The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-11-06

even stayed away night before now, sc
at midnight she closed the house anC
went to bed. .s#
maybe l said more than 1 need,'
she said as she blew out the light.
Toward evening of the next day a mar
sauntered up to the house. ''Be you
Mis- Briggs?" he asked of Mollie
eagerly watching the door.
yes" she said. ''What is it,"
'Wall, got letter r somethin' feI
ye," fumbling in his ragged pockets.
wall, | swami he exclaimed finally,
eff hewitt lost it,"
Lost it' criod Mollre; "where'd you
get it?'
''Wall, Hi Briggs sed eff l was acomin'
your way some to-day l might bring it,
He said as how 'twould explain itself,
an to tell you he was agoin' after the
pot of gold under the rainbow, r some
sech stuff"
The next day Mollie folded and packed
away IIiram's clothes. "If he don't
come back till he finds his pot of gold,''
she thought, "he'll never come back al
all, and if he comes back without it he'll
need en-"
If she folded hot tears away with them
no one was the wiser.
81 wonder what could have been in the
letter." she thought. She was soon to
know.
In less than week buggy drove up
to the door, man alighted and tied his
horse, and Mollie opened the door foI
him with strange feelings of foreboding.
What he told her was lwhat she had
already suspected that Hiram had mort
gagged the farms before and invested the
money in mining stock. The mortgage
was due and had not been paid, and
homelessness stared Mollie in the
face.
This then was the meaning of the
document she had hastily and carefully
signed one busy day, accepting her hus-
bands statement that it was "jest a
fiXin' to get little money on
For a few moments she was stunned,
but the natural courage that had borne
her through so many trials soon re-
turned to Grand with it plan whereby
she may save her Inheritance from the
consequences of her husbands folly.
She would run the farm herself and pay
off the mortgage with the proceeds.
1t may have been the tears in Mollie's
bright eyes-I have heard that men did
not like to see woman cry-or it may
been something in her earnest woman
liness that commanded attention to her
pleading, but at the end of an hour that
hard old lawyer had certainly promised
her that her plan should have trial.
'1l give you year, anyway" he
said. ''lf find by that time that il
pays me we can see about letting it
stand. My client has been abroad for
sometime and leaves such matters in
my hands, so l will promise you year
anyway"
the very next day Mollie went to
work on the South lot. She hired two
sturdy neighbor boys for small sum,
for in that part of the country boys
work was not worth much.
But these two soon found out that if
they earned their wages and their good
board they mast work for them. 1t
soon became subject for much wonder
and a good deal of admiration among
the men that women could so manage
farm. Never did the farm raise such
crops as it did that fall, and in spite of
the improvements she thought necessary,
Mollie paid her interest and a good
round sum down on the mortgage.
In the late fall just before the Thanks
giving SHOWS covered the ground, Mollie
received morning call from two
strangers whose every movement was
full of business. Their errand was soon
told. They had discovered coal on land
adjoining her farm and they wanted to
buy that part of the farm through which
they imagined the vein ran.
The price they offered fairly startled
her. But Mollie had developed into a
fair woman-of-business in these months
and her first thought was, ''If they pay
that they'll pay more, and it's only the
South lot, that never would givea decent
crop of anything anyway" If they were
some time agreeing ON terms they did
agree at last and MOllie felt with pride
that they were not to her disadvantage.
The snow fell and Thanksgiving came
and went, and then one day the door
opened and a thin, STOPPING figure, wet
with the storm that ragged without, came
feebly in and sank into his old place be-
fore the fire,
Neither spoke. The anger that swelled
to bursting in Mollie's heart softly
changed to pity as she watched him.
Whatever had been the experiences of
the past months-and Hiram never told
them-they had sadly changed him for
the time. At last he raised his shrinking
eyes
1--WE come back, Mollie," he said,
land | didn't fluid the pot of gold. I'm
ready to go to work now, and prove that
l can be worthy of your respect, if
never have been before"
Mollie disappeared for a moment in
another room. There, Hiram" she
said as she laid her bank book in his
hand. There's the pot of gold you've
been hunting for, and it was right in the
South lot all the time, just where you
did not want to go to work that morn
ing,n she finished with fearful smile,
as she pressed kiss of forgiveness upon
his lips.-Detroit Tribune.