Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-10-31

Twelve YOKE OF mix White cdIGle, uOG u
dark hair upon them. Some were now old,
sedate oxen; these would make good ''end
oxen," leaders and wheelers Gf one may be
permitted a little license of SPECIFY, while
the more frisky, youthful steers would be
sandwiched between the more staid along
the line.
Surely this was team to be proud of,
even without the golden halo that the ira
ditional treasure gave to their value in his
eyes. Sometimes he felt so rich with all
the profits of his stock raising, accom-
plished on the so called worn out farms of
New England, that he was almost resolved
not to try the chimerical scheme suggested
by the Sanders tradition. But the Unborn
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 to be dreaded was the
ridicule of his old neighbors if he failed;
this must be provided against. Though
he had never heard the old saying, eff you
would seal your friends tongue, first dine
and wine him WE'LL" yet his mother wit
suggested this very thing. He babe all
friends to a meadow banquet to be held
from II till on a certain day, and at 8 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 croals. that the table
would not be found.
It was with some inner trepidation, COW
cred we'll 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 graphing hook! All
held their breath rs 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, 10! 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
nor his cattle have sunk an inch lower
than when be 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 he 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 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 CLEAN in the water
surely. All, no, tits but the CLINT of a
westering sunbeam! But no, there is
something-slowly, slowly coming to 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 rat
Ting ball game. How the hills echo and
echo again, "Long live the Herring fam
ilyp
Goodness gracious me!' 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 ye1
was abeout it!'
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 stock? He actually knew of
farmers who would kill calf rather than
feed it until the law would permit them to
sell it to the village butcher, and he knew
that he could get all the 3-days-old calves
he could pay for at 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, and found, as all will do, that where
there is a will there is a way"
In few years the herd of young cattle
on the New England hills was not dream,
but glad reality. He was now "Mr. Her
ring" as in the dream; for industry per-
mits no evil habits, and those worthy in
themselves are not despised because some
dead and gone ancestor has hid his dis
creditable head beneath the sod.
When the good ones ancestors has done
will not counterfeit ones own folly and
make it respectable it is worse. than folly
to try to discredt the deserving by raking
out Of their graves those whose best deed
to the world was their going out!-Keziah
Shelton in Springfield Homestead.
The Bond Between the Earth and Sun.