The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-02-27
A FAMILY MYSTERY.
What My Grandmothers Black
Stone Jar Contained.

When my Grandfather Ryse died,
grandmother came to live at our house.
She was my mothers mother, and the
only grandmother my brothers and Sis
tiers and l had ever had. Fathers
mother died long before any of US were
born. We were very glad to have
Grandmother Ryse come and live with
us. Her husband had died in a dis
tant State, and mother had gone at
once to bring grandmother to our
house. | remember with what eager
ness we children made ready to meet
mother and grandmother ON their re-
turn.
We lived in the country, and father
had said that all of us might 90 to town
with him, as it was in the fall of the
year, and there was not much to do at
home. There were six of us, beside
father, to climb into the big farm,
wagon, and ride five miles to the
railroad station. We saw mother come
out of the ear first, and behind her was
little old lady, dressed in black. In
her arms she carried black stone Jar.
white cloth, tied down smooth and
tight with many rounds of cord.
"What can she have in that jar?'
asked my brother jeff of me, before
grandmother had reached us, with her
quaint ''How de dor' and her kiss on
each of our mouths.
at can't be mince-meat," said jeff,
with half-hopeful look, for jeff was
inordinately fond of mince-pies, and
mother had often said:
''Wait until grandma comes to see
us, and she'll make you some mince-
pies that are mince-pies." But no
mihce-pies ever came out of that jar.
Grandmother had insisted on its be-
ing put on the seat beside her, and she
kept her eyes on it all the way home.
"May be it's full of money! said
sister Katie: and for a long time after
that we children were all very respect
full to the jar, under the impression
that Katie's surmise had been correct.
Grandmother had the jar carried up
to her room and put on high shelf in
her closet. We heard mother say once
that grandmother was verv poor, and
that damaged Katie's theory of the jar
being filled with money We asked
mother one day if she knew what was
in the mysterious jar.
30, not much of anything she said,
with great Indifference. sit is an old
family relic and l suppose grandma
wants to keep it. remember seeing
it when | was a little girl" But this
answer did not satisfy six curious boys
and girls.
Grandmother Ryse lived at our house
two years, and then went to stay year
with my aunt in Colorado and the jar
went with her, packed carefully in the
center of her feather tick, for Grand
mother Ryse had a horror of "new-
tangled things in the way of hair and
spring mattresses, and would sleep on
feathers only. When she came home
from Colorado, we children all assem-
bled to meet her at the station, and we
saw that jar coming out of the car door
almost before we saw grandma herself
Chem keerless Murray boys forgot
to pack it in with my feathe-bed," she
said; land had no idee or leaving a
good jar like that, so l jest brung it
along in the car with me-"
jeff whispered to me, and said he
would as soon travel with young pig
as with jar like that. But we would
all have been glad to see our jolly old
grandmother, even though she Travelled
with whole pottery The Murray
boys, who had forgotten to pack grand
mothers jar, were our cousins, and a
few weeks later one of them wrote this
to me:
What do you suppose grandmother keeps
in that old black jar? Brother Sam and |
tried to find out, but we couldn't You know
and she is so particular about her things
Sam tried to climb up to high shelf to peer
into the jar once, and fell down and nearly
broke his head. If you and JEFF find Out
what is in the jar, you let us know.
wrote that we would, but despaired
of ever getting peep into the jar, for
mother had long ago forbidden us tC
go into grandma's room, unless she in
vited us there. Once when she had
called us all in, to show us some old
pictures of grandfather, and had giver
us all sweet anise and cardamon seeds,
asked, in my most insinuating tone:-
Grandmother, what is in that fun
ny old black jar up thereP"
Ny brothers and sisters all prickeC
up their ears, but grandmother simply
gave merry little laugh, and said;
Snaps and snails
And little dogs tails.
Grandmother was fond of travelling
and the next spring she went to New
Jersey to spend six months with sol
who lived there. And that jar wen
with her. 1t came home with her il