The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-03-19


King, working early and late, first to pay
OFF the mortgage on the farm, afterwards
to buy that wOOdlOt, then the meadow
land adjoining his; each acquisition of
farm, woodlot or meadowland being only
fresh morsel to feed his appetite for
property.
/ 1t matters little to him that this one
appetite was fed only to starve those for
church and society. He never went to
church or made visits, never read books
or went to concerts. Such things cost
money, and according to his ideas of
profit and loss, did not pay.
Mrs. King? Yes, oh yes, he had a
wife. Who else would work so many
hours day for little pay as wifeP
With this fact in view. Mr.. King in his
younger days had FASTENED to take
unto himself the stoutest and spryest
girl in that county, and he would tell you
very cmphatically that marriage was not
q failure.
Mrs. King followed her ideas of wifely
duty, had smOthered whatever of moth
erly and wOmanly instinct she may have
had, and follow faithfully in her hus-
bands lead, making his dearest wish
hers.
Possibly Mrs. King, too, may be no
stranger to you. They had come to mid
die life now without children and as
might be expected, no very near friends
One stormy Christmas night, MI. King,
coming into the house well powdered
with snow, said:
"Wal, it commencin' to snow pretty
fast, and has set in for an all-night's job
of it, reckon. Things'll be pretty well
covered up before mOrnin'.n
As he sat waiting for the calves milk
to be skinned, his sharp face, in its
frame of grizzly hair and beard, relaxed
into an expression Of Shrewd satisfaction
and as he rubbed his horny hands to-
gether, he proceeded to give his wife
what he supposed to be bit of informa-
ton.
81 saw the Widder Brooks ter day, an
told her | should have ter forclOse, and
wanted her to find another place before
spring. That piece of medder back of
her house cuts a fine crop of hay, and I'll
need it another winter"
Instead of the look of sympathy, the
wife's face only took on worried eX
preston, and the lank figure III the faded
calico seemed to have more dis
couraged droop than before, as she said:
"Oh, dear! Why couldn't yer let her
be in peace. What'll become of her and
lame Jimmy, now?n
"GO to the pOOr-hOusc, likely" said
Mr.. King, who did not exactly relish this
kind of sympathy. Anyhow | can't
afford to let it run another year and lose
all that fine crop of hay"
But the clOuded face only took on a
deeper shade and the yellow cream was
thrown into the earthen jar with un-
necessary energy, as she replied:
Goodness knows! we've got land
enough to keep you an me and all our
stock as long as we live an it seems to
me 'twould be good plan to invest in a
few friends in our old age. | think it
would be kind of pleasant to have some
one feelin' friendly and grateful to us for
\ change
"Why, 'Lisbeth, what's come over
your calculated her astonishcd hus-
band.
"Oh, nothin', only hain't had much
ter do this afternoon, an I've been n
thinkin' and hain't found any very com
fortin' thoughts. Here you and | be u
growin' older every day of our lives, Did
You know that Timothy Kingm
In her excitement Mrs. King straight
cned herself up ard was pointing her re-
marks with tlOurishcs of the skinner.
Yes, did. Known it ever since |
was born"
Tie creamy interrogation point was
brought little higher and the wife went
on:
"And did you never stop to calkilate
how many of our five hundred acres
twill take ter cover Us when we get so
wrinkled up and dried up that We can't
live no longer? An do you know of any
body on the face of the earth who would
ieel one bit bad or shed one tear to see
us buried ter-mOuer? | don't an I'm
Of livin' SO, that's all!'
Just then, without any warming the
outside door opened, and little girl
walked in. Closing the door behind her,
she went up TO Mrs. King, and holding
up battered tin cup, said i'll an eager
tone:
sob, ma am, will you please to give
me little of that milk? It's Christmas,
you know"
"And who might you be?" asked Mrs.
King, rather startled at this sudden OPP
portunity for putting in practice her
new doctrine.
"Oh, I'm DoXy Walters, and | have
the cunningcst little badly brother that
ever was, an I'm afraid he'il 90 back to
Heaven, if he can't have any milk to
drink. Won't you please fill this cup?
It's so little"
Mrs King laid the skinner down say
ing:
whats this you've been tcllin' me?
Now don't tell me any wrong stories
What about the baby?'
sob, well, he's my brother, and lie
came last night down there to the old
barn by the brook where mamma and
are staying. think it was awful sweet
of him to come for a Christmas present,
Don't you?"
Look here, gal, what are you and
your mother doing in that old bdrn?'
1t was Mr.. King who spoke now.
The barn in question belonged to him
and he proposed to have no sOjOurners
of this kind in it,
Nothing, only we had to sleep there
last night, because the train went off and
left us, and we didn't have any other
place to sleep. You see its this way.
Papa died last fall, and mamma has eric d
most all the time since. We used to live
III Boston, but mamma didn't have any
more money, and so she had to sell our
chairs and tables and things, and take
Jllt w bhN q blNhNA W ~ way Oll
ever so far to Carlton to live with Uncle
Jacob. Do you know him2'
"No. But how did you get there in
my barn?"
"Why, that's easy enough. When we
get to this town, the ticket man said the
train would stop at the depot ten min
utes, SO mamma and | got OF to walk
around little cause was so tired of
sitting still. We walked down the road
little ways till we came to the barn,
and just then mamma turned around,
and the cars were just going OFF. And
my little Kitty was there in the basket.
and our trunk, aud mammts little bag
with the money and tickets and every
thing was all on the train going to Uncle
Jacobs as fast as they could, and mann
ma and / was ont there in the road.
MANN was clear discouraged, and we
OJ,ned the door aud went into tine barn,
ald sat down on a box md Just cried as
nlrd rs ever we could. | stopped first
| because | wanted 10 catch IL. but could