Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-10-14
IN A JAR.
BY HELEN FORREST GRAVES.


tin case 'or else my sight isn't what
it used to be. Well-a.day, one can't
expect to be young always. Is it thee,
Leah ? did not look for thee so
soon.'
Leah Decker came into the room like
a breezy Young whirlwind. She had
none of the repose of manner which is
at present so much in vogue. Born
and bred Quakeress, there was moth
ing of the Quakeress about her, except
her quaint Scripture name.
Yes, it's me y said Leah, shortly.
Did thee 60 to Friend Anastas.
lass p gently inquired the old man,
readjusting the big pine logs, so that
they should burn brighter for Leah's
benefit.
oh, yes, l went there y
Il hope she is better OF her rheuOa-
tiSm p
Yes, she is better. but-she
will not buy the apples. father. Mean,
stiney old thing = cried Leah. wrath
fully flinging her coal scuttle bonnet
on the table. She says she can buy all
she wants at fifty cents barrel of old
Jacob Joyce. So she can, perhaps
wretched, gnarly, wormy knots, not tit
for the pigs. Ours are apples She
says thee asks an exorbitant price
Friend Decker slowly shook his head.
Friend Anastasia is under misap-
prehecsion,' said he. Eighty cents a
barrel is what they are paying at the
cider mill. Only one does not like to
see such beautiful, rarely colored fruit
ground up into baleful spirits to set
mems brains on fire.
Much she would stop to think about
that = said Leah, still ruffied.
Il am sorry,' said Friend Decker,
mildly Il need the money very much
and think she would have been better
satisfied with my apples then with
Friend Jacob Joyce's.'
And after all that, Flashed out Leah,
the spirit of indignation still rife with
in her, she had the impudence to ask
me for jar of that plum-sauce | made.
She says Friend Mary More told her
how nice it was, and
And, quietly interpOsed her father.
thee said, hope, thee would he glad
to oblige her p
No, I didn't bluntly answered
Leah. Il said that gathered the Wild
plums myself in the Crook Woods, and
cooked them after Aunt Mahala's re.
ceipt and that there were four jars,
and that wanted to keep them for
thee especially since thy health had
failed and thy appetite was so varia-
ble.'
L am sorry, DEAR said Friend Deck
er. Friend Anastasia is very old, and
old people are apt to be fanciful about
trifes. Moreover, she's our kiGswo-
man, a degree Or so removed. perhaps,
but
Then why don't she do something
for us r flashed out Leah. besides CIV
ing US good advice and tormenting US
with her fauit-hnding I! didn't mean
to mention it, father. but she told me
out and out that she had adopted Mos
es Sawyer, and meant to make him her
heir
We'll, daughter why should she
not p composedly questioned the old
man.
Because he is no relation to her at
all, cried Leah ; 'and the property all
came from our great-grandfather Len
nox, thee knows
Thee attaches too much Importance
to mere dross, Leah,' said Friend
Decker. thee must study the text of
the lilies of the field in the Bible. We
shall all be provided for, if only we can
have patience to wait.
Leah bit her full, red under lip, as
she glanced around at the sparsely.fur :
nished room, and noted her fathers
dropping figure and rapidly-whitening
head, but she made no reply, as she
took up the coarse pile of vests on
which she had been making button
holes for neighboring clothing con-
tractor.
Fathers a saint, thought she, ''but
1 am not. and I'm afraid l never shall
be. / should like to cuff Anastasia
Akerly's ears. If every one had their
rights, half of that big Lennox farm
would be ours. She gained possession
of it by The merest legal quibble a nd
if father was like any one else, he
would have gone to law about it Ion g
ago, and got back his own. And now
to see it willed deliberately to some
one else =
And Leah's needle few vindictvely
in and out of the cloth, like minia'
ture javelin piercing the heart of aome
unseen enemy.
And the next morning when Leah
had gone to carry her bundle of vests
home and get another batch of work,