The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1889-05-24
REDGlTT'S POOL.
CHAPTER i.

REDGlTT'S POOL.
CHATTER j.
Why Drcdgitt's, AKA why POOL, l don't
Know, for 1t IS rs or,,ntiental a piece of
water as 1 know anywhere. 1t is beautiful
~ Kept, and the SWAN OIL it are the talk of
the country round for their tameness and
beauty. The master is very proud of his
swans, n tho lake, and indeed of all about
ms park: and we'll he may be, for he las
made 1t as near perfection rs can we'll he
under IN English sky.
And the family namei isn't Dredgitt either.
but Monksholme, and there's never been =
"Dredgitt" that I know of anywhere about
the place. But that's what the country pco-
pile call 1t, and have done for generations.
MY tath.r, and he was an old man when he
died, said he had never known it called any
thing else, and 1t is called the same in some
old family parchments that l have seen i'm
at the house.
But all this has nothing to do with what ]
mn going to tell, only it is odd how uueer
names will stick to things and places, thai
no one knows the meaning of.
l have been in Squire Monksholme's SER
vice man and boy for over fifty years, and a
good service it has been, and | married nv
wife out OF the house, and q good wife she
mas been, as any one might expect from her
bringing up. She was taken there from the
village school, as was, and She came to be
lder-cook at last and then l stopped her
wee indoors by marrying her. Some peo-
SAD sue might have done better by stay
4" taking the coachman, who was
ct upon her, and settling UP in a public
In London with him; but / don't think she
would somehow, for he took to drink and
died of the horrors, and Cherry would not
have been much the better of the match.
Her name was Charity, but they always
called her Cherry about the house. and /
called her so, too, of course.
When we grew old, Cherry and I, the
master put IT'S into the north lodge, and gave
us the poultry yard as well, and my wife
makes a capital henwife, and sends more
yo"ls and eggs up to the house than anyone
they have ever had, the llousekeeper says.
But all this isn't what / am coming to; it is
only just to show who we are and where we
live. 1t isn't about myself nor Cherry that
4 am going to tell, except inasmuch as It
concerns us partly; it is about our boy, our
Ralph, that we loved so dearly.
Ralph was not our OWL boy; we never
reared a child; we had three, and they all
went away to the Good Shepherd before we
had had time to realize our great joy in pos.
sessing them, l suppose it was not good
for us to be too happy. We had everything
that heart could wish for except that, and
maybe it isn'tright forpeopleto have every
thing in this world at once.
But it was a dreadful grief when they
came II went like that, and after the last
MN y1-a lntl In thu arrn, ,n rIn,y.,, nlr,n.k
gave up.
MY heart will break, Dick" she said, 'ft
Is empty-so empty"
And so was mine, but men don't saw as
much about such things as women do; they
don't seem to grieve so much, but they get
short-tempered and downhearted; it must
come out somehow, you know. So when
the last Of our little ones had been laid in
the grave, it seemed as if Cherry would be
Ill, she grieyed so; and then there came a
story Of how some poor creature had diedin
the workhouse and left her little baby to be
brought up by the parish, or to die If il
couldn't stand the treatment; and IFS rather
rough OF tender babies; nothing would do
but Cherry must go and beg that child for
her w and bring it up as if it had been
the very one we had lost.
The parish made as much fuss about civ.
ing it up to us as if it was worth a thou
sand-a>year to them, and they went to the
master about it, and he talked to me.
"Can you afford to do this thing, Graves9'
he said, ut means money, you know, as
well as Cherry's trouble"
1--WE could have afforded to keep our own
sir" l said, 'if it had pleased Heaven to lei
us have them, and We'll do it for this one,
never fear" And thenI told him that ]
was afraid Cherry would go into a bad way
If she didn't have it. She was that down
cast and grieying.
So it was settled; and the master made
me quite uncomfortable with all the fine
things he said to the parish people aboutm me,
and how good Cherry and me would be to
the poor little child. He was proud to have
such a man and woman on his estate, he
said; but that is neither here nor there, and
TIE end of it was that the baby was given tc
rs, and 1t filled up an emptiness in OH,
hearts a little, though l think Cherry cried
more over it when it came than she had
done over the grave of the last little darling
we were ever to see of our very own. il
opened up the sore, You see, and made II
bleed afresh.
We never had a minutes trouble with
Ralph; he was as good a boy as ever breath.
ed. don't mean to say that he hadn't his
tempers; | wouldn't have a boy withou,
them; he'd have no spirit; but he was 9
good boy. We could trust him, and we did
Well, he grew up, and when he was biz
enough, he went into the squirrels service
too, Bird soaring, and wedding, and all sorts
of odd things at first, and then into a reeu.
lar place about the preserves, till, when he
was eighteen, he was under-keeper, and as
line a young fellow as ever l set eyes on.
The squire liked him very much, and mi
him forward all he could, and he had money
IN the bank, and all seemed to be going well
with him, when evil days came upon him,
and he fell in love.
! don't mean to say that falling in love is
VII; Heaven knows there never was a bet.
ter thing for me than my marriage; but it is
when a lad falls in love with the wrong wo.
man that mischief comes of it; and that,s
Just what my poor boy did. never saw
her; she lived miles away on the other side
of the county, and he had seen her when he
went with tile squire and stayed two DAYS
once at 4 place where some of our pleas
ants We're taken for the breed.
And Ralph went there about it, and from
that hour he was q changed lad. He was
absent and broody, and the old light had
gone out of his eyes, and the smile, that wa.
80 fresh and pleasant, from his dear face
and we guessed what had come to him, ant
AIS tho.lcr-wc were always father anG
mother to him, for lie knew no ~other-taxet
him with it.
"Itsa woman that's wrong with you,
Ralph, my lad" Cherry said, when he coulG
net eat his supper, and sat with his head or
rs hand staring at nothing. You've been
failing %inloye, and it don't agree with you.'
.poltt laugh at Inc, mother" he said;
don't cliaff me; 1 can't stand ito
I won't" Cherry said. Tell me ali
about it, my boy9 Who is it,"
don't think we ever made out rightly
who she was. She was in service at a farm.
er's over where Ralph had been, and she
was as beautiful as the daylight. / didn't
take much account of that, because il a wo-
man is as ugly as Beelzebub, and as wicked
as the father of lies himself, tile man who
is unfortunate enough to fall in love with
her, viii think her an angel, in spite of all.
Ihls girl was as good as she was beautiful,
Ralph declared, and, like himself, she was
II, enr~s,.,,- Isl NIn ..EEH