Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-13
MRS. PICK FITS vENDUE.

~ neever reckoned I'd live to see the
day when my things would be sold at d
vandoo!' sobbed poor old Mrs. Pickett as
she sat in her big green rocking-chai1
holding a corner Of checked bingham
apron to her streaming eyes. 81 reckon
the very cheer IN a-sittin in'll have tC
go, and I'll be turned out with nothin' but
the clothes on my back.
tall slender girl, about 16 years old
who had been kreeling by her grand
mothers chair vainly trying to comfort
the old lady, rose and said: 'Oh, no,
grandmother, ! don't think it will be as
bad as that! | will see to it that your old
chair and grandpa's are not sold. You
can save out such things as you care for
most, but you know that we shall not
need half of the things in the two little
rooms we're going to live in at the vii
lage.
Two little rooms in the vilIage!" cried
the old lady, throwing up both hands with
come down to two little rooms, with my
big closets and but 'ry, and good dry Gel
a1, and nice garden, and all that! 0
Dotty, what could your grandpa Pickett
have been thinkiu, Of to be so keerless .?
Dear me! dear met
He didn't know. grandmother. None
OF us could know that he'd be taken away
as he was, replied the girl, her own e.res
filing with tears.
Grandfather Picket had been killed in
stantly by fall from his haymow two
months before He had been a kind and
good man, but unwisely eccentric in
some respects, since he had always made
it a rule to tel no one, not even his
wife. Of his business affairs.
Women han't no head for business;
their capacity lays in their spores" had
been one of Grandfather Pickett say
ings. So. his wife had never been taken
into his confidence and at the time of his
death she knew almost nothing about his
private affairs.
Some truths she soon discovered, to her
sorrow. One of them came home to her
with stunning and cruel force five days af-
ter the funeral, when Hiram Parks, a
money lender living in the village, came
to tel her, in his cold, business-like way
that the mortgage he had held for ten
years on the Pickett farm had never been
paid, and that a settlement must be made
He had besides a note for $500 given him
by Grandfather Pickett at the time the
latter had built his new barn and added
the last twenty acres to his farm. On this
note not ing but the interest had been
paid
Poor dumbfounded Mrs. Pickett had
not even known of the existence of these
notes.
And my husband never paid you any
thing on the note nor the mortgage 2"
she asked Parks.
mo, ma am, nothing but the interest.
That was paid up regular enough. He
often said he could pay some on them both,
if he'd a mind to, but he'd rather wait
and pay il all off in lump. | supposed
from that that he d money in the bank or
loaned out 50 it was bringing more inter
est than he was paying me-
But careful search among Mr. Pickett s
papers did not give evidence that any one
owed him dollar. and visit to the bank
at the village proved that he had no money
there.
He ne yer would put any money in the
bank. said Mrs. Pickett. That was one
of his odd idees, and he'd never pay for
anything in payments He always wanted
to pay it all in lump. But | always
thought that mortgage must be bout all
paid off, and it can't be that We lived
up all we've got out of the farm in all
these years, with us sellin' $500 and $500
worth of stock at time. If Ira had only
tcld me more bout his affairs. Now I've
got to NEEDLE with business, whether I've
got any head for it or not. Dear me. dear
mn!'
All her lamentations ended with that pa
thetlc dear mel" and a SOrrOwful shake
of her grey head.
Mrs. Pickett and her granddaughter,
lDF4 n. IL
the daughter Of Mr.. and Mrs Pickett
only child, who, with his wife,
had died when Dorothy was bat years
old, and since that time she had been
the light and joy of the fine old farm
house.
And I've taken such comfort in think
IN that your gran pa an me would leave
you so nicely provided for and in a home
OF your own when we were gone. Dear
me! dear mel"
1T don matter about me, grandma
Dorothy said. II am sorry only on your
account. cal. teach. or sew, or work in
a store. or do something else, and we can
be very coy and comfortable in our two
snug little rooms. There will be some
money left for you after the note and
mortgage are paid.
ltwas decided that there should be
public sale, or vendue, of the effects not
needed for the new home to which they
were to go. 4 ''vandoo" was usually at
tended by everybody in the neighborhood,
and the occasion was semi-holiday. So
there was general interest when the post
ers appeared announced that MahaIa J.
Pickett. eXecutriX of the estate of ira w
Pickett, would Oct. 10 offer for sale such
and such carefully described articles
Mrs. Pickett had sorrowful duty in
indicating the things she consented to
sell.
They shan't have any my manog ny
chist Of drawers. nor my hair-cloth sofy,
nor my lowered carpet, nor my two big
rockin cheers that my father and mother
begun housekeeping with. And they
shan,t haye-oh, dear, dear. there moth
ING do want EN- to have!'
Poor old lady she found that even the
simplest and NEST ordinary of her belong
ings were dear to her.
There's that green cupboard with the
glass door, Dotty she said. Il s'pose
it'll have to go. We've cot the red one.
and | 5 pose we sha n want two. And
there's that old oak chist up in the attic; it
might as well go, and | reckon Rachel
Day will buy it in. She wanted to buy it
of me once thirty years ago. | can t bear
to think of her havin' any of my things
and III warrant she'll come and bid in the
very ones hate to part with most
Perhaps she won't come to the sale a
ALL grandma, said Dorothy.
Eyes, she will, replied Mrs. Pickett DO:
itively. Il know Rachel Day. She'll b