Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-08-12

large fragment OF IRON nad been hurled from
the exploded we'll striking him on the fore.
head. He uttered one cry and fell backward
The cry startled the men, and Moffat rushed
through the dense spray OF oil and water as
it fell TO the earth aud reached the side OF
his friend and partner. He seized Toms
hands and rubbed them They were warm
and the eYeg of the injured man partly
opened. He recognized Moffat in an instant
Goodbye, 81, he gasped. @Fm going to
die Take good care OF Mary. St-and-the-
child"
There was rattle in his throat, his hands
quiyered and his eyes closed again Moffat
placed his rough cheek against the body Of
his friend, but he could no longer hear the
beating OF the heart Tom Hayden was
dead. The sweet-faced Mary was a wtcow.
The sunny haired child was fatherless
The oil towns of Pennsylvania, many Of
them, are like mushrooms They grow up
in a day and fade away in hight Five
years later the town of Bigley was lying
there in the woods as cod and still and silent
rs though its deserted buildings had never
resounded to the tramp of hurrying feet or
echoed the clang of the hammer and anvil
The oil had become exhausted, the hotel was
in ruins, and the huge, towering derricks
looked like so many skeletons as they
swayed TO and fro in the wind, often falling
in crumbling heaps upon the ground The
ruins of buildings were scattered every
where. and tall grass AMI moss covered the
decayed timbers and the stone foundations
OF once prosperous town. Wild animals
strayed from the surrounding forest hrolgh
the deserted streets The silence of the city
of the dead prevailed throughout the town
that was
One afternoon stranger stepped from the
woodland into the Rrass-grown street and
walked past the ruins of the hotel He car.
ried gun on his shoulder and game bag
on his arm. Two hunting dogs ran ahead OF
HIM. barking and causing the crumbling
walls to re-echo their cries. The stranger
saw column of blue smoke curl from the
chimney of q small cottage near the out
skirts of the village hamlet man stood at
the gateway in front of the house with an ak
on his shoulder
The stranger approached him and opened
conversation,
sWhy don't yougo away from this deserted
placer" he inquired of the man with the AK.
shadow OF pain crossed his face, and for
q few moments he was sileh&
Il could do better cway. at length he said,
but / can't go She wants me to stay"
@And 'she's'--your wifeg"
%oh, no, Mary. Toms wife-his widow, ]
mean.S
sand Toms
@My partner, sir-that is, he was my part
ner until--until-but he is dead now, stran-
ger, an I'm taking care of his widow and
one child. | promised him I'd do it and
VIII lie was city chap, you see, and he
came here with dollhouse flower of wife
an u little money. He struck upa partner
ship with me, for knew ali about the oil
business, an he didn't He got killed at the
well, in the saddest way, and as he was dyin'
/ promised to do the square thing by his
widow That's his grave over yonder on the
hill-the one with the flowers and tho white
stone on it She wants to stay here because
they lived here in the first days of their mar
ried life When she gets over 1t, well go
away; but what she wants I want an so we
stay. Over by the blasted pine, yonder, is
your way out Goodbye, sir.
Honest 81 Moffat was true to his trust
Toms wife and the sunny haired child were
not without friend.