The Wahpeton times., 1889-08-29

Yet we, wrapt in night'shadows still do stay
Hopeless upon the outskirts of the day!
AROMANCE.
By Lieut.. ]. Dark Chandlee in National
Tribune.
A few years ago Mrs. James Bells,
an aged and much-esteemed resident
of the neighborhood of Bethlehem,
in the upper end Of Warren County,
related to the writer the following
particulars regarding an eccentric
character we'll known in that section
up to the time of his death, in the
Winter of 1866. ..
Bethlehem is a pretty little Cross
roads country village of about a
dozen houses, with the usual store,
blacksmith-shop and tavern, nest
ling under the eastern slope of the
Musconetcong Mountains. Itisvery
old, very quiet, and has never been
distinguished for anything except q
strict attention to it's own business.
In the pleasant and luxuriant agri-
cultural valley south of and in sight
of the one church steeple of this
peacefully obscure village Mary
Armitage was born in 1885, and
lived until her marriage with James
Bells, in 1857, In telling her little
story, the only romance of her life,
asshe called it, Mrs. Bells said:
81 think I began to hear about
John Mackey about the same time
thatI began to notice a vague and
hazy distinction between good and
evil. He was then held up before
me as terror on the not infrequent
occasions when Imishehaved. FiLd-
ing that he utterly failed to put in
an appearance on the frequent oc-
casions when mother or my maiden
aunt, Isabel, would go to the door
and call cut in an awfulvoice:
Here, John Mackey; come and
take this bad girl"
II gradually lost faith in John
Mackey as, a bogey. As I grew a
little older and able to carry my mis-
doings farther afield, my father used
to supplement my mothers mild re-
proof by saying sterenly:
Little gal, if you don't stop
padding down yonder in the creek,
and stop struggling around on the
mountain, Hog Mackey will get you
some of these days, sure.'
"As this calmity never eventuated,
/ came to the conclusion that Hog
Mackey had lost his taste for little
girls. and persisted in my small
mischiefs with great peace and con-
tentment. Finally. having outgrown
my regard for childish scarecrows at
an early age, the time came when I
heard only of John Mackey, when
father came home in the Spring with
q dozen beautiful little white pigs in
the wagon, which I was told he had
bought from Hog Mackey, or in the
Fall when the farm hands, with the
big wagon, and father on horseback,
started into the mountain early in
the morning and did not return
until the next day, when the wagon
would he full of dead and dressed
hogs that were sent on to Easton
market, and I learned they had been
up helping Hog Mackey kill his pigs.
"The Musconetcong Mountain is
the best place in Warren County for
chestnuts and hickory.nuts. From
the time I first began to have teeth
until the time / ceased to have any,
and, In fact, ever since, I have been
an ardent lover of every nut that
grows in the forests.
"As long as there was a nut to be
found in the woods, that was the best
place to look for me after I had at-
tanned an age and size that admitted
OF my going out ofsight ofthe house.
The foot Of the mountain was not
more than half a mile away, and be-
fore was eight years old was fa-
miliar with every tree, bush and rock
along the eastern foothills and for q
mile up therugged sides OF Musconet-
cong.
1T was when was about 10 years
old that an event occurred which
came near cutting this story short,
and at the same time made me ac-
quainted with John Mackey. NV
father and some men in the hight Of
the nutting-time ere out on the foot
OF the mountain cutting and framing
timber for q new barn. begged so
hard that after dinner was allowed
to 60 out with them to pick nuts,
under heavy verbal bonds that was
on no account to 60 out of hearing
of the axes Of the workers.
''The nuts were plentiful and I
gathered q baskettul; which carried
and set down by fathers coat on a
stump. Then I remembered q tree
that bore particularly big hickory
nuts; and concluded that /
wanted some. On reaching
the tree I found that none had
fallen. Then I resolved to search
further, feeling sure there must be
more trees of the same family. I had
wandered around for some time with