The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1891-06-03
MY INTIMATE FRIEND.

| was Ivlng with my parents IN what
are now called the oil regions of
! Pennsylvania, but it was in the
early days of the use focal oil, and
the Indications of its presence. Were
not SO well understood as they are
now, so it was not thought probable
that any one in our neighborhood
would be warranted in undertaking
expense in an attempt to bore for
oil. Spectators were not ready
then to take upon themselves the
cxpense of boring, and my father
did not feel able to undertake it.
SO he had toiled on, trying to. be
content with making both ends
meet from what he could wrest from
the soil above.
Ny grandfather owned quite a
tract of land on on one side of the
Highway running through the little
country village of P-and the
father of my most intimate friend
owned an equally large tract adjoin-
ing us.
We had formerly lived just over
the line in New York, and my prin-
cipal objection when father decided
to remove to grandfather's was that
should have to leave my most in
innate friend behind me; but there
was no help for it, and 1 had man
aged not only TO survive it, but to
find another friend, whom 1 thought
more nearly perfect than any one
who had gone before, for l had had
several intimates in the course of
my Is years.
"Betty, poor girl is addicted to
intimate friends" was a frequent
saying of my eldest brother, Albert,
as if they were kind of intoxicant
L was unable to resist.
Such remarks never failed to send
me to Abagail Potter for sympathy,
which / always received. We were
inseparable, and when father once
spoke of returning to our old home
was the most violent opponent of
the plan. could not leave Aba
gall
"You'll get enough of Abagail
some day" said Aunt Kate.
eyes," said grandmother. "Her
tongue is hung in the middle, an
wags both ways"
"You should not be SO intimate
with any girl" mother added.
"You ought to learn that you can't
keep your own secrets no one will
keep them Tor you"
Now l really did not tell Abagail
everything l knew, though 1 must
confess l came very near it; but L
reasoned that it was natural to like
to talk, and to have some sympa-
thetic person to talk to. OF course
we must have something to talk
about, SO where was the harm when
she was my most intimate friend?
"Betty, | want you this minute!''
heard mother call one morning
from the back door.
"She's hangin' over the front gate
with Abigail" Aunt Kate replied.
So was, but l FASTENED to the
back yard where mother was anxi-
ously dipping her skeins of rags up
and down in the big dye kettle.
"Just keep stirring them so the
dye won't settle, while 1 get out
your fathers seed corn" she said.
1 was absently poking the rags
when mothers voice fioated down
to me from the attic window she
had just raised.
$50 the prospecter has decided to
do it has her"
eyes" replied father. "He'll be-
gin by the 18th. He's coming the
Thursday aforc to bind the bargain
and make payment.
"Then we get it here by Tuesday,
mother asked eagerly.
"No reason why not" said father
81 hopeso. Iwould be disappoint-
ed if it couldn't be done by the 18th;
but the roads are bad"
"Well it can be hauled six miles,
good or bad, less the bottom of 'em
falls clean out" father ended with a
chuckle.
1 had not been especially interest
ed in the conversation until mother
referred to the 18th. Tuesday, tho
18th, was my birth day, and it
flashed upon me that Ait" must be
something for me. / followed up
my discovery with such conclusive
argument in my mind that "it''
must certainly be a piano-some-
thing l had long wished for, and
which no one in the neighborhood
possessed. / became all ears at