The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-03-25

ArTGVGt Of q Male Heir and Makes
Dag and Night H5deous for
HIS Neighbors.
The other day I met Col. Beverly Sum
mers, who, sometime ago, went to Ala
bama for the purpose of spending the re-
mainder of his life in peace and profound
quietude. When I babe him goodbye he
had seemed to be so hopeful, his eyes had
been so bright with the emotional ooze of
anticipated happiness, that upon meeting
him again | was astonished to see that
his c~ountenance had grown dull under a
presumable disappointment. When had
asked the cause of his apparent DEF -ctlon
he conducted me to a quiet corner n
then, after a few moments silence, said:
II settled near a p~ostofice known as
Antrobus. There were but few houses
near us; the neighborhOod is pic uresque
and nv wife and l were delighted. From
the TOP of our graceful hill we would see
the sun coming up out Of a beautiful
valley, far away, and at evening we could
see the brow of a distant mountain, en-
circled with a wreath of blazing glory.
In an evil hour a showing fellow, a des-
poiler, a man who would turn the sweet
DIuS II OIL u0Wy udUuIC 1lICO II L1dIO
of enterprise, started a Sawmill not far
from our house. This was annoying, but
we soon became ~reconciled, especially as
the mill was compelled to shut down for
want Of patronage, and we were about to
congratulate ourselves, when one morn
ing at 5 o'clock the mill began to whistle.
Well, sir, at y o'clock that mill was still
whistling. By this time I was almost
wild. | sent a negro boy down to inves-
gate the tantalizing situation. He came
back about an hour later and reported
that the mill was not running and had not
been, but that the boilers were under a
full Roadway Of steam. The thing whistled
all night and the next morning, as the
situation instead of showing signs of i'm
provement seemed to be growing worse,
l went over to expostulate with the pro-
prietor of the mill. l found him sitting
on a stump complacently smoking. He
was an easily recognized type of a Georgia
cracker of the improved breed. His
hair was long and there were pieces of
bark clinging to his grizzly beard. He
paid no attention as I approached, but ap-
peared to be lost in the contemplation of
a distant hill top. / had never met him
before, but l knew his name.
"This is Mr.. Sharp? ? said 1.
"'Yep, b'leve it is he answered, still
looking away.
"'My name, sir, is Beverly Summers
"'Yep, wouldn't be surprised
al have called on you, Mr.. Sharp, to
find out what is the matter with that mill
whistle
"'Nothin' the matter with it now.
Didn't start off so well at frst-sorter
wheezed a little-but I cant complain at
the present outlook
"7But why do you keep the Internal
thing b~lowing?"
He removed his gaze from the dis
taut hill top and looking at me, said:
"'Boy down at my house.
What 1 exclaimed.
"'Boy at my hou8e-born yesterday
morning
"'Bat is that any reason why you
should make day and night hideous?'
"'Don't know anything about maxim
nothin' hideous, but it's a reason why 1
should blow that whistle. 1 promised
myself that if fortune smiled on me this
time, and sent me a boy, | would raise
merry how are you, and fortune did her
work-kept her promise, as it were, and
I'm going to keep mine. Look around,
find a stump some whar and sit down a
while
al don't wish to sit down, sir. Ihave
come to demand that you stop blowing
that whistle
Ono; I'm much obliged to you
"'I will have it declared a nuisance I
exclaimed.
"Won't make no difference, fur you
see I've got an order from the court to
blow that thing as long as 1 want to. So,
when fortune proved that, after so many
years of girls and hard luck, she had de-
cided to favor me, why, hired two ~tellers,
one for day time and the other for night,
and told them to tie back the rope Of that
whistle and keep up the pucker all the
time. Hired them for a year.
"'You don't mean to say that you are
going to keep that thing blowing for a
whole yearI
"'That's what the contract says. Mis-
ter, you don't understand the situation.
I've got ten gals, but not until the other
mornin' was the voice of a boy ever hearn