Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1892-03-04
HIS UNLUCKY PLANET.
BY CLARA GREEN.

ooh, Yes, | know it's all my own
fault" Charley Cleve said. "Whose
else should it be? But m disinherit-
ed, all the same. I've no more chance
Of coming into that fertile farm land
than-than yondcr Italian organ
grinder, who is turning the crank so
peseveringly under deaf Squire Ho-
mer's buck kitchen Window
''Oh, Charley" said Bess, cldsping
her hands iispairingly together.
~ didn't expect much else," went
on Mr.. Cleve, in rolliek ing, light
hearted sort of way. 81 was born
ander an unlucky star, Saturn, or
Mars, or some one of those planets
'hat never bring fellow any good.
You can't expect star to reverse its
order on my account, can YOU"
''But, Charley"
"Just wait until you hear the full
account of my atrocities. Wasn't so
much to blame for treadng on the cat
ANY one might have done that. |
ion't think she laid that up against
HE. And when l broke down the old
cherry chair that had belonged
10 her grandfaiher-that was a mere
question of weight. And mended
It for her, too. But when the broiled
ham for break fast had such a queer
taste to it-and l had TO confess that
| had been smoking up the chimney
where it hung"
ooh, Char,eyw
GLOW was | to know that sine made
a storehouse of the back.room Chin
neys Folks in Philadelphia don't do
that sort of thing. And she wouldn't
tolerate tobacco in any shape-she let
me know that, at the very outset!
The next thing did was to upset
her whole churning of cream. 1t hung
half way down the well, don't you
tee, and when l came home, famished
with thirst, and jerkcd the bucket
lown-wcll, the first thing | heard
was Cousin Sarepta screaming like
mad. lis it bu. glarsY said /, Selling
my blackthorn stick, 'or Is it fre?'
And had plunged into the house, and
put my foot-literally, not metaphor.
cally-into the old lady's baking of
custard pies, that she had set OH the
cellar floor 10 cool, before she could
make me understand. But the last
straw that broke the camers back was
the old gray goose"
1.-THE old gray goose Charley
Surely. nothing has happened TO
lhatl"
NJ. Cleve shook his head.
"The very worst has happened"
said he, "Ive shot i'll"
"On, Charleyl"
The young man laughed bitterly,
and spouted the lines:
"'Why lOokst thou so? With my cross
bow
] shot the albatrossr
Yes. did. Out wild-duck hunting
in the marshes. l thought it was
rather mammoth specimen, when
leveled the trigger; and when Don
brought it TO me my heart sank to the
very soles of my boots. had half an
idea of burying the creature out among
the salt grasses, and saying never a
word. But that would have been a
sneaking sort of a dodge. The Cleves
can do plenty of shabby things, but
they never lie outright. SO | brought
it home with the string of wild birds.
I'm very sorry, Cousin Sarepta,' said
l, 'but I've shot your old goose. Ill
replace it with the finest pair to be had
in Salt Inlet Replace itp says she;
and then, to be sure, theIc was
scene. She set good deal of store
by that old gray goose, you know"
ayes, l know" said Bessie. re-
signedly. ait was nearly twenty
years old. She raised it herself, in
basket by the kitchen-flre, and it ate
corn daily out of her own hand. She
wouldn't have taken twenty dollars
for that old goose. No, nor fifty, |
do believe"
$780," added Charley, with a par
ticularly expressive shrug of the
shoulders, "she has turned me out Of