The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-06-22

She sat down and began to weep again,
and it was two or three minutes before
she could control her voice to reply:
ats he'un-all on account of he'unI"
Sand who may 'he'un' be-"
"The ole man."
"Oh, your husband? I hope he isn't
sick"
"He'un never gifts sick. He'up is dun
well all the time and able to tote all he
kin eat"
"Then what is itg'
AT that moment ''he'unp came upon
the scene, having been in hiding behind
a brush heap. He had a small bundle in
one hand and a shotgunin the other. He
was q man of 90, grizzled and gray,
with a weak, helpless look as his prom
inent Characteristic. He came forward
slowly and gave me q ''howdy," and al
the sound Of his voice the woman began
to ''boo-hoo" in a vigorous manner, and
walled out:
"Tve dun told him, Jim, all about
your fussingP'
"Who's a-fussin'?"
"You be-" k1
STRANGER" he said, as he turned to
me, with his chin quivering, 'tI'm dun
glad to meet up with yer. Twant you to
talk with she'un. tie attacking of my
heart outer me the way she Is taking on
I've dun carried her to town, over to her
brothers, down a-ishing, and all over,
and yet she's a-yearning. She's a-scold-
in and a-fussin' and a-cryin' all the time,
and I jest dun told her was going away.
I couldn't walk up to it no mo-"
saw that it was adomestic cloud, and
experience had taughtme the easiest way
to dissipate it. I ~unstrapped my KNAPP
sack, gave him a plug of tobacco and a
pipe, handed her pins, needles, thread, a
comb, and a cheap handkerchief, and by
the time we had got seated on a log for a
talk the thunder had died away and the
blackness had gone out Of the cloud.
"Now, then, tho trouble is this: You
are squatters. Youare poor. You don't
see a dollar in cash week in and week
out. You, Jim, raise a few potatoes and
a little corn, hunt and fish, cut o few
cords of wood for somebody, and that's
about all you can do. Am I right"
Brighter nor the Bible, sab. That's
jist exactly the case"
"And you, Mrs. Thomas, havelittle to
do with in the house, little to wear, and
the prospect of ending your days in this
lonesome place makes you impatient and
cross. Is that right" .4
"Befo' the Lawd it ar'i My own daddy
couldn't hev put it better"
"Well, now, let's reason a bit. You
have always been poor"
"Pore an shuckiess an unfltten."
"You never had a better home, nor
better clothes, o more to eat than you
have nowpn
"Never." ia ws m&N
"Well, then, you must have got used
to it. 1t isn'ta as if you had been rich and
lost all" =
"N-o, I 'spect not"
"You are pretty comfortable for poor
folks. I can find many worse off within
ten miles of you"
"You kin?' she exclaimed in great
surprise.
Certainly. That's the best calico
dress I've seen in two days."
"Stranger" she gasped, springing up
in her excitement, ''answer me honest
Andrewl Ar there folkses wuss off mol
we 'uns?"
"Heaps of them"
Right yere in this slater
eyes, and all around you"
F"Then, Jim, ] hain't got another
whinny {complaint) to make. I thought
we'uns was the downest of all. Let's
make up and shet."
I threw In another plug of tobacco and
a card of shirt buttons to bind the bar
gain, and as ! moved off they sat ON the
log with their arms around each other
and their tears falling together.
Two or three days later. thirty miles
away, I came to a pretty thrifty looking
farm which had about thirty acres in
corn, potatoes and cotton. A white
woman was welding ahoei a row close
to the roadside, while four orfive colored
people were beyond.
"Man homer" / queried, as I halted.
"Not if my eyesight is good, and I
reckon I kin see as fur a most anybody
she replied.
"Ahi Excuse me. You are a widow"
'Sorter."
"Crops look thrifty" D.
"Sartin. The sile Is all right if you
keep the weeds down. Come up from
the Co'nersg"
"Yes.n
"Stop to smack"
"I don't want to make you any trou-
ble."
"Reckon you hadn't better want toll
Come in."
1t didn't take long to discover that
she was strong minded and "sot" in her
ways. She put ON dinner, and as VIZ sat
down to the table she thawed out a little
and said:
"You were akin if the ole man was
home. He's dun got no business around
yere no mo. I'm a-speakin' OF the last
one I've had three"
"Ahf' was all I dared reply.
''The fust one died. Right smart good
thing that he did, as he was tryin' to be
o preacher and I was agin it and fixin'
to stop him. Second one played on the
fiddle and hunted fur bars. I stood it
fur about a var and then hunted fur
him. When I freed him he had to cum
down"
"How2" I asked, as she waited for ms