The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-08-17
THE JUG.


will tell it to you.
"My father, as you are probably aware,
owned this farm before me. Tie lived to
a good old age, worked hard all his life,
never squandered money, was a cautious
trader, and a good calculator and, as men
were accounted in his day and generation,
he was a temperate man. I was the young
est boy; and when the old man was ready
to go-and he knew 1.-THE Others agreed
that, since | had stayed at home and taken
care of the old folks, the farm should be
mine. And to me it was willed. l had
been married three years.
"Well, father died-mother had gone
three years beforehand left the farm to
me, with a mortgage on lit for two thou
sand dollars. I'd never thought of it before,
and said to Mollie, my wife
"tMollie, look here. Here father has
had this farm in its strength Of soil, with
all its magnificent timber, and his boys, as
they grew up, equal to so many men to
help him; and he worked hard-worked
early and late-and yet, look at it. A
mortgage of two thousand dollars, What
can do about it9'
"And wentto that jug-it had its bot
tom in then-and took a good stiff drink of
old Medford rum from it.
81 noticed a curious look on the face of
my wife just then, and | asked her what
she thought of it. for supposed she was
thinking of what | had been talking about.
And so she was, for she said
"'Charles, I've thought of this a great
deal, and I've thought of a way in which |
believe you can clear this entire mortgage
off before five years are ended
"'Mollie, tell me how you'll do it9'
"She thought for a while, and then said,
with a funny twinkling in her blue eyes:
"'Charles, you must promise me this,
and promise me solemnly and saeredly;
promise me that you will never bring home
for the purpose of drinking for a beverage,
at any time, any more spirits than you can
bring in that old iug-tlle jug your father
has used ever since | knew him, and which
You have used since he was done with it,
''Well, L knew father used once in a
while, especially in having time, and in
winter, when we were at work in the
woods, to get an old gallon jug filled; so l
thought that she meant that | should never
buy more than two quarts at a time. |
thought it over, and after a little while
till How ,von1l rroo - -, ,lo,
"'Now mind, she said, you are never
never to bring home any more spirits than
you can bring home in that identical jug
Il gave her the promise. And before !
went to bed that night I took the last pull
at that jug. AS I was turning it out for a
sort of a night-cap, Mollie looked up and
said:
"'Charlie, have you got a drop left?'
There w9s just about a drop. And I
was to get it filled on the morrow. Then
she said, if had no objections, she would
drink that last drop with me. shall new
er forget nov she said it-'that last Drop?
"However, tipped the old jug bottom
up, and got about q spoonful, and Mollie
said that was enough. She took a tumbler
and poured a few drops of hot water in it,
and a bit of sugar, and then she tinkled
the glass against mine, just as she had seen
us boys do, when we'd been drinking TO
good lack, and says she:
"'lIere's to the old brown Jug
"'Snakes alive! | thought to myself
that poor Mollie had been drinking more
of the rum than was good for her, and
tell you it kind of cut me to the heart. |
forgot all about how many times she had
seen me when my tongue was thicker than
it ought to be, and my legs not so steady
as good legs should be; but said nothing.
I drank the sentiment-'The old brown
jug'-and let it go.
"'Well, I went ont after that, and did
my chores, and then went to bed; and the
last thing I said before leaving the kitchen
this very room where we now sit-was:
"'We'n have the old brown jug filled
tomorrow, Mollie.'
s'Then l went off to bed. And | have
remembered ever since how | went to bed
that night, as l had a hundred of times be-
fore, with a buzzing in my head that a
healthy mar ought not to have. | didn't
think of it then, nor had ever thought of
it before, but I've thought of it since with
wonder and establishment.
''Well, | got up the next morning and
did my work at the barn, then came inand
ate my breakfast, but not with such an
appetite as a farmer ought to have, and /
could not think then that my appetite had
begun 70 fail me. However, | ate break
fast, and then went out and hitched up the
old mare; for, to tell the plain truth, | was
feeling in need of glass of spirits, and
hadn't a drop in the house. | was in a
hurry to get to the village. | hitched up
and came in for the jug. went to the old
cupboard for it and took it out, and
"Did you ever break through the thin
ice on a swapping cold day and find your
self in an instant over your head in freez-
ing water? Because that is the way felt
at that moment. The jug was there. but
the bottom was gone. Mollie had taken a
sharp chisel and a hammer, and with a
skill that might have done credit to a mas
ter workman, she had clipped the bottom