Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-23

undertaken will lift it into cheap coffin,
and away you'll go to the graveyard on q
trot. Funeral procession2 Ha ha hal Think
of any one here following your miserable
old body single rodr'
"Say say 1 want waterr' gasped
Scarvins.
well, want awayl You've bounded
men, evicted widows and seen weeping
orphans pass your door without the slight
est feeling of pity. Your turn has come
now It's cold job burying a body in
winter; the undertaken will hurry up with
you, word will go round the town that old
Scarvlns is dead and not one tear will be
sned-not one kind word spoken-in your
memory"
The fever left the old mans face for a
moment to give place to deathly pallor
ana, IN ms excitement, he raised up on his
Elbow ana asked: Have you no mercy in
your heart?n
T" When Flynn, the blacksmith, on his
dying bed, asked you to have mercy on his
family when he was gone, what did YOU re-
ply? You are rich, Scarvins-the richest
man IN town-but your December grave
will be sunken when the May blossoms
come, and your name will be recalled only
to provoke words of contempt Your kin
will come here to fight over this gloomy
old cabin and your town lots and stocks
and money, and they will have no feeling
for you except disgust that you did not
leave more. Poor old Scarvinsr'
III do betterl Give me water-go for
the doctor-rll be a different manr'
"Too latel Pm going now. I'll turn
down the light, and the fire will go out Of
itself 1t is for you to die in the cold and
the darkness-uncalled-f for, unthought of,
unlamented. Good night, Old Scarvins
The cold sun of morning will find you
dead, and the starved rats will come and
sniff at your face and turn away againl
Merry Christmas, Scarvins %
Hold on! come backl'' cried the old
man, but the stranger laughed softly to
himself and passed out
1t was Christmas morning in Rushville.
and it had been a week since old Scaryinsi
nearest neighbor, seeing no signs of life
about the old cabin, opened the door to
find the old man half frozen IN his bed,
from which he could not move. The doc
Tor SAID he would never leave it alive and
then lawyer was called in and strange
things happened. On that Christmas morn
ing loads of coal and barrels of -four and
packages of groceries reached dozens of
doors where grim Want ever kept guard.
Notes-of-hand and iron-clad chattel mort
cages were returned to the signers Little
packages of money were placed in the hands
OF Woodworking men who had called old
Scarvins a usurer and a cheat A great
sleigh toiled up the hill to the asylum and
unloaded a Christmas present for every
orphan, and in his will old Scarvins had
left the town such a public park as money
could not have bought
Cone three : five-twenty-f orty-six-
ty-six. A funeral bell on Christmas after
noon2 1t tolls for whom?" And people an
sWered one another:
''Scarvins is dead. He was not such a
bad man as we all thought for. We must
all turn out to his burial tomorrow
Yes, Scarvins was dead In his diving
hour he whispered to one of the watchers
at his bedside
Il want you to tell him that died bet
ter man!n
''Tell Who?"
''The little old man,
1t was mystery to them, for the little
old man had come and gone and left no
footprints behind.