Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-08-08
JAGGS'S WIFE.
by e. II. HARDY.

"eic nuiit rlynt unucr their noses " to
use an expression of his wife s-a fact
wnicn gave rise to frequent animadve.
fslons on her part respecting the unfor
tunatc choice OF the situation of this
necessary outbuldinr.
She was in the habit OF attributinr to
their noSious influence whatever ills
might befall the family-thciy state Of
health, or rather unhcalth-it the hens
refused to lay, or if the Watchdog ran
about at night instead of staying at home
To guard them from thieves. By tn.
same toker she once even attempted to
account for the caterpillars which had at
tacNeHttc cotton. Nov tint Il horse
was stosch it was because Mr.. Jooson
mad persisted in having tbs stable and
horse lot right in the back yard. where
nobody else under the sun would llnye
thought of having them. She hoped he
would learn. a lesson, now, before no lost
,YYEy horse and mule to his name, and
the COWS and pigs thrown in, NOT to
menttsn his wife aud children.
There had been light rain in the
early part of the night, and the tracks
made by the lost animal and the thief
could be seen very distinctly. Mr. job
son traced them to the house of Pee
Jaggs' u good nothing, shiftless fell
low, who lived in an abandoned settle
ment mile or so away. From the signs
1T appeared that the horse had been tied
TO small persimmon tree at little dis
lance from the house, and "A number of
tracks were seen about the place. going
back and forth between the house and
the tree.
Pete Jaggs was moi at home. His wife
asald that he had gone away carly that
morning TO visit "a relation in an adioin
ing county. She knew nothing Of the
missing ANIMAL and WAS sure Tint her
husband knew nothing of it, or he would
nave mentioned it to her. She allowed
that some of tue tracks around the place
had been made by him, bu. she could not
account fer the others. They had had
no visitors that night, and she had not
heard or seen any one about the premises
till MIR. Jo5son and his men came to in
quirc.
Mrs.; Jobson quickly rendered the YER
dict Non bearing the evidence in the
-casc.
g never 'spccted nothin' less N that
good-for-nothin' Pete Jaggs. Course he
stole the mare; any fool can see that.
what's WONDER to me is he didn't take
the whole shcbang an us into the bar
gain, bein' as the lot is right in the house,
all but, an anybody that's foul enough
10 have ore in SIGH er outandish place
needn't 'spcct nothin' else, nuther"
No one, not even Daniel Jobson, dis
pntcd her opinion rs to the identity of
fhc thief, however they might differ in
regard to the baieful influence which the
situation OF the horsc-los was supposed
to exert on that unfortunate individual.
Inc morse was gone, and so was Pete;
but the tracks Of both were there, and
while no ono could say Jaggs was actually
seen 10 take the horse, TIC evidence that
he had was plain enough to convince any
jury III the world, not themselves horse
thieves.
MIR. Jobson went to town to inauirc
aiieT the lost mare, and to ofrcra suitable
reward for her return and for the appre
hcnsioR of the thief, which, along with
Il prolific description of the animal writ
ten III his best hand, was tackled up bv
the courthouse dcor and in the postofiicc.
Diiigcnt inquiry rewarded him WITH a
= clcw, though IN uncertain one. AT n
wagon yard in the town he had found I,
man who had seen the animal. Wasn't
She Il light sorrcl mare, b!aze- faced. with
left fore foot white? OF course she was
but the Man who had her and who traded
her OH to a farmer for ~ scraggy bay,
bind In one eye, seventeen dollars TO
boot, was not "a little old hiimpback,
SFly-haircd fellow with pair OF ncw
black jeans britchcs and sQuint in one
eye, the left one, and home made knit
gallusscs and IN old wool hat in his shirt
slecvcs'-which bill of particulars repre-
scented Pete Jages rs he had left home
Chat morning, according TO tine evidence
given by his wife to David Jobson, and
by him accordingly SET forth in the ad-
vertisemcnt.
But his most persistent inquiries led TO
no better result; no one had seen Pete
Jaggs, either with or without blaze
faced soircl mare, and Mr.. Jobson was
forced to return home disconsolatc at his
ili-luck.
Daniel Jobson had two men living on
his farm as tenants who had evinced
great interest in the fate of the stolen
marc, and had shown much zeal in the
search for hcrand the thief-as every one
believed Jaggs to be. They were loud
in their dcnunciations of the little lunch
back for the crime of which it was evil
dent he was guilty.
''Sumpin' oughter be did wild de low
down scoundr'l: nobody's critters safe
wild SIGH CT rogue gwinc roun' at night
IN or stealth NV en-
They protested against Mr.. Jobson's
having Pete arrested by the sheriff to be
tried by due form Of law.
"Lawin's too good for i'm. Give i'm
sumpin wat'll learn i'm err lesson wat e
won have no chanch Ter fergit, with
ii sinister look and infection conveying n
dark hint as TO the nature of the intended
lesson.
One day Jaggs unexpectedly returned
home. That night he was aroused by a
loud knocking at his door. Opening it
to discover his visitors, he found pair
of rifles pointed at his breast, aud heard
4