The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-04-07

one relic to another.
M'm glad" said she, every glad.
1t was thoughtful Of you, Charles.
I'm sorry / called you them names. I
take 'em all back"
"Oh, never mind the names," said
Charley. "At all events, you can't
lay this fire to mel"
"No," said Sarepta, cit was the
mice playin' on the closet shelf where
l kept the matches. I'd laid up to set
trap, but 1 forgot. And / should
ha' been burned in my bed, if it hadn't
been for you, Charles. l allays
dreaded death by fire!"
Old Miss Sarepta lay very quietly
for day or two, with the gray goose
folding its wings at her bed head, and
the Bible and spectacles on stand
beside her pillow.
"Charles shall have the gray goose"
said she, one evening. ''It'll help fur
nish his house. And it'll show don't
bear no malice ON account of his
shootin' it. And the specks and the
Bible Bess must keep. An old Bible
brings every one luck"
She died before day break. If there
was any willard Miss Sarepta was
always believed to be a well-to-do,
businesslike woman-it was destroyed
in the flames. The old place-three-
and-forty acres-went to a cousin
nearer of kin than Charley Cleve.
"My unlucky planet again." said
Charley, with a grimace. "Well,
never mind, Bess; it's only waiting
little longer. We've got Bible and
pair of spectacles, after ALL"
"And stuffed gray goose" said
Bess.
ooh, hang the goose!" said Char
ley. "It's neither useful nor orna-
mental. Let's shy it out into the
orchard" and he seized it by one leg.
"Oh, stop, Charleyp cried thrifty
Bess. "Let's save the feathers for
pillow"
"They're full of arsenic and such
stuff. .''-,--.--,--------
"All the better for keeping out
MOTHS" retorted Bess. "I'll pack
them into bag, and Oh, Charlie,
what is this?"
A piece of the old gray goose's epi-
dermis had come of with the first
handful of feathers. Underneath it
was something like dull-green paper,
packed in layers.
"Hellop said Charley. "Why-
they're bills They're money! Look
here! Am dreaming2"
1t was true. The old gray goose
was stuffed full of new crisp green
backs. Sarepta Smiths eccentricities
had not ceased with her death. There
had been method in her words when
she gave Charley Cleve this memorial
of his own blunder, as a peace offer
ing.
Give hundred dollarsl" said he.
II say, Bess, isn't it almost enough to
get married upon2 Wen do it very
quietly, you know"
Don't talk nonsense, Charley"
"But look in the old. Bible, Bess.
Who knows what may be hidden
therep"
Nothing was hidden there. Ap-
parently Miss Sarepta had confined
her savings bank idea to the old gray
goose.
Charley Cleve considered deeply.
olive hundred dollars won't go very
far in the city," said he; "and in the
Trust Company, where Pm clerking
it, fellow may grub away for 20
years without any chance of promo
ton. Pll cut city life, Bess, if you
say so, and invest this money in the
first payment on little fruit farm out
here at Salt Inlet"
Bess's face lighted up.
"Close to my old home!" she cried.
"Oh, Charley, do say so!'"
And 10 years after their wedding
day, when the great railway vein had
throbbed through their land, and the
"little fruit farm" was cut up into
village lots, the thriving young farmer
looked at his wife with smile.
at all comes of the old gray goose,
Bess," said lie.
1.-The unlucky planet was a lucky