News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-22

school to teach. The neighbors
sympathized with them and OCCASION
ally made advances, which were not
always characterized by tact. One
day Colonel HOugh, who was buying
up a good deal of cheap land in the
vicinity, stopped his buggy at the
gate, for chat.
'"Times are mighty hard just now,
ma am" he observed. "Takes tight
scratching to get along"
"Yes, indeed" said Mrs. Alden;
"yet we manage to make both ends
meet somehow"
81 declare | don't see how you do
it," exclaimed the colonel, especially
with that paralyzed nigger on your
hands. Why don't you send him to
the poOrhouse?"
Mrs. Alden bit her lip. "We prefer
to keep him here" she said, coldly.
For some little time a new phase
| had developed in the cripple's condi
ton. He had obtained a bit of pencil
and after that was never salts
fed unless he was marking or scrawl-
ing with it. He had never known how
to write, and yet it seemed as if he
was endeavOring to convey some sort
of message. He covered every scrap
of paper they brought him and thrust
them eagerly upon Mrs. Alden's or
Annals attention. This performance
especially interested the girl and she
tried often, but always utterly in vain,
to find some semblance to writing in
his strange scrawls. Nevertheless his
anxiety, persistence, and, above all,
his evident disappointment at her
failure to comprehend convinced her
that behind this curious manipula-
ton there was something more than
the mere freak of disordered brain.
One afternoon she visited the cabin
with her mother, and the two sat
down. Abe had been particularly ac-
tive that day. With the incest care
he had traced one of his characters
tic ciphers, and this he Immediately
mOtioned Anna to take
She puzzled over the slip for some
time. Mamma" she said at length,
''did you ever notice that there are
certain figures he always repeats :?
Now, here, for instance, is this square
with the funny spots over it-that is
on all the letters he writes, and this
thing like an A. Iwonder what it can
mean?"
Goodness only knows, child" re-
piled Mrs. Alden abstractedly.
Suddenly a light came into the girls
face. She sprang to her feet. "Mam.
ma" " hecried, II understand it now
He isn't trying to write-he's trying
to draw and oh, mammal" she went
on wildly, 81 do believe this strange
square is papa's box, and those dots
are the bolt heads on it 1t is exact
ly like child would draw such a
thingl"
The two women went breathlessly
over the paper, and, viewed in this
new light, the lines and scratches did
assume a certain ordered significance
The dotted square might well stand
for the old-fashioned 'salamander''
chest, and it seemed to them that
they could distinguish a sort of rude
diagram-the outline of the house, the
garden fence, the winding path, and
last of all a disused well. The Grip
pie watched them with all his eyes.
"Do you think" cried Mrs. Alden
thrilling through every nerve, "car
it be possible that he means the boz
is in the well?"
"We can see," exclaimed Anna, ''it
is not deep"
? Midway between the manor and the
: cabin was a shallow well, that foi
) twenty years had lain idle and dis
, used, and like a flash of lightning il
| darted into Mrs. Alden's mind that
: on that dreadful night of the raiders
visit its curbing was discovered brok
en- down. Oh, why had she not
thought to look there before?
In Il moment they were at the spot
| 1t was crumbling, grass-grown anC
V decayed and at the bottom the frOnd
t of ferns were dimly visible. VIII wat
. in the field, but they did not want t.
/ call him. After all, it might be moth
S ing. There was light ladder at tn
| house, and they dragged it to tn