Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-05-28
GYPSY ISAIAH.
How His Blue-Eyed Wife's Faith
in Him Was Verified.

sight--not so much as barn, toll gate
or grist mill; nothing but bleak hill
Sides scantily clothed with scrubby
pines, grim, black-boughed evergreen
woods, and pasture lands where the cat
tie huddled in the corners OF the fences
to escape the knife-like point of the
keen west wind!
And, of gray sunny afternoon like
this, with the sullen rush Of the river
booming in the valley below, and knot
of crows cawing mournfully in the tree
tops above the farm house roof, 1t was
lonelier still.
Mr. Trott was in the kitchen, with
solder kettle bubbling over the fire; he
was mending huge kettle wherewith
he proposed to rife the sweetness of Ia
neigh boring grove of maple trees, in the
coming month of March. Mrs. Trott
was studying out the complicated pat
tern of a new device in patchwork, lent
her by friend, with half dozen blocks
of Turkey red, four of white and two of
corn-colored calico; and Deborah, the
only daughter, was trimming over her
Sunday hat with newly-ironed pink rib
bons and a cluster of artificial rosebuds
which she had bought cheap at the clear
ing-off sale of the Stockbridge milliner
and all three we're silent
Suddenly the clock struck with
whirring sound like an asthmatic To-
custl
els that four o'clock?" said Mrs Trott,
still puzzling over the blocks of Turkey
red.
That's four o'clock" said Mr.. Trott,
looking into the boiling silvery mass
over the stove.
"We shall have to light candle
soon," said Mrs. Trott For she had
never seen that modern abomination,
gaslight, and made it her boast that no
drop of kerosene had ever crossed her
threshold She burned symmetrical
white candles of her own running, in
old-fashioned brass candlesticks with
bnuffers and extinguishers to match. 81
wonder where Isaiah is? We need new
logs for the sitting-room fire tonight.
Squire Diapers son told me he should
drop in, in friendly way"
Pretty Deborah frowned over the
bunch of rosebuds; she was dimpled,
blue-eyed girl, quite unaccustomed to
the business Of frowning, so that 1t was
al GnOIb lOI hOI W SOhIIdOb ACE
bronze-brown brows.
Isaiah" slowly repeated Mr.. Trott,
still intent on the kettle. "Why, I've
sent Isaiah over to Marshall Hills with
that fifty-dollar billr
Mrs. Trott dropped her spectacles.
Thomas Trottl You hain't never!"
cried she.
Eyes, l have" said Thomas Trott
'Why shouldn't /? Whitefoot is lame,
and I've no notion of walking over to
Hills with my rheumaticky old bones
And the interest on my note is due to-
day, so Just gave it to Isaiah, and told
him to step lively and get back before
duskr'
Mrs. Trott drew an ostentatiously
long sigh.
''Then you may be very sure of one
thing, Trott," said she, you'll never see
neither Isaiah nor that fifty-dollar bill
again"
"Why notP" said her spouse, staring.
Because Isaiah belongs to q gypsy
vised US not to take him in when we
didI"
''He's worked just as we'll as II there
wasn't gypsy blood in him, hasn't hep
demanded the farmer, sternly.
81 don't say but what he has," ad-
mitted Mrs Trott 81 only know that
what's bred in the bone won't scrub out
of the flesh, and it'll be just like Gypsy
Isaiah to cut and run with that fifty-dol-
lar bill. And you're bigger fool than 1
took you for, to trust wild fellow like
that with solid money"
But here pretty Deborah rose, flushed
and painting, from her chair.
I,Mother" she cried, her blue eyes all
afiame, you shall not talk so! Isaiah is
as good and true and noble as if the
blood of kings ran in his veins"
''Hoity-toityr' cried Mrs. Trott, in
amazement "And what is Isaiah Black
burn to you?"
Just this" said Deborah; that Pm
engaged to him."
Engaged to-marry him?"
''Yes-to marry him"
~Debby," said Mrs Trott are you
crazy?"
81 love him, mother" Debby simply
made response. "And he loves me--and
we are to be married as soon as he has
Laid up little money to rent farm Of
his own"
"In-deedl" SAID Mrs. Trott frowning
darkly. And your parents consent 1
suppose, is a matter of no consequence
whatever"
1--WE thought, mother" said Debby,
with downcast eyes, that you would
offer no objection to what would make
me so very, very happy"
Perhaps" frigidly added Mrs. Trott,
s-you don't know that Orlando Draper is
coming tonight with the especial In
ltention of making an offer of marriage
10 you-Squire Diapers son, with red
brick house and bank account al
Stockbridge."
Then he may go away again." said
Debby, resolutely. For l never, never
will marry any one but Isaiah Black
burnt"
"a stray gypsy lad, brought up in the
woods, with nobody knows who for his
father, and knack for chicken-staaling
at his finger ends" sneered Mrs. Trott.
'Motherl" pleaded the girl,
.'Now. Betsey, don't" said the farmer;
shat amt fair. Isaiahs as good young
chap as ever stepped. And il you'll
just remember / was as poor as any
gypsy Of the lot when first we married.
Deborahs my only child and she sha'n't
be teasedl Come here, Pussy, and give
your old father a kiss"
And the stormy February AFTERNOON
dArkened into snowy nightfall, and
Debby gazed wistfully down the road,
wondering why her lover had not re-