Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-24
So it was decided to sell the calves

sons took them over to Mir. Meeker and got the money for them.
 On the way home he stopped at an- other ne ghbor's and tor. owed a heavy wagon, and the day following st 'rted to town bright and early with the letter to Erastus stll carefully concealed in his ins dc pocket
 "Bet lhat'll fetch him home on a run,' he musel as he dropp d it into the office at the landing just in time to have It get into the mail bag as it was being got re,dy for the down boat. ''He' Il be here in week cf t at let CT goes straight. CT else he ain as good at ta!in hint as 1 think he is"
 Mrs. Parsons noticed that her hus- band was unusually jolly that night next d,y ;.nI the days that followed after it.
 He had always tied to appear cheer full in the prc~;iice of his family, and had neN CT failed to responl to any eff fort of "ohn ly's to get up laugh. though of ell cau,ed him an effort to do so but on this particular evening, al hough was late and he must have been tired, he really felt jolly, and he lo ed Lucy about one of the clerks at the store. where she and her mother had traded when in town, and also about ncighhor s son, who had shown diSpOS ton to seek her society, but who, not rece ing any cncoura cement, had decided that she was ..stuck up," and so informed the other young peo- pie of h acqua ntance.
 The letter was thr, days in reaching its destinat on, and then lay in the pos'-o ice several days more before being called for.
 Erastus had no correspondents other than the members of Mir. Parsons fam ly; and as there had been little that was pleasant to write about on either sile, letters had not been frequent be- tween them of late, and the young man seldom went to the post
 One day as he was working with several of his neighbors upon ditch wh ch was to be the means of irrigating their claims, another neighbor, who had been to town, rode up and, stop ping hs horse, called out:
 "lIerr, Hemm ngway; here's a letter for you.'
 Erastus was in his shirt sleeves in the tch, shoveling, and the horseman leaned from his saddle and handed him the letter.
 ''If that's from your girl, she don t write very purity hand.' he said, with wink at the other dtchers, who had stopped work and stood leaning on their spades,
 Glancing at the superScription, Bras tus saw that it was in q strange hand. The post mark, however, proclaimed it to be from Phippsbury, and his first thought was that something terrible had again happened to Uncle John and his family-that they were all dead, may be, and a stranger had written to inform him.
 , Hastily tearing off the envelope, he looked at the signature and saw the name, John Parsons,' in stiff, awk- ward letters, at the bottom of the page, and it tl;shc over him that Lucy was married and that Uncle John had writ ten to tell him of it because no one else liked to do so, and the blood rushed to his heart, which beat so that it seemed h.s companions must hear it. But no; the let CT said: 'Lucy and her mother had gone to town" Then she was not married yet. The blood began to return to its proper channels.
 "i-ucy has given Annelsey his walkin' papers.
 | Could it be possible that she was not going to marry the New Yorker after all,
 And if not, what then? 1 The letter seemed plain enough to be understood without possibility of mis take, yet he read it the second me be. fore its full import came to him, auC then tne blood rushcd to his heart ever more violently than before.
 !. l.; :, xxI. ! Uncle John meant,'' he said to him self, If she hal not loved some one else better she would not have dis missed Annelscy.' And "she did no encourage any of the young mer there ''-that was what the letter said and it said he was to come at once.
 He had climbed out of the ditch ant was brush ng the dirt from his overall with his hands.
 "Mr. Johnson,' he said, addressin! the nc; ghbor with whom he boarded will you let me have your roan hors for a couple of weeks and use my colt while Pm gone? I'm going home ant want to make the trp as quickly a possible, and neither of the colts cal stand hard jaunt under the saddl very we'll. Hi take good care of tn roan and promise not to hurt him. l do you may take your choice of tn colts to pay the damage"
 "What's up?''
 Folks sick?"
 "Why don't you go to Frisco an take the steamer?' came from one an another of the crowd.
 "The fact is,'' replied Erastus, wit his usual straightforward honesty, (" have not got money enough. You fe] lows know how it is yourselves. More don't grow on these sand ridges unt they are irrigated; but I can rid through ill four days by travelling lat and early and resting in the hotties part of the day, and not hurt the hors bit if Mir. Johnson will let me hay him, and it won t cost half as much a it will to go by the cars and boat"
 You can have the horse if you war him. replied Mr. Johnson. II kno, you won't hurt him: but you haven