The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-08-07
Selected Storp.
The Man with the Yellow Wheels.

cepted,' perched nigh above his busl-
ness, he Numbered with his dusky load
through he streets of the busy town.
One large concern used quantities of
soft coal, and Joe had found out that
the easiest haul there and back was
along the fine broad avenue where those
who owned trotters speeded them and
those who did not sat upon the FENCES
and made disparaging remarks.
But of all those who flew past Joe, as
he laborod along the road, not one eX-
cited his ire half SO much as a man
with "yellow wheels"
Sometimes it was horse of one color
and sometimes of another, but always
yellow wheels" Joe Just hated the
very sight of him. He was so well
dressed, he was so self-contained, his
"team was so spck and span, and he
drove so well, that to himself Joe had
wasted upon him all the choice epithets
that he had learned in the army.
Joe Jeffus had driven a team of some
kind ever since he could remember,
and it was therefore most natural that,
lie and the war maturing about the same
time, he should enlist as a WAGNER and
become the driver of mule-team.
He saved his bounties and his pay,
and at the close of the unpleasantness
concluded to settle down and go to
work. But he missed being under
orders, and looking about him, wooed
and won his neXt-door neighbor, a
fragile, little light-haired factory girl,
and swore allegiance to her for life.
His hands and face were not black
and grimy then, and his dark, curly
hair crowned head of youthful, manly
beauty.
Youth had long since gone from Joe,
the little light-haired girl had become
a delicate, ailing woman, and his heart
sank many and many a time as he
climbed up the dingy stairs to his attic
home. The 4" little woman" though,
had proved, on the whole, good in
vestment. Every month little from
his pay went into the great stone saw
ings bank in the center of the town.
Wouldn't the time ever come" the
little woman kept asking, Z" when they
could buy the little corner lot they
could see from their windows, and over
which the soft summer breezes coming
up from the river kept the grass and
trees so green?"
And then Joe would light his pipe
and 90 down and sit upon the door
step, and think, always think, about
the " yellow wheels"
Now this feeling was not so very
strange, after all, for into everybody's
life, at some time or another, in some
way or another, there enters something
very, very nearly akin to the man with
yellow wheels" So it came to pass
that one day succeeding the time-worn
wish from his tired wife, that, thunder
ing along the avenue, he caught sight
of his enemy. He had pulled out
toward the sidewalk to see man. A
line of heavy wagons was coming in the
opposite direction. Joe kept bearing
closer and closer down upon the "yel-
low wheels, away from the approaching
teams; he had taken in the situation at
a glance. The yellow wheels" could
be rasped and cut into by the end of his
clanking whifiletree, if the man didn't
pull out literally upon the sidewalk.
Now Joe could clear him just as well as
not if he wanted to; but he didn't.
Unconscious of all this, the owner of
the yellow wheels" laughed and
talked with his friend on the sidewalk
On and on came Joe, his face blacker
than usual, threatenings and slaughter
in his heart and evil in his eye. In
less time than it takes to tell it the
heavy whiflletree was playing hide
and-seek among the yellow spokes the
horse had jumped and backed, almost
thrown out the man, knocked his hat
off in the mud and put one foot squarely
upUn 1t, Willie Joe, unconcernedly,
face to the front, was clanking along
the road. Very soon Joe knew the
man was coming for him; he heard the
horses hoofs nearer and nearer, and
now the yellow wheels " were ahead
Of his team.
6 say" said the man, what did
you do that for?"
eco long" answered Joe, appar-
emily to his horses, really to the man.
g say" repeated the man, "w what
did you do that for?"
And then Joe, using the most forcible
expression he had learned in his army
days, asked him if he thought that he
and his - yellow wheels owned the
whole street.
The man with the yellow wheels -
kept his place alongside, but seemed
buried in thought.
Two things were open to him: he
could demand that Joe come down
from his perch and settle it then and
there in the old-fashioned way, or he
could get the number of his cart and
make it disagreeable for Joe later on.
Looking at his damaged hat, which
was not cheering sight to see, and at
his lovely disfigured wheels, he gath
cred up his reins and flew down the road.
And Joe; it was the happiest mo-
ment of his life just then. The con-
seriousness of having hurt his enemy
crowded out all other thoughts for the
time; but the haul was still long one,
the sun very warm, the horses tired
and listless, and Joe began to wonder
if, after all, he hadn't made fool of
himself, to say the least. What would
the tired little woman say who never
had heard of those yellow wheels -
if he should tell her what he had done?
And then he wished his favorte wish
that he had never been born
You must get her out of this said
the doctor to Joe. " She tells me she