The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-09-26

Al ~ baEs
"The days are shortening" sighed
Friend Decker, as he folded up hi!
spectacles and replaced them in thei
tin case; cor else my sight isn't wha
it used to be. Well-a-day! one can
expect to be young always. Is it thee
Leah? 1 didn't look for thee SO soon. ;
Leah Decker came into the room lik'
breezy young whirlwind. She hac
none of the repose of manner which a
present is so much vogue. Born ane
bred Quakeress, there was none o
the Quakeress about her, except he
quaint Scriptual name.
eyes, it's mel" said Leah, shortly
"Did thee 60 to Friend Anastasia's 's?'
gently queried the old man, readjustin&
the big pine logs, so that they shoule
burn brighter for Leah's benefit.
"Oh, yes, went there!"
81 hope she is better of her rheuma
tism ?"
eyes, she is better. But-but-sh
would not buy the apples, father. The
mean, stingy old thing!" cried Leah
wrathfully flinging her coal scuttle bon.
net on the table. "She says she can buy
all she wants at fifty cents barrel from
old Jacob Joyce. So she can, perhaps
wretched, gnarly, wormy knots, not fiji
for the pigs! Ours are apples! She says
thee asks an exorbitant price,
Friend Decker slowly shook his head.
"Friend Anastasia is under a misap.
prehension," he said. eighty cents
barrel 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."
"Much she would stop to think about
that ~ said Leah, still ruf1ed.
'I am sorry" said Friend Decker,
mildly. "I need the money much
and think she would have been better
satisfied with my apples than with Friend
Jacob Joyce's."
"And after all that" flashed out
Leah, the spirit of indignation rife with
in her, "she had the impudence to ask
me for jar of that plum sauce I made.
She says Frlenu WARY Nfoore toid fler
how nice it was, and"
"And," quietly interposed her faith
er, "thee said, l hope, that thee would
be glad to oblige her?"
"No, 1 didn't" bluntly answered
Leah. 81 said that I gathered the wild
plums myself in the Crook woods, and
cooked them after Aunt Mahala's re-
cipe, and that there were four jars, and
I wanted to keep them for thee; espe.
cially since thy health had failed and
thy appetite was so variable"
81 am sorry, DEAR" said Friend
Decker. "Friend Anastasia is very old,
and old people are apt to be fanciful
about triAes. Moreover, she our kins-
woman, degree or so removed, per.
haps, but
"Then why don't she do something
for u.s." flashed out Leah, "beside Civ.
ing us good advice, and tormenting u:
with her fault finding? 1 didn't mean
to mention it, father, but she told me
out and out that she had adopted Nose:
Sawyer, and meant to make him hel
heir"
"Well, daughter, why should she
not?" composedly questioned the ole
man
"Because he is no relation to her al
ALL" cried Leah; "and the property al
came from our great grandfather Len
nox, thee knows" ;"
"Thee attaches too much importance
to mere dross, Leah" said Friend
Decker. "Thee must study the text o.
the lilies of the field in the Bible. 'Wt
shall all be provided for, if only We
have patience to wait
Leah bit her full, red underlip as she
glanced around at the sparsely furnish
ed room, and noted her fathers droop
ing figure, and rapidly whitening head
but she made no reply, as she took uE
the coarse pile of vests on which she
had been working buttonholes for 8
neighboring clothing contractor.
"Father's saint" thought she, "bu
I am not, and I'm afraid l never shall
be. I should like to cuff Anastasis
Akerly's ears. If every one had theil
rights, half of that big Lennox farm
would be ours. She gained possession
of it by the merest legal bubble, and i
father was like any one else, he would
have gone to law about it long ago, and
got back his own. And now to see il
willed deliberately to some one else ~
And Leah's needle flew vindictively
in and out of the cloth, like miniature
javelin piercing the heart of some unseen
enemy.
But the next morning, when Leat
had gone to carry her bundle of vests
home and get another batch of work
Friend Decker put on his hat and but
toned the great coat which was getting
so worn at the elbows and shiny at the
seams.
"It's bright, clear morning, albeit
trife frosty" said he. ri think
may walk as far as the Lennox farm
without aggravating my cough"
And under his arm he carried 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 spy into the ene-
my's quarters.
81 hope thee is we'll, Friend Anasta-
sia7" said he. 81 have brought thee a
jar of my daughters wild plum sauce.
Perhaps it may tempt thy appetite. )"
Anastasia Akerly colored.
cit amt of no consequence" said
she. 81 dunno as l care so much about
sweet things. Only there used to grow
wild plum bush on the hill at home,