The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-01-16
MARRIED IN HASTE.

stock farm of George Barnett, few
miles out OF the thrifty little city o
Marion, o. 1t is alwaysa business trip
but at the same time my chief pleasur
OF twelvemonth. George and i wer'
seatmates in the log schoolhouse. Nov
he raises blooded horses for the city mar
ket, and buy them. He is strictly hon
est and not bit sporty, and his standing
refusal OF his stock in my favor hai
thrown many hundreds of dollars my
way. But George can afford 1t. He 4.
worth half million. My trip this year
landed me at his hospitable door on the
evening OF Tuesday, the 7th.
That evening we sat on the broad south
porch OF his handsome house, looking
across forty-scre meadow that sloped
| gently TO the adjoining grove. Across
this meadow, along private roadway
connecting the river road on the west
with pasture on the east. several farm
hands were leading the $4,000 worth OF
stock had come to claim. They looked
nice, but George and had fully discussed
| them by mail, and he never was fond of
stable or paddock talk in leisure hour.
You asked me at supper how / came
to give up graduating and why / didn't
study law" he observed. "You see that
furry white object moving along the river
road? Well, that covers the man who
wrought the change. That's old Parson
Baker, Sophia Barnett's pastor emeritus
OF Three Locust Methodist Episcopal
Church. He's mothers beneficiary and
pensioner, and he'll be mine IL mother
goes before he does. He came into this
country sixty years ago rs an exhorter,
and he has ridden these roads more or less
steadily ever since. He whaled father at
the raising of his first log church for
trying to make him take drink OF whis-
key, and they were the thickest kind OF
chums until father died. Father didn't
marry until he was forty, and am the
only child.
"By the time arrived father had accu-
mulated what in those days was fabu-
lous fortune, 100000, and he made it
fiOO, before was OF age. He wanted
to make rne horse breeder, but wanted
law, and there We hitched. About yepr
before i should have finished at college
he wrote brief letter-the only one l
ever had from him-conveying the Infor-
nation that ii knew what was good for
me l would be married before l was
twenty-one. That letter bothered me a
great deal because father was no bully IL
he did try to have little fun with the
preacher, and i couldn't quite see the
point between matrimony and stock rails
ing.
"The letter contained not a word about
education or the law. Anyhow, my BIRTH
day and commencement day occurred the
same week, and i thought / would risk
the undesirable consequences OF waiting,
whatever they were.
"Two days before commencement
father was stricken with apoplexy. He
was unconscious when got to the farm.
and lived only few hours. His last few
months had been marked by total inca
pacity for business and mother was
nearly worn out from looking after
tn ings.
"We buried him on the day was to
graduate, and two days before nv twen-
ty-f first birthday. Old Pap Baker was
away down on the other end Of the Cir
cult, and mother ordered that a simple
burial service should be said by local
sxhorter OF our neighborhood, leaving
the funeral service to be preached by
Pappy Baker on his next appointment. as
vas often done in those days, for there
vas not another Methodist circuit rider
Within forty miles that we knew Of.
That afternoon mother sent me to |
own after fathers lawyer, who was also |
OF the will, OF the contents OF |
which l knew nothing, and mother
scarcely more. The lawyer could not |
'ome out until the afternoon OF the next
lay, which was the eve Of my twenty
lrst birthday. When the will was oponed
almost knocked me out. II left eyerv-
hing to mother in trust for me on tho |
ole condition that was to be married
within twenty four hours after my grad
ation. Ii did not graduate was to bs
carried by IL O'Clock noon on the day I
ecame twenty one years old Moreover
old Parson Baker was alive he WAS TO
o the job. In the event OF my failure.
or any cause, to meet these conditions
Tas TO have $1,000, and the rest, after
,other's death, was TO 90 to fathers
hree nephews, who were plodding farm
RS in an adjacent county.
"Now here was nice layout / wssn,t
attached to the idea ofa le-
al career, but neither was l engaged
nd the girl whom had thought Of in
his connection was the daughter OF a
idow living down the road about two
lilies, whose fGce l had washed with
now and who had spelled me down in
nc district school, both times innumer-
Die. had not seen her for year and
alt until she came to the funeral, but. as
" good luck had it. she was then in the
ouse. The lawyer assured me that the
i'll was perfectly valid, as my father had
zen notoriously too smart for any othor
an In the county as n bargain driver.
nd no jury could be found to declare
i'm OF unsound mind.
" Parson Baker lived in n little villnre
venty-five miles down the pike, where
lere was neither railroad nor telecranb
alton. explained the situation to the
'ung lady and she blushingly consented.
'hy shouldn't she9 She had known me
her life, and there was 900, 900 and a
asonably good-looking husband in IL.
" So far everythin- was easy. There
ere yet eighteen hours before the limi,
time should expire, and we felt safe.
put the best rider among our neighbor
,ys on our fastest saddle horse. and
arted him of TO get Parson Baker. re-
resting him on no account 10 fail TO be
our farm by IL o'clock the next day.
he young man started about O'Clock
tho evening, in heavy rain, and made
q preachers about II O 'clock that nf,ht