Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-11-29

! ly on beside her father. Hiram in front Of
them never quickened his pace at all. Thu
bell had quite stopped ringing when they
reached the church, and there were nc
people in the vestibule, even the sextor
had gone in.
| Hiram opened the door and tiptoed ur
the aisle; his boots squeaked. The Elmer
sons did not enter until he was fairly
seated in his pew. Then he did not appear
| to watch them, but he saw them quite
| plainly He even noted little red feather
on Fanny Emerson's black straw hat, and
wondered how much it cost. Tt was sc
| bright, he thought it must be expensive
| The Emersons were now very straitene6
| In their circumstances, and the GoodelI
watched them narrowly, and appraised
/ jealousy everything they had. There was
feud between the two families, a New
| England feud. There was no blood shed
there would never be any breaking of or
| thodoX trammels, but the GoodeIls and
| the Emersons had hated each other stiff1y
and rigidlF, after the true manner of theil
Puritan blood, for the last ten years
| There had been piece of woodland, Whose
possession was disputed. The question
had been carried to law, and Foster En-
| erson had won the suit, while Hiram
Goodeu had to pay the costs, as well as te
lose his claim. He had considerable prop
erty, but he was close with it; it was an
awful thing for him to pay his hard-earned
dollars to the lawyers in addition to giving
up his own will. Hiram Gooden was q
New Highlander of New Englanders. He
could not carry on a Southern vendetta
but he could walk hand-in-hand with
hatred with an iron grip. To-day he
seemed as bitter toward Foster Emerson
as he had been ten years ago. The one
thing that could have served to ameliorate
mis- wrath had apparently not yet done SO;
that was Emerson's ill-fortune. 1t almost
seemed as If the lawsuit had been decided
unrighteously and so brought curse
with it, Poor Emerson had the disputed
woodland, and bad luck had seemed to
fly out of it in his face like a bird. The
wood was standing ready to be cut, when
it came into his possession; the week af-
ter, it had burned to the ground. In ten
years time it had grown again, this winter
he was to have cut it, but the summer be-
fore, it had been burned for the second
time. The Emersons had dark suspicious,
but they never mentioned them. Indeed
they were not well founded Hiram Good
ell was not capable of setting fire to his
enemy's wood. He would never think OF
such thing.
However, the night when the wood had
burned, he and his wife watched the red
glare on the sky, and neither of them was
sorry. His wife spoke with a certain stern
triumph like the PsalmiSt, II can't help
thinkin'," said she, "that it's a judgment
on him." She and Hiram rather regarded
all Emerson's misfortunes as judgments,
and there had been great many of them.
His son whom he had depended upon for
the support of his old age had died, his
wife had been delicate, his stock had gone
nown with the cattle-evil, his crops had
failed, and his house was heavily mort
gagged. This year the strain to meet the
interest-money had been terrible 1t had
been whispered about town that Emerson
would fail to do it, and lose his place. But
it had been done, although nobody knew
with what difficulty. The Goodells had
speculated a great deal as to whether
Emerson would pay it. One day Hiram
came home with the news that he had.
''It's sou said he. 81 got it from young
Simmons, an his brothers in the band.''
He half sighed unconsciously. He had
an underlined feeling that this time the
shaft of the Lord had missed his adver-
sary.
81 s'pose it must be so them" rejoined
his WIFE
She would not have recognized her own
sentiments on the subject had she seen
them. She was not hard woman, but
like her husband, she had that grim clutch
at a resentment, that came from her blood.
Then too she was fond of money, and she
dwelt constantly upon their loss. She
liked nice things in her house, and nice
clothes, and she had stinted herself def
antly ever since the affair of the woodland.
ST could have a new black silk dress every
year, and new parlor carpet if we hadn't
been cheated out OF so much money" she
was wont to say. She expressed her mind
upon the subject quite freely to the Lord
sisters They had a shrewd way of lead
ing her on, and Mrs. Gooden for all her
decision, had at times an innocent uncon-
sciouSneSS that she was being led. The
Lord sisters, one or the other, or both, ran
over nearly every day, and sat down a few
minutes for q little talk.
Thanksgiving morning, some half an
hour after Hiram had gone to church,
Jane Lord came over. She brought a
white bowl She wanted to borrow little
sugar; she feared they had not enough to
sweeten the cranberry-sauce.
"I'm ashamed to come borrowin' sugar
Thanksgivin' mornin'," said she, "but we
didn't neither of us know how to go to the
store. an we didn't think of its bein' quite
so near out"
"You can have it jist as well as not"
said Mrs. Goodell.
After the bowl was filed with sugar,
Jane Lord sat holding it for quite while.
She had something on her mind that she
wanted to say, and she led up to it deli
cately.
81 see Mr.. Goodell goin' to meetin'," she
remarked after a little.
"Yes-he went" retu rned Mrs Goodell.
"Well, there amt many to go in this
neighborhood, Thanksgivin' mornin'. You
have to stay at home to get the dinner, an
Rachel and me do. We amt neither Of US
nt to get it alone. Then there's the EN-
ersons-I dunno but Fanny an her father
CO."
81 dunno whether they go or not" said
Mrs. Goodell, in stately and Indifferent
manner. She was on her way to the oven
with spoon to basic the turkey.
Jane Lord sat holding the bowl Of sugar
and pursuing her lips softly. She was sal
low-faced and there was sad droop in her
features. Her voice was Unexpectedly
quick and strident.
"Speakin' of the Emersons," said she,
81 was down to Mis- Silas Grants the
other day, you know she's Mis- Emerson s
cousin, an she was tellin' me how dread
full bad off they was. They've had to rake
an scrape every cent they could lay
their hand on to pay that interest-money
to keep roof over their heads, an
lane / .ord lowered her voice as she leaned