The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-05-13

Pinney's illness. s'Pinney's one Of Phar-
| aoh's lean kind sure enough, but he is a
prudent man in his victuals and couldn't
be sick-that is, of his own accord"
The vague hint of these words, 'of his
| own accord" echoed what was in the minds
| of all of them, and was the nearest TO voic-
/ ing that suspicion that any dared permit
| himself to make.
1t was fully an hour before any one sug-
gested that it would be well to make a
| closer inspection than was possible from
| the porch of Barker's store. Then it WAS
limited that Teachum, by virtue of once
having been a constable, and Guernsey, by
reason of now being titbing man, should
| go and examine the path that led from the
| side door of Pinney's house to the padlocked
door OF the store, that tracks might be dis
| covered, if any there were. These two
| thereupon crossed the turnpike, scaled the
I stone wall, and went first TO the store.
The paddock creaked in the door as they
tried it. but was firm, and the shutters
| were tight. Then they carefully inspected
| the little narrow path, watched closely by
the crowd on Barker's porch. Barker him
self standing on his door-siH under
wreath of palm-leaf hats that festooned
the doorway, announced that they had dis
covered nothing and would discover moth
ing unless they went inside.
Nobody ever walked that path but Pin
ney," he said. do you suppose that any
IL. IL
grass"
The two men certainly found nothing,
for they were seen to be standing in front
of PinneY's door, looking with inquiry at
it as though it had a voice and would
answer their unspOken questions. But the
house was sphynx-like, and Teachum and
Guernsey returned to Barker'S, not even
daring to rap on Pinney's door. No one
had raped there for twenty years, and
habit asserts itself even in critical emer
gencieS.
Nothing there" said Teachum as he
came up the porch steps.
Not sound said Guernsey.
Nobody wanted to say it. Nobody
wanted to hear it said; yet every one be-
lieved that Pinney was dead. This suS-
picion gave tone TO their utteranceS. They
discussed Pinney's virtues and curiously
enough, through all these years Pinney's
name and his presence had caused the smile
of pity or contempt to come, yet now there
was confession that the man had good
traits. Jabez Peckham found the thrOng
nOdding assent when he said that though
PinneY was ''monstrOus solitary man, he
had always lived upright" To Teachum's
suggestion that though ''Pinney had not
been to meeting for twenty years, he paid
more pew rent than any one at the Corners,
and generally sent a barrel of pork TO the
Donation" the Major added another to the
effect that though Pinney had not voted
for twenty years, yet he was a good
Dimicrat and hiSted a flag when Polk beat
Clay" Jud Guernsey, who prided him.
self upon his own gallantry, suggested
that though 'Pinney never spoke to VIM
min folks he always took off his hat when
they traded with him, and bowed 'em out
the door like young beau" while Barker,
though the rival storekeeper of the
Corners admitted that he should feel bad
to hear that anything had happened to
Pinney, though we've been in the same
trade here for twenty years"
SO they spoke well of him whose mys-
FERROUS absence had alarmed them, and
continued furtively to watch the silent
red house and the little brown store.
A generation of years have passed since
Humphrey Pinney began his career Of ST.
lence and automatic regularity. For twenty
years precisely at sunrise he opened the side
door of his little house and threw back the
faded green shutter that sheltered the rear
window. Then he went down the path,
stopping at the well to let the bucket down
into it and get pail of water, which he
carried into the store. The path thus made
across the lot had been worn hard and
smooth by his always Slippered feet The
only exercise men ever saw him busy him
self about was with the bucket at the well, |
or if there was snow he cleared it from the
narrow path. He had trod that path, like
a sentry beat at sunrise, at high noon, at
sunset, and when the distant church bell |
rang nine O'Clock at night; back and forth, |
back and forth, eight times day. He was |
a timepiece for the neighbors, Just as the |
noon train in the railway that ran along |
the tOwpath came to be afterward. But |
he never was behind time. In the dim REC |
objection of older men there appeared the |
picture OF stalwart, handsome-eyed young |
fellow, who was as genial as he was proud |
and gentle. Then came the SelfimpoSed !
light No one had seen him in any place |
under the open sky for twenty years ex-
cepting in that path; no one in all these |
years had met him elsewhere than in his |
store. There he had good custom. His |
weight was honest and his prices just. The |
cobwebbed and grimy by the years neg
lect, and log was always burning in the |
great fireplace in heat of summer or dead |
of winter. There was a musty flavor of |
whale OIL salt fish, and crackers, and a
gliStening barricade of hoes and rakeS and |
shovels was erected near the fireplace. On
a battered row of shelves were calicoes and
and tough cowhide boots, ar
rayed like chess men in disorder, stood |
upon one end of the long counter while at
the other, in labyrinthian confusion in q
glass case, were pins and needles. tapes
and thread, scissors and pencils, and in
greasy boxes ancient sugar bull'S-eyes.
from which the sweetness seemed to
have ooZed away and left enly the ribbed
anatomy of confections Behind this
counter by a pair of pendant scales stood
Pinney. His thin hair hung as nature had
it in misty locks far down upon his should
erS, and tenuous beard combining with
his hair made fringe about, so that it
seemed as though his clothes were sur
by tippet all about the neck of
thin gray hair. His eyes were gentle and
his manner too. His feet were always
clad in slippers, his coat had been FURNISHED
by the years so that it shone as polished
wood, and the palm leaf hat had been |
dyed to bronze-like color by the hickory
smoke of years. His method of trade was
simple. When one asked the price of any
article Pinney would produce a placard on
which the figures had been drawn and show
it. No one ever dickered with him His
was simply Yea yea.m or
Nay, nay" No one had heard him speak
another word for twenty years. Yet they
knew he was well informed No man at !
the Corners received larger mail. Thus
al his business was done and his strange
habit of life was less a cause of astoniSh-
nent than the fact that he took two news
papers, one Wing, one Democratic 1t was
his more than his silence that induced the
belief that Pinney was "a leetle queer in
his head"
When noon had come and gone, and
here was still the mystery of silence at
Pinney'S it became unbearably porten-
5iouS, so that the neighbors quilted their
lvocatiOns and gathered on Barker's porch,
while on the tow path there stood groups
If women, grooming among themselves and
,aSting shy, uneasy glanceS at the silent
house. The awful mystery of silence and
# absence permitted the liveleSt and
,loomleSt fancieS until somehow it passed
rom lip to lip that Pinney lay upon the
loor: then, with more vivid detail it was
aid that his head rested upon the threshold
ust inside, and with this fancy to seize
lpOn, the famlShed senses of the throne |