The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-11-06

have pint % blood in him. Wouldn't git
no doctor ner have nothin' done fer him /;
he jest stepped up them ole verbs o. hisn
and set round the stove stirrin' and drink
in % 'em. Wouldn't give up till the last
minute; then he did give in to lettin' the
doctor tap him. Thar was most a gallon
took out o. him. He want anatura1-look-
in corpse; he was swelled up so you
wouldn't "a knew him."
Mis- Hit leaned over to drop the ashes
of her pipe on the ground outside. Then
she got up and filled it from a saucer in
the cupboard, lighted it by means of a
match and the lamp chimney, and sas
down, recrossing her knees.
'Did Mr.. Carter reappear?" asked the
schoolmaster.
"'Rastus Carter, he'd went west spell
back. Pauliny Wiswell, she'd died o. the
fever-'twa'n't no wonder nuther, livin'
SO clus up to that ar tannery-and 'Rastus
he'd picked up and went Off to lnjiany. 1t
come back that he's got married agin out
thar"
'And you followed his examplel" said
the schoolmaster.
Eyes; | took up with Hit for the next
one. Hit, he hadn't been livin' round
here a greet while; but declar / might "a
knew what he was by his courtin'; he was
hangin' round SIGH an everlastin' time
afore he come to the pint. reckoned
shouldn't never get shet on him.
''Wal," said Mis- Hit, musingly, "thar
WANT much to Hit, one way or mother
He was as lazy as all git out; used to set
out whar twas sunny, sort o. dozin' off fer
hull day to time, and that was pretty
much all he did do.n
She smoked silently for a moment. The
lapse of time and the feebleness of Hits
characteristics seemed to have well-nigh
effaced him from her memory.
"Hitt,n she added, without emotion
''Hitt was run over on the railroad; struck
by the milne and histed forty foot in the
air; WANT hull bone left in his body
Folks did say he was too pison lazy to git
out the way when he saw the injine COM
in
Mis- Hits pipe was reinstated. The
hooting of an owl III the near wood sounded
at slow intervals amid the drowsy clsmor
of the frogs. The schoolmaster watched
the oddlyangular figure, whose MASCULINE
effect was not much detracted fromoy the
vivid calico dress. Mis- Hits bright eyes
roved in his direction.
''Rastus Carter'd got back from UjianY,"
she said. He'd buried his last wife out
thar and he was lookin' round fer another,
and when Hit was took off he come spear
in round Abram Doty, he was steerin'
my way, and 'Rastus he fared up; jest as
| high-tempered as ever, 'RastHs was. He
pinted out West agin, and l hain't never
heered no more on him.
wall I'd lived with a GURUS set o. men
enough, but Abram Doty was jest about
the cursu'est He was gittin' long towards
| seventy when Itook him, and he was broke
| down consid' able l dom know as he was
jest right in his mind. He vas so terrible
| pious thar WANT no livin' with him"
Mis- Hits tone had no trace of apology.
Fiety, seemingly, had lain without the
| bounds of her experience, and therefore Of
| her understanding.
st 'peared to "a struck in; he was clean
| e. ell. H.,
a-readin' in the Bible and melitatin' on his
| sins-that ar's what he give cut to be dom
-'most the hull time"
"Wuss'n ever after that Doty was. He
| couldn't bear to see me lookin' no ways
| decent: he laid down thai ribands and
fxin's was instruments o the devil; he
chucked two O. my bunnets into the stove
and tore up an alpacy .gownd. He'd go
| without tastin' mouthful fer day to a
| time-fsstin', he give out he was-dear
knows what fer; he was skinny as rail to
| begin with. He got so worked up cause
| stirred up mess o. fried cakes of a Sun
| day oncet that he went off to the woods
| and stayed thar for q consid' able spell.
| Ketched his death thar, too: he come back
clean sick. Neuralgy twas to the fust,"
said Mis- Hit, with an increase of interest
| in her tone; but dretful lot O. things sot
| in-pneumOny and tho janders and blood
| pisonin' and the swellin' o. the jints; the
| doctor give in twas the wust case he'd
ever come nigh Laid thar fer six weeks,
Doty did; out of his head the hull time,
and undergoin' such sufferin's as never
hurd the like of; ye could hear him holler-
| in and groanin' clear out to the street.
| Made consid' able of stir, being sech a
| terrible bad case; had as big funeral as |
ever was to, Doty did"
| Mis- Hits pipe was out; the pasture
had grown quite dark, and the noise of the
frnnS nm mt
her chair against the wall and closed the
| one small window near the ceiling by
means of broomstick. The school master,
conscious that an ignoring of these signs
would not avail him, arose from his nail
| key.
able that you will marry again!n he
fingered to remark.
Mis- Hit put up bony hand to remove
the one hairpin from her diminutive knot,
which was apparently TO be reconstructed
for the night
II don't know but what I've had bout
enough o. gittin' married. she responded
with undiminished gravity.
She waited nnimpressed, while her
visitor bowed, to shut the door behind
him.
The schoolmaster paid another visit to
the isolated little domicile toward the
close of his soiourn in district No. 10, in
consequence Oh u rumOr which HaQ come TO
his ears. 1t was to the effect that 'Rastus
Carter had come back, and that he and
Mis- Hit had gone promptly to the justice
and been made man and wife.
The rumor appeared to have substantial
foundation. There were two figures in the
doorway-Mis' Hits stock of chairs having
been added to by one. The old woman sat
quietly smoking, her arms folded on her
knees and her eyes resting vaguely on the
near field; the change in her condition,
possibly owing to it's lack of novelty. did
not appear to have affected her. The little
old man at her side, pale in comparison
with her withered darkness, struck the
schoolmaster with his resemblance to a
mushroom beside a blackened toadstool
he had a round, shining crown with a
fringe of white hair surmounting faded
pink face. Its placid meekness might have
led one to believe that his 'techniness'
and high temper were things of the past.
The schoolmaster, with q haunting GER
! tainty of being RELOCATED to the nail keg il
he went in, contented himself with bright
impression of the small red house with the
woods for background, and the swampy
pasture for an unlimited front yard, and
| with Mis- Hit and her last husband sitting
in tranquil silence in the doorway Detroit
Tribune.
Sunflowers for Fuel.