The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-03-18

For then the nest is alive aqa.n
With its chirping, fiuttering feathered
And you understand It was not in vain
That 1t weathered the wintry solitude.
Wide Atoake.
CLEVER KITTY.
She Opened Her Uncle's Eyes and
Saved Herself.
In the struggling, %forlorn, unhealthful
Northumbrian village of Blackboard there
was, half a century ago, only one comfort
able-looking building. 1t was non of the
dwellings of the coal and lime carriers, the
hedgers and ditchers, or the drainers, who
formed the bulk of the population, for their
low, dropping roofs, mended here and there
with t%arpaulin, spoke too eloquently Of
damp, draught and over-pressure; it was
not the red-tiled croft-house inhabited by
Willie Allan, the clever, lazy, kindly, cock
fighting, d~og-fancying, boxing, wrestling,
swimming, bee-keeping tenant of the little
farm. for bachelordom and neglect had
combined with Willie's devotion to hobbies
VI u klAQ VIZ duObu6I u CfcdU6 VI II ana
its surroundings an embodiment of pictur-
looking, square-built Presbyterian meeting
house, with its prison-like walls and narrow
windows: far less was 1t the slated, shabby
genteel manse, for in cold weather the
effect Of the whitewash upon it was to
threaten the spectator with a fit of the
ague. No: on any gusty day in November,
when the trees on the hilltops seemed to
have turned their shivering backs to the
breeze that whistled through their branches
and whirled away their red-tinted leaves
In q madcap dance, and the diminutive
cot-houses looked almost as though crouch
ing 10 escape the blast, which the gaunt
old manse faced in haggard despair, the
1.-THE Lion" inn alone, with its comfortable
overcoat of impervious thatch, retained
its aspect of quiet comfort, and
toward evening the ruddy glare of its
kitchen fire pressingly Invited the toil-worn
cottars to forsake their scolding wives and
brawling children, their scanty fires and
draughty houses, and enjoy its comfortable
warmth. And often at the same time there
would be a light at one of the two attic
windows that peered out from the roof like
a pair of open gray eye from under lids of
thatch. For one of these rooms was the
favorite resort of Adam Black the thriving
publican of Biackford. Hither at night did
he often resort il business was dull down
below to smoke his pipe, to think over his
plans, and to calculate his ingoings and
OubSOlB8Ss lOT- rs Ne WOulQ SOm6blm0S re-
mark: ut took a deal of worry for a man
as could neither read nor write to keep q
true reckoning" and Adams natural abili-
tins had not been frightened up by educa-
ton.
That did not hinder him from being
greatly liked and respected In Blackford.
The worst that could be said about lii was
that he was rather hard, and as q matter Of
fact there was little softness in his nature,
though he never failed to greet his custom
ers with a smile and jest, and if the smile
was a little mechanical and the jest the
worse for wear, it msttered little to the
quiet country folk, who were not ashamed
to laugh at the twentieth repetition Of a
witticism. And 1t was everywhere agreed
that he kept a model public house-never,
for instance, allowing any fighting to go on
In a conspicuous place, but forcing the COM
batants to AVE it out, if they really meant
business, in a secluded back yard, where
they could black each others eyes with the
might go to the Red Lion" with the as
surance that he would not be made q fool
of. Adam new the drinking capacity of
every fullgrown male in the neighborhood
OF Blackford. and would let none trans
gress his limit, or, if an accident did hap
pen, managed to avoid anything in the
nature of apublic exhibition. And besides,
the villagers all knew him to be, in their
own language, as game as a bantam. At
times Adam might, in bargain-making,
ASe WV oSA oooNO
board, and, generally speaking, what he
could get he took; but, nevertheless, he
steered notably clear of paltry meanness,
and he was known to be stubbornly faith
full to all his friends-a man, on the whole,
with a conscience not too troublesome, but
far from dead.
In domestic life Adam was a martinez.
he ruled his son Aleck, his r~ed-headed
servant Bet, and even his niece Kitty with
a rod OF iron. Prompt obedience was the
unwritten law of the household. Only
Kitty, besides being the smartest, prettiest
and cleverest girl in Blackford, was so
maynard and spirited that not wen her
: uncle, who liked her better than he like
her entirely under control.
1t was a great grief to Adam when he
found out that Kitty was in a mood to
throw herself away upon Willie Allan. Not
that-but lie thought him unlikely to be a
good husband, that is a thriving one, able
to keep his family comfortable, for he new
er gave his mind to his business, but wasted
his time over what Adam sometimes called
his menagerie, for the croft-house was al
most a Noah's ark in its way. The chance
visitor was certain to find at every season
of the years litter of pups before the kitch-
en- fire, and an old owl and still more
ancient magpie carried on an unceasing
struggle for the favorite perch above the
kitchen clock. What had once been the
best bedroom was converted into a flight
for canaries, and there were always hang
ing about cages containing finches, l%innets,
thrushes, blackbirds, and even sparrows,
for Willie was a noted experimentalist in
the art of crossing, and could show an as
sortment of the most strangely marked
hybrids. The garden was stocked with
bees and the barn with Russian rabbits.
Twenty different kinds of fancy poultry
were allowed to spoil the crops and the
dovecote was inhabited by as many varie-
ties of pigeons. In the pigsty he had a
tame badger, and there wasa litter of foxes
in one clubhouse and an otter in another.
Whatever had life had a deep interest for
Willie as it had a deep interest for his
father before him, for, as well may be i'm.
agined, these tastes were inherited. But
he gratifed them at the expense of agri-
culture. Everybody said the croft would
pay splendidly to a man who knew how to
work it, but the lila were not likely to
make a fortune there or anywhere else.
It was, therefore, not without reason that
Adam was set against his niece taking up
with Willie; he considered it would be
throwing herself away. And he believed
that he possessed a powerful instrument fol
enforcing his own view, for he had full
thing like a hundred pounds-left her by
her father. Adams elder brother, who. had
preceded him in the occupation of the "Red
Lion" Whatever it amounted to it was al
in the big box that stood in Adams favorite
attic room, for he had a deep-rooted sus
picion of banks, and like many other coun
try folks of that time, held that his aving
could not be safer than under his own loci
and key.
"If you marry Allan" he said to Kitty
and sic knew that no NICE scruples about
right n wrong would hinder him from
keeping his word, mot a penny will yor
get from me-"
The truth wat that he had quito anothe,
scheme In his head. Why should Kitty
lsek beyond ha scH Alsokt Trusi thss