The Red Cloud chief., 1888-02-17
"HE."
What the Telephone Revealed to
Aunt Sophronia.

tOWn Oh StautOH. IN tuO COuutTSs I1C WdS .
bright young fellow. who owned q pro-
ductive farm, with all the stock his acres
could feed. and q pleasant old house; vet
he found it hard to persuade pretty Martha
Carter to marry him.. STE liked him: he
rosy lips, but she was young, gay. very
fond Of society and the only child Of q
widow: It was the old Tilt,
81 Gamma leave my nanny yeti"
and John King, who was ten times as much
well-nigh distracted. As his Aunt SOphro-
mia. a maiden lady who kept house for him,
said:
'He amt good for nothin'. I wish't he
was married an done whit, and was
safe back to Elnathan's. He don't remcm-
Der nothin'. I send in to Stanton BY him for
such things as is needful to keep the house
agoiu', and he don't never fetch one Of
them, without I set to and give him a WRIT
out list and pin it onto his coat. Nor he
don't care nothin' about the critters; Hiram
has to do the hull ont; and 10 leave costly
critters like them to hired help amt what
o man had ought to do. Not but what Hi
is real reliable, but John dom take no
interest, not Q mite!"
- y a. ga AASs SouA "OS 6Oc0 W. NV
sort OF work as long as Mary Carter turned
the cold shoulder to him; but after q year
of persistent counting she began to show a
geutler ~countenance to her devoted lover;
he began to hope.
About that time a telephone company set
up its office at Stanton. and sent its spider.
threads all abroad over the surrounding
country: and il struck John Stanton that
hARn NINA 0n0fhnP vvn IN nnnkn hio Inynn
attractive to Matty. BY this invention he
with the village, even oftencr il it was
needed; SO that she need not be so separated
from her mother as she had dreaded-Mrs.
Carter being wise enough to refuse q home
with her son-in-law.
So John had q telephone put into the
''keepin'- ROOM of the farmhouse, and
told Matte the very next Sunday night
that whenever she made up her mind to &C
cept him he would place one in her moth.
er's parlor, SO they could talk together
whenever they liked.
1t was not So much this expensive atten-
ton that softcned the little beauty's heart
as the proof it gave of Johns eagerncss to
do every thing and any thing for her COM
fort or pleasure, and, as she was more ambi-
NAohS ooA = tiAAh 0nCSSAOuotCs u w.
gan to feel that it was agreeable to be q
queen.
However. this is not o love story. Matty
is only introduced to account for the teie-
phone. Now, about two miles beyond John
King there lived . family Of Millers, con-
sisting OF two elderly men, Aaron and
Joseph Miller. and a oman a little older
than either Of them, as their housekeepcr.
These men were farmers, but they had
had thrown . dam across . wild brook that
crossed their farm just where it dashed
through a small. deep valley, and. obtain
ing Q good water power, had built q grist
and saw mill, which brought them In more
money than all the rest Of the farm.
Miss Sophronia Perkins, John Kings
aunt, whom we ave already mentioned.
hated these neighbors thoroughly; what
reason or unyeason there was for this feel
ing on her part, nobody knew; but there
was enough in the outward aspect of the
men to account for q rational measure of
dislike in any woman: they were tall, stur-
dy fellows. dark OF skin, rough, surly and
dirty always; stingy with their money, un-
social in their manners, and the woman
who worked for them q an ~unsavory
reputation.
The Miller farm, lying far back from the
high-road behind a black hemlock grove,
ON a plateau half way up certain rugged
hills, was the sort of q place a novelist
would select for q robbery or q murder, so
adapted was the m;se en- scene to sugges
such ideas, and so ft was the aspect of tie
two Miiiers to their place Of abode.
But there are many Just such men and
inst such desolate farm-houses in New
England. and no crime worse than greed
and s~eiftshness enters their hearts or
homes.
The Miller brothers were proverbially
''near;" but no one except Sophrouia Per-
kins ever imagined anv harm Of them.
They werc ''curus actin creturs," or
'tsmart at sixpences;" nothing worse was
laid to their charge.
When Aaron Miller heard that John
King had put in . telephone, he saw di-
rec:ly tho advantage the instrument would
be to them in their daily increasing BUSH
ness, and after due Consideration with Joe
the wire was extended to their mill, and
proved . daily convenience; for they had .
-four and feed store in Stanton which
Joseph attended to. going in early every
morning and driving back ut night. Now
he could send out orders to Aaron - BOOB
- they came In, notify him Of the arrival
1t the station Of grain for their grinding,
or transact directly my matter Of butt