we shall all be
provided for. if only w have patience to
wait
Leah bit her full, red underlip, rs she
glanced around the sparsely furnished room,
and noted her fathers dropping figure, and
rapidly whitening head, but she made no
reply, as she took up the coarse pile of
vests on which she had been working but
tonholes for a ~neighboring clothing con-
tractor.
"Father's 4 saint" thought she, ''but |
am not. and I'm afraid | never shall be. |
should like to cuff Anastasia Akerly's ears.
If every one had their rights, half of that
big Lennox farm would be ours. She gain
ed possession of it by the merest legal
audible, and if father was like any one else,
he would rave gone to law about about 1T
long ago, and got back his own. And now
to see it willed deliberately to somebody
else!''
And Leah's needle flew vindictively in
and out of the cloth, like a miniature jaw
elm piercing the heart of some unseen
enemy.
But the next morning, when Leah had
gone to carry her bundle of vests home and
get another batch of work, Friend
Decker put on his hat and buttoned the
great coat which was getting so worn at
the elbows and shiny at the seams.
'It's a bright, clear morning, albeit a
trile frosty said he. II think | may
walk as far as the Lennox farm without
aggravating my cough"
And under his arm he carried a neat
parcel.
Old Anastasia Akerly was winding blue
yarn before her fire when he came in,
She greeted him not without a shadow of
suspicion.
Had he come like a spy into the enc
my's quarters?
II hope thee is well, Friend Anastasia p
said he. Il have brought thee a jar of my
la,.b+or 'c wild pl1m samoa pprhopS il