The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-06-20
"Didn't Rats folks Gomez"


mo, they didn't, and don't sec what
folks want to be writing to mako folks
traipse round after them for like this
all for nothing. Anybody been for 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."
'Jiminettyi If didn't forget I'd set,
the dayl There's the last chance gone
to get rid of Bob. tell you, Shiny
those PerlSinses ought to pay me for
thisi I'll be out nigh three dollars be-
fore get through with that wheel bust!
ness!" he groaned. "And all because
they didn't come up to their word"
Next day, after the squire had dis
tributed the mail, Jacob Perkins en-
tered the store.
"Hello, squirrel What's the matter
with uncle Sam this week?"
''Unclc Sam?" the squire asked, some
what agitated. Did Perkins know any
thing about that postal?
Eyes, he's powerfully behind tine
/ didn't know but Uncle Billy d had
the apoplexy or his horse d got choked
by an extra oat, and government he'd
stopped accordin'ly. l ought to have
had 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 effort
at unconcerned Indifference.
81 should say 'twas-and the day
after Their fair. If I'd got it when /
ought he wouldn't We had to got a
livery and express wagon to bring 'em
all up and their trunks"
'Hey! Raj Gomez" the squire ext
claimed.
bag and baggage. Tuesday, just as
he wrote he would"
Tuesday, You sure it was Tues
day?"
The squire's surprise had got the
better of his discretion. i
"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.
mo, sir! You amt so used to Rats
writing as we are"
Perkins laughed, knowing the
squire's curiosity. "As was saying,
if I'd have known it in time I'd have
got you to go after 'em-I was working
SO like a beaver, and thetroads are bad.
You might as well have had that ten
dollars Raj threw away on the livery
fellers-an' better. too. told him so. :"
''S'linyl''
''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 de-
parturc, woe-begone expression on
his face. zone of your attacks COM
ing on?"
"S'liny, the Perkinses have come
the whole family"
Land sakesr' She bounced up In
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 Thurs
day every time. And If I'd been at
tending to my own business I'd "a
made ten dollars. As it's I'm out Of
pocket instead of in"
''lt's mortal shamer' she exclaimed,
sympathetically. "Folks ought to stop
writing cards if they can't write 'em
plain enough to be read straight"
''Well, can tell you what's right
T.
the nearest nail keg. ''If this govern
ment expects I'm going to spend my
time making out its postal cards to get
news, it's going to find itself much mis-
taken, that's ALL"
He went back to the post Office with
his new determination and detected
air. His perquisite had lost its value,
and such open communications in Uncle
Sans mail were thereafter passed by
unnoticed. When his lessened stock Of
information became a matter of COM
ment, as occurred very soon, he had
but one explanation.
"News," he declared, isn't to be de-
pended on (
But to Shiny he remarked: 'It's los
ing business attending to other folks
affairs without being asked"
So it is a question whether his dis
astrous speculation ever forced upon
him conviction of the truth in Jake
Perkins opinion, delivered to Raj with
knowing chuckle:
1.-THE squire hain't got as much of
nose for news as he had fore he got his
consequences. / reckon he's learned
that his 'perkisites' pay best when
they're taken on the square. Sarah
Bierce Scarboro ugh, in Youths Com
panion.