The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-04-20

Job in the street. He stopped me and
noticed troubled look on his face.
"'Doctor,' said he, in solemn voice. 'yor
remember you spoke to me some time age
about gettin' you tall clock. Well, I've got
you one, but you needn't take it unless you
"'But do want it. What do I owe you fol
it, JobT said I.
"'I paid all of five dollars for it, doctor,
said he.'
"'Very we'll, Job, that was cheap enough
Here's your money; send it up as soon al
you can, and many thanks
"Job folded the bill slowly, and putting
it into his waistcoat pooked, turned away
and started down the street. ] wondered
why he seemed so melancholy, ghnt forgot
all about it as hurried off in an opposite
direction. hadn't gone far before heard
shutting footsteps behind me and recog'
nized Jobs voice calling my name:
"'What's the matter, now?' said /, turn
ing around.
Doctor said Job, little out of breath
with walking fast, I can't rest contented
till ! make q clean breast of it. There's
more to that clock than I've told you, and
don't want to do anything by you that ain't
fair and square. You know that my wife
would never have pulled through that last
nussin' as we'll as your doctorin', and I'm
not the man to forget kindness. Now,
doctor, must tell you the truth about that
clock, and then it's for you to say whether
you want it.
''Job seemed very much excited and very
much in earnest. and confess that l was
puzzled. knew that he was thoroughly
honest man, SO it could not be that the
clock had been stolen. In his earnestnesa
Job caught me by the buttonhole and led
me gently under an awning out of the sun.
"'You know Tony Warner who used to
live out on the Trentown 'pikey began Job.
I assented. Well, that clock belonged to
Tony. He was high up among the Free
Masons, and his lodge laid out to give him
a present on his birthday.
a'Cosey Black-you know Cosey. You
tended him last winter for bone-felon-
we'll, Cosey he consulted Mrs. Warner to
know what Tony would like to have. Mrs.
Warner sat thinkin' for while, and then
she lowed that he would rather have tall
clock than anything else, because his
grandfather used to have one, and it had
been brought to his mind good deal of
late through the children signing, My
Grandfather's Clock She'd heard him
say more'n wunst that he thought it would
be kinder nice to hear a grandfather's clock
give him one, and they bought the best in
the market, with the days of the month and
the moon and all.
"'The whole lodge turned out to make the
presentation. Mrs. Warner, she seen them
comm down the road carryin' the clock be-
it made the cold chiIls run down her back,
it looked SO like a coffin. They coaxed
Tony out inter the back yard, and then
they set up the clock in the dinin'-room
and called him in when they got her up and
set her a-goin'. Cosey Black, he made the
presentation speech, and Tony, he got out
the cider and some old apple-jack and they
had high old time.
"'Well, everything went all right till one
night. Mrs. Warner was sittin' alone in
the house. when thunlp went somethin'
that proved to be the weights o. the clock.
How them cords got broke NO one could
tell; but that very night the baby was took
down with the Group and died in less than
twenty-fou hours. Mrs. Warner wouldn't
in; but Tony said that was all rubbage an
ole women's talk, an he got the weights
fixed and set her goin' ag'in. Well, Mrs.
Warner hadn't more'n got over the death
of that baby, than one evenin', as Tony an
all the rest of 'em were sittin' round the
Baltimore heater in the dinin' room, they
heard rattlin' and bangin' like clock
jumped up and cried, and said she knowed
somethin' would come of it. Tony he
looked little skeered, but he laughed and
told Mrs. Warner to sit down, and not
make a goose of herself; but he didn't
laugh the next day, when he got tele-
gram that his father had died the night
before, and, as near as they could reckon,
Mrs. Warner wanted to send it away then.
for she said it was haunted, and no use
talkin'; but Tony said the lodge would All
laugh at him. and he wouldn't do it.
"sTime went on. and there want nothin,
haasd from the ole clock. Than All Of q