Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-03

IeU, however, anu WOuu6Tcu IL diuiC-
tion would not weaken the old wonan's
faith, but at the same time was COM
forted and helped by her.
There was the widow Larkins, whose
son JEFF was brought home one day
with a bullet In his breast, and the
scent of whiskey still upon him.
Granny had slipped in behind the men
bringing the dead boy in; and when
his old mother, blind with grief, had
reached her hands across the bed In
helpless, stricken way, they had met
Granny Corbin's warm, friendly clasp
come to meet her from the other side.
Sympathy was not abundant IN the
IIarkins' neIghborhood, for many had
felt the effects of Jeff's drunken reck-
Iessness. But granny did not stop to
consider that. Death Is death IN the
household, whether it takes the pet
lamb or the black sheep. So she
helped 10 wipe away the blood, aud
smoothed the tangled hair upon the
white temples, and folded his hands
gently 1pon his breast, and laid sprlg
of sweet aZalea blossoms upon his
bosom, and another against his cheek;
and then carried his mother to look at
her boy, living so still and pale and
gentle among the white sheets and the
sweet azalea blossoms.
He had never seemed so clean, so
pure and chIldIike since the days when
he slept upon her bosom-the far away
days of babyhood. Into her heart
there crept hope, a faith, that was to
cheer her ALWAYS. that he might per-
haps be fit to die after all. 1t was
her boy, her babe, come back again,
clean and white in the arms of death.
'It's mighty easy" Ben Sykes said
when he heard OF it, "it's migty easy
ter comfort when ye don't know what
trouble air. Jest wait, L tell ye, tell
it stops ter her door; then yell see eff
it air 'all right" though 1t air sent OF
the Lord.'' So Ben said, aud said 1t
until others began to say it, and began
to wait, without really knowing it, for
the trouble that was TO settle Granny
CorbIn's faith.
And granny lived on in the cabin
under the shadow of the Milkslck
Mountain, "blessed of the Lord" she
declared, for her son Alb and his wife
and their five little ores shared the
chimney corner with her and grandad.
"Not chick nor child missin',
Ben declared, chow can she know the
sorrer of death an of dissertation"
True, they were poor, as the world
went, but wealth was stranger among
the Bear Cove people, and granny was
as well off as the rest of them. She
had the cabin and the patch of ground
surrounding it, and "old Star" the
COW that had, according to granny,
"hterally raised the two last chillen.
ez her nanny had the Oldest ones
afore her." The land, true, was a
| trifie too near the Milksick to be of
any great value; for the unknown
poison was liable to spread, and had a
/ way, the neighbors said, "of travelin'
round ekal ter the mumps an the
'hoopin' cough" But granny troubled
herself very little about the mountain.
Grandad worried some, to be sure, but
after all it was more wonder than
worry that made him sit for hours
under the low caves of the cabin with
his faded eyes fixed upon the awesome
old summit.
81 alters wandered what allied it, !"
he said one day, as he watched the
dreamful shadow clouds driving above
the forsaken height. 81 alters Won
dered what allied the Milkslck any
how"
Granny looked up from the heel she
was turning upon her knitting needles.
81 air not questiOnin' the doin's of the
Almighty" she declared. "He made
| the MIlksick eZ at air, so it air bound
ter be all right, sence He done it. "
But grandad could not accept the
riddle so quietly. For half a century
he had lived under its shadow, to Won
der at the curse.
"Waall," he insisted, '1d jest like
40 know, afore | die, what it be ez hev
pizeued the Milksick Mountain"
eye can't Farm 1t, Obadiah" said
granny. Smarter folks nor we-uns
hev been docterin' of it, an a Won
derin', an at the last they-uns haint
no wis er nor we-uns.'
"Parson Orman, he lowed" said
grandad, "ez 1t air a leper, an he'd ter
be sot aside, count o. It's bein' oEclesn.
1t ware likely ssyin' o. Parson Or
mans; fur whenever | look NJ the
NiIksick, fenced off ther' ter itsef, 1t
seems ter he a sayin', 'Oncleanl on
cleanr ever time l look
eyes, assented granny, sit do seem
ez ef the hand o the Lord ware upon
it. Yit, I'm thInkIn' it air all right,
spite o its ailments"
'I nd like ter 90 over ther'," said
grandad, ''an' look abOut a spell, an
try eff | couldn't make out what ails
it. Some o. the scienters lowed il
ware the dew on the YARDS, an ez il
ware all right after the dew dried up.
Bnt the cattle ez went IN in dew-time
went Jest like them ez got IN when the
dew ware gone. All of 'em went {
hyin' down ter the creek, ravin' mad
ter drink theirse'ves ter death. An
$ some lowed t'ware min'ral in the
groun' ez pizened the YARDS dbOUe the
groun' But they digged, an digged
3 an ther' never ware no min'ral foun'
not ter this good day. SO they ies
h'isted the fence, an furbid folkes 6
, proieckin' with the Milksick Mount
any more. But | I'D like ter try tel
find it; 'twould be with consider 'bl'
ter find out what air hid over ther' ii
the milksick pen."
: "Obadiahr' Granny's voice wa
+ sharp in pronouncing grandad's name
eye hev got no bizness ter be talkin
r sech afOre the chillen. Mex thinl
we-uns knows Burke and Dhvid'n b,
5 lett'n' down them bars, an who's t.
q paw the hunderd-dollar fine fur the lif
of me can't see"
Grandad said no more; but h
I thought about it a good deal. He ha'
u always wondered at the NIilksick'
8 curse. But public feeling was agains
e any tampcriug with the poisonou
0 growth. The folks had suffered to,
ii much from broken rails, and bars lef
a down, and poisoned cattle, and deadi
I milk. Their feelings we're very EN-
y | phatic on the Subiet Grandai kueN
S it.
"Ef n COW was ter git in fifty yea
from now, they'd say l done If, eff the
once knowed l he'd been in ther'," h
i said. So he never ventured beyon,
!; the bars; discretion was the better par
q 4 OF curiosity.
But unfortunately grandad's cautio
e did not descend to his grandsons
: Burke and David, or else they were to
y young for its development. Long afte
q | La al uaIanrD hot nj