Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-08-01

mill and seven houses, all occupied by
Barstows and people who have married
Barstows. If one happens not to be a
Barstow by blood, but only by mar
riage, he or she is secretly blamed, as
II he or she were responsible for this
misfortune. Clearly, if not Barstow
by birth, the next best thing man or
woman can do is to marry one who was
born within the circle. II, as some
times happens, a merely legal con-
nection is not very shrewd or success
full in ''gittin' q livin'," the failure is
laid to the fact of that PERSONS mot
bein'' really Barstow, you know"
| The hired man, Moses Harding, was
q poor creature in SO far as he was re-
lated only by wedlock to this family,
having married for his first wife Eco,
lyde Barstow, niece of the man who had
an OK for sale. Though Moses was
living with his second wife, he still
proudly chung to calling Sylvester Bar
stow uncle; and who could blame him?
He felt that this privilege conferred q
kind of glory on him. ----..
When we were once beyond the viii
lage, the strain of fearing to see Leftant
Shaw anywhere was removed from my
mind, and ! bethought me to ask Moses
how it came about that Barstow had
a single OK to sell, if such a sale were
not considered quite reputable.
was hastily. assured that this cir
cumstance was brought about by an
accident for which no man could be
responsible.
'There had been a yoke of UNI" said
Moses, "but the off one had died of a
disease which not even. a Barstow
could cure" The nigh one had been
left, consequently it was the nigh one
we were going to examine.
Maiden said that at this stage of the
proceedings it would become us to
know whether Juba had heretofore
been an off OK or nigh one. When
consulted as to what he though on this
subject, the hired man was entirely
non-committal. He said that there
were signs about Juba which suggested
that he might be the one or the other.
This being his opinion, it did not ap-
pear advantageous to pursue the topic
farther with him.
Three miles from home we drew up
in front of the whitest of white cot
tages, closely fenced in by white pick
cts. A fat man, In a Tong blue frock,
was planting potatoes on the other
side of the road. This was Sylvester
Barstow himself, and he came for
ward, smiling all over his large,
smoothly-shaven face. 1t appeared
that he was a member of the "ortho-
dox church," and that my friend was
his pastor. He said in a fine treble
voice, very astonishing as coming
from such a bulk, that if we'd go in,
his wife d be pesky glad to see the
minister, and he nodded benignly to
his nephew by marriage.
When we asked if he had an OK to
sell, he Immediately began to look
very reflective, and we sat patiently
waiting until he said yes, he had 8
critter he'd part with. He had toto
his wife dozen times within a week
that if he knew the critter d fall into
good hands he'd part with it. It was
jest as pooty as it could be, and il
went ag'inst the grain with him tt
send it to the slarter-house. He made
it a pint to have pooty things round
him, from his wife down to the cat.
This last remark was joke, and VIC
all laughed spasmodically.
| Maiden then explained to Mr.. Bar
stow that we already had one OK, and
were thinking of setting up a pair
Being asked Immediately where We
got the other animal, we briefly said
it came from Mr.. Silas Rhodes.
Mr.. Barstow passed his great hand
over his face, seemed for an instant a
if he were going to choke, then sale
he didn't know nothin' of his owl
knowledge, but he had heerd that Mr.
Rhodes made quite an income outel
that OK.
I thought that I should always sus
pect when a man said he didn't know
of his own knowledge. I asked, with
asperity, what he meant by that, ani
he replied, as,if speaking to an unruly
child:
'Sho, now. We .uustnt believe al
we hear"
And I said no more.
This interview resulted IN our lead
ing the OK home to try him, for Mr.
Barstow said 'twa'nt his way to take 6
mans money 'thout the man knew what
he was payin' for.
! When we tried this creature We
found that he would not work alone
though he would work with Juba, but
Juba would not work with him. We
experimented long and ard,lOuslv with