The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-05-12


soh's lean kind sure enough, but he is .
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.
It was fully an hour. before any one. sug-
gested that II would be we'll to make
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 tithing man, should
| 60 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, il any there were. These two
thereupon crossed the turnpike, scaled the
stone wall, and went first to the store
The paddock creaked in the door as they
tried it. but was firm, and the shutters
the little narrow path, watched closely by
the crowd on Barker's porch. Barker him
self standing on his door-sill under q
wreath of paim-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
6odyNwell, If there's tracks, they're in the
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 q 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
Issor ma I'M fto nryh TOM
mot q 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-
discussed Pinney's virtues. and curiously
enough, through all these years Pinney q
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
Pinney was a "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
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 flag when Polk beat
Clay" Jud Guernsey, who prided him
|
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,
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-
terious absence had alarmed them, and
| nnf fIr fn yx-nf oh a sill MI
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. Forrwenty
years precisely ut 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 we'll to let the bucket down
| into it and get pail of water, which he
carried into the store The path thus made
smooth by his always slippered feet. The
| only exercise men ever saw him busy him.
self about was with the bucket at the we'll,
| or IL there was snow he cleared 1t 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 a day. He was
| a time piece for the neighbors, just as the
noon train in the railway that ran along
I
he never was behind time. In the dim rec.
| objection Of older men there appeared the
picture Of a stalwart, handsome-eyedy young
fellow, who was as genial as he was proud
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
| OF. n n NIL ftav
cobwebbed and grimy by the years neg
iect, and log was always burning in the
great fireplace in heat Of summer or dead
of winter. There was musty flavor OF
whale oil, salt fish, and crackers, and q
glistening barricade of hoes and rakes and
shovels was erected near the fireplace. On
a battered row of shelves were calicoes and
ginghams, 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 Z
glass case, were pins and needles, tape
and thread, scissors and pencils, and In
greasy boxes ancient sugar bull's-eyes
from which the sweetness seemed t.
haze oozed away and left only the ribbe.
counter by a pair Of pendant scales stoot
Pinney. His thin hair hung as nature hat
it in misty locks far down upon his should
ers, and a tenuOus beard combining witt
his hair made fringe about SO that
|
mounted by tippet all about the neck o
thin gray hair His eyes were gentle, an
his manner too. His feet were alway
clad in slippers, his coat had been burnishe
by the years so that it shone as polishe
wood, and the palm leaf hat had bee
dyed to bronze-like color by the hickor
smoke Of wears. His method OF trade wa
simple. When one asked the price of an
article Pinney would produce a placard o.
which the figures had been drawn and sho!
it. No one ever dickered with him. Hi
communication was simply Yea, yea" o
"Nay, nay" No one had heard him spsa
another word for twenty years. Yet the
knew he was we'll informed. No man a
the Corners received a larger mail. Thu
all his business was done and his strang
habit of life was less cause of astonlst
ment thar the fact that he took two new,
papers. one Wing, one Democratic. 1t wa
| this more than his silence that induced th
belief that Pinney was "a leetle queer i
his head -.|-.. .a. .u..fa r..
When noon had come and gone, an
there was still the mystery of silence q
Pinney's, it became unbearably porter
tious, so that the neighbors quilted thei
, avocatiOns and gathered on Barker's porci
, while on the tow path there stood grouI
of women. grooming among themselves an
casting shy, uneasy glances at the silel
house The awful my stery Of silence an
, of absence permitted the liveliest an
gloomiest fancies, until somehow it passe
from lip to lip that Pinney lay upon tn
hoor; then, with more vivid detail, it wa
said that his head rested upon the threshol
: Just inside, and with this fancy to sei7
, upon, the famished senses of the thron
! took up the hallucination Of one, until the
r all believed they saw dark stain slowl
creeping from underneath the door, OF