The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-06

| every likely calf' he could secure. Astime
rolled on he had a herd much too large for
| the few home acres, and was hiring mead
ows and rugged upland of his old neigh
bors. How proud be grew as he learned
! that be was no longer Jcsi Herring. but
Mr. Herring. the greatest cattle raiser in
New England"
But the day came at last, while he was
still in the prime of life scarcely 40, that
the longed for twenty-four oxen were his,
twelve yoke of milk .lYhite cattle, not q
dark hair upon them. Some were now old,
sedate oxen; these would make good "end
oxen" leaders and wheelers (if one may b.
permitted little license Of speeeh), while
the more frisky, youthful steers wogld b
sandwiched between the more staid along
the line.
Surely this was 8 team TO be proud OF
even without the golden halo that the ira
ditional treasure gave to their value IN bis
eyes. Sometimes he felt so rich with al
the profits of his stock raising, accom-
plished on the so called worn out farms o.
New England, that be was almost resolve
not to try the ehimerical scheme suggested
by the Sanders tradition. But the inborn
superstition and faith in tradition, that
leads the whole world more or less this
way and that, deny it who will, at length
decided Mr.. Herring to set day when the
deed should be accomplished.
The thing most 10 be dreaded was the
ridicule CT his old neighbors if he failed;
this must be provided against. Though
he had never heard the old saying, 'If yoI
would seal your friends tongue, first dine
and wine him well,' yet his mother wit
suggested this very thing He bade all
friends to a meadow banquet to be held
from IL till on certain day, and at to
be present as he drove his team through
the fateful pond
Though the wine was but the best OF
cider, yet it served its purpose and washed
away from the hungry and thirsty mouths
all hypercritical criticisms that envy might
have suggested. As they ate the cold tur-
key and munched the fine pies and cake
not one was heard to croak that the table
would not be found
1t was with some inner trepidation, COW
cred well by outward calm, that he snap
ped his whip and started his team down
the slope toward the pond, while clinking
behind the last yoke of cattle came the
heavy chain with its gTappling hookl All
held their breath as Josiah stepped boldly
into the water beside the leaders, All
watched to see him get beyond his depth,
and some even whispered, Can he swim
if he finds himself sinking?'
But, lol On and on he goes, till he has
reached the middle of the pond. As he has
felt the ground leaving his feet, and finds
that though the water grows deeper and
deeper as he well knows, yet neither he
than when he first began to realize that he
was being held up by some wonderful
power-as he feels this with increasing
surprise he realizes that though deter
mined to try the feat be has not in the
past more than half believed in it himself.
He doubts no longer, he sees and feels
this strange support, and knows now that
soon the grapnel will drag on the table
Slower and slower go the oxen now, as If
dragging a burden! He and the leaders
are coming out upon the bank upon the
other side; one by one the pairs of cattle
step on land-at last clank, clank, come
the last pair, the sagging chain clanking
behind them; there is a gleam in the water
surely. All, no, it's but the CLINT of a
westering sunbeam! But no, there ia
something-slowly, slowly coming 10 land,
not only the table that shall make the
Herrings the ROthschilds of New England,
but the table which shall remove forever
the curse from their descendants
The cheers of the assembled neighbors
break upon the stiffness of the meadows
at the south, and the hills at the north and
east catch the sound and cast it back from
one to another like giants playing a rat
tling ball game How the hills echo and
echo again, Long live the Herring fam
ilyr
Goodness gracious mer' sounds the
shrill voice of Mum Herring "Be you
a-goin' to snore here all day? Here tits 10
o'clock an you asleep. Why in all mater
didn't you stay all night over to Granther
Sanderses? Yer might as well while We,
was abeout itr
Oh, dear, and oh, dear, twas nothing but
a dream!
And yet it proved more, for there was
something in JOSH Herring after all
When the first disappointment was over
he felt that even the dream had taught
him much. Why not fill his fathers past
ures with stock2 He actually knew Of
farmers who would kill calf rather than /
feed it until the law would permit them 10 /
sell it to the village butcher, and he knew |
that he could get all the 3-days-old calves |
be could pay for at a dollar a head
His mother agreed to help care for the /
baby stock, and soon his idea was in work /
ing operation. He went TO work with a /
will, AMI found, as all will do, that where 4
there is a will there is q way"
In few years the herd of young cattle |
on the New England hills was not a dream. !
but glad reality. He was now Mr. Her !
ring" as in the dream: for industry per
nits no evil habits, and those worthy in !,
themselves are not despiseG because some !
dead and gone ancestor has hid his dis
creditable head beneath the sod.
When the good ones ancestors has done
will not cOunteract ones own folly and |
make it respectable it is worse than folly
to try TO discredit the deserving By raking
put OF their graves those whose best deed
TO the world was their going outi-Keziah
Shelton in Springfield Homestead.
oh, That Child.
A wee little girl on Bagg. street was left
II home for few days with maiden aunt