The Princeton union., 1891-03-19

into the gloom as he stumbled in out
OF the dark.
eyes, have, and that's more than
other folks have!" he answered, gruff-
ly.
|tDidn't Rats folks Gomez"
"No they didn't, and I don't see
what folks want to be writing to make
folks traipse round. after them like
this all for nothing. Anybody beenfor
the mail?" >
"No, but mans been here to buy
the old gray, and he said he guessed,
seeing that neither you nor the horse
was here, he'd back down." ..~-~ F..
"Jiminetty! If 1 didn't forget I'd
set the day! There's the last chance
gone to get rid of Bob. I tell you,
S'liny, those Perkinses ought to pay
me for this! I'll be out nigh three dol
lars before get through with that
wheel business!' he groaned. "And
all because they didn't comeup to their
word"
Next day, after the Squire had dis
tributed the mail, Jacob Perkins en-
tered the store
''Hello, Squire! What's the matter
with Uncle Sam this week?"
"Uncle Sam?" the squire asked SON.
what agitated. Did Perkins know
anything about that postal?"
Eyes, he's powerfully behind time,
[ didn't know but Uncle Billy'd had
the apoplexy or his horse'd got chok-
ed by an extra oat, and government
he'd stopped accordin'ly. + ought to
have had a postal from nephew Raj
last Monday"
"Perhaps it got delayed. Lots of
new men in the service, and Darby's out
in the country. Maybe that's it,"
He handed out the card with an ef-
fort at unconcerned Indifference.
Il should say t'was-and the day
after the fair IfPd got it when ought,
he wouldn't we had to got q livery
and eXpress-wagon to bring 'em
all up, and their Trunks"
"Hey! Raj Gomez" the Squire ex-
claimed.
Bag and baggage, Tuesday, just a
day."
The Squire surprise had got tn 9 bet
ter of his discretion.
"See for yourself. It's plain as day
light.'
"Why isn't that an h in there?"
The Squire pointed to the word, as he
viewed it through his glasses.
"No, sir! You amt so used to Rats
writing as we are"
Perkins laughed, knowing the
Squire's curiosity. Gas 1 was Saying,
if I'd have known it in time, I'd have
got you to 60 after 'em-I was work
ing so like beaver, and the roads are
bad. You might as we'll have had
that ten dollars Raj threw away on
the livery fellers- better, too. I
told him so.'
"S'liny"
"Why, what's the matter, Dan'l?"
his wife asked in rising accents of
alarm, as he put his head in at the
door a few moments after Perkins's
departure, a woe-begone expression
on his face. Zone ofyour attacks COM
ing on?"
"S'liny, the Perkinses have come
the whole family"
dignantly. "When?"
"Tuesday," he answered, slowly and
solemnly. "Just what that postal
said, too. Here we both of us had
that thing here since Monday, and
read it Thursday every time. And
if I'd been attending to my own busi-
ness I'd "a made ten dollars. AS tits
Pm out of pocket instead Of in"
"It's mortal shame!" she exclain-
ed, sympathetical]y. "Folks ought
TO stop writing cards if they can't
l-e 'em plain enough to be read
.,-raight"
''Well, can tell you what's right
now" He sat down impressively on
the nearest nail-keg. eff this govern
ment expects Pm going to spend my
time making out it's postal-cards to
get news, it's going to find itself much
mistaken, that's all"
Hewent back to the post-office with
his new determination and a detected
air. His perquisite had lost it's value,
and such open communications in
Uncle Sam's mail were thereafter pas
sed by unnoticed. When his lessened
stock Of information became matter
Of comment, as occurred very soon,
he had but one explanation.
"News," he declared, ''isn't to be
depended on'
But to S'liny he remarked. cts
losing business attending to other
folks affairs without being asked"
So it is question whether his dis
astrous speculation ever forced upon
him a conviction of the truth in Jake
Perkins's opinion, delivered to Raj
with a knowing chuckle:
1.-The Squire haint got as much OF O.
nose for news as he had fore he got
his come-uppences. I reckon he's
learned that his 'perkisites' pay best
when they're taken on the square,
Youth Companion.
Bad Effects of Tight Collars.