The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-04-24
FOUND.

this was the scene upon which the au-
tumn sun glowed redly for an instant
through the narrow window panes, ere
it went down behind a bank Of slate
colored clouds in the west-and Miss
Jemima Buxford, glancing up at the
clock on the wooden shelf between the
windows saw that it was half past five.
BLESS me how the time does go on"
said Miss Jemima. "And 1t don't seem
as if 1 accomplished nuthin', what
withrunnin'arter your everlastin'whims,
Ebenezer.
Ebenezer Buxford, his autocratic
sisters senior by twenty good years,
looked deprecatingly up from his cush-
Toned nook in the chimney corner-a
weak, feeble-kneed old man, with scanty
gray hairs brushed into a meek little
whisp on the top of his head, watery
blue eyes and a complexion like we'll
cured pa rchment.
81 know I'm a deal o'trouble, Jemi-
N.Y." said the old man, apologetically,
''but 1 try not to make any more than I
can help"
"No, you don't nolther" snapped
Jemima. 81 hain't no patience with
your old pipe and your everlastln'smoke,
smoke, smokin', till we all smell like an
old bar-room, and there amt q curtain
in the house that don't tell its own story.
1 tell We what, Ebenezer Buxford,
N,,S- <r~A b. 1-o-a -H thai -s11z
habit!"
Ebenezer shrank instinctively ct the
hard, cruel tone.
"But-Jemimy-"
"Im in earnest, Ebenezer."
"But Ellen Dennison says"
81 don't care two snaps O my finger
what Ellen Dennison says-a pert mink,
Just as full O airs and graces as her
mother was afore her, though she was
my own sister. If Ellen chooses to
make a fuss i've you and indulge you
in every whim, l dont-that's all there
is oft! Iain't goingto have this smok-
It'll"
81 might just as well quit livin', Je-
mimy. For forty-seven year,"
Miss Jemima, however, did not stay
to hear the end Of the speech, but
burst out Of the room, muttering to her
self sentences Of which the import
BODIED little good
"He'l be right down vexed, though"
thought the spinster, ''when he knows
I've sold them there packets of Virgin
ny tobacco he brought home on his last
sea voyage. It's odd q man can keep
voyagin' to furrin parts all his life and
not lay up no money, after all. But
Ebenezer never wal savin' like the rest
O the Buxfords."
And Jemima went up stairs to rum
mage in an old red chest where she
kept her treasures for a hank of mixed
yarn to finish a pair of socks she had
on hand.
Old Ebenezer waited patiently by the
kitchen fire the while, until he heard a
light footstep on the doorstone without;
and his face frightened as Ellen Den
nison came in.
She was a tall, fresh-complexioned
girl, with a face which, ifnot absolutely
pretty, was pleasing, and light figure
whose grace was patterned after the
waving rushes by the riverside and the
tall young elms in the meadows below.
"Well, %uncle!" she said, cheerily.
give been waitin' for you, Ellen, the
old man whispered, beckon1ng to her to
come close to him. "She-she won't
bring me no more 'baccy, and Haven't
had a Whit since 4 o'clock"
Ellen bit her lip.
I'll bring you some at once, Uncle
Eben.
"There amt none left in the tin box"
went On the old man, OBTAINING her
with a grip of her neat calico dress.
You'll have to go to the packet o'blue
paper in the corner cupboard up stairs
the genuine stuff I brought from old
Virginny years and years ago, when I
warn't the old wreck lam now! Get
the top package, Nell-the top one, re-
member"
Eyes, Uncle"
And away tripped Ellen, carrying
her lighted candle through the gloomy
entries, like a rustic embodiment of
Dawn bearing her herald star.
Miss Jemima met her at the head of
the first flight of wooden uncarpeted
steps.
"Where are you going, Ellen Dem
nison?"
ITO get some tobacco for Uncle Eb-
snezer."
"There amt none left"
Eyes, there is, in the packet he
brought from Norfolk in the Lively
Sally"
But tell you there ANTI" reiterat-
al NT,,o To, SJ ILL -L1
to a pedler that came along. He gave
me SIS for it,"
"You sold it?"
Miss Jemima nodded her head def
antly.
Eyes, I sold it; and you needn't stare
at me as if I'd committed a state prison
offence, miss. I'd dc the same thing
over again. 1 mean to break up Eben-
ezer's miserable trick of smokin'. An
old man that's dependent on his rela-
tives for his daily bread hain't no bust
ness with luxuries like tobacco-and
he'll get no more in this house."
Ellen Dennison answered nothing,
but she turned and went quietly down
stairs, with her cheeks flushed an in
dignant scarlet. Miss Jemima followed
her.
"Uncle," said the girl calmly, as the
old man raised his bleared. expectant
eyes toward her, there is no tobacco
there"
"I've sold It'll" quoth Miss Jemima,
putting her arms akimbo.
you've sold ny tobacco! My blue
Virginia brandt"
Eyes, I have; and where's the harm,
I'd like to know? I wasn't goin' to have
it clutterin' up my cupboard 10 longer!
I've sold it for S."
"Then said Ebepezer, with a sort of
stony calmness, you've just got SIS for
a pack of the best Blue Virginia tobac-