The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1894-06-08

81
my spring work
cleaning and every thing! If didn't
have to keep one eye on gran'pa ]
could do more. Seems as if he grew
worse and worse.
She paused with sigh. Her hus.
band waited silently for more.
"When the peddlcr called yesterday
he was setting quiet rs lamb by the
stove, with the cal in his lap, kind OF
playing with her, so ventured to go
up gnrret and pick over the rags-it
makes such litter down hcre-and
when got back gran'pa was still set.
ting there and fast asleep. l thought
everything was all right, but come to
make my fire for dinner few minutes
after, there was All awful towsing and
mcwng i'll the oven. l opened the
door and out jumped the cat II
there'd been hot fire he'd done Just
the same | suppose y
Abncr, who was sitting by the table
looking over II lot of garden-seed for
the spring sowing, laughed shortly and
shrugged his shoulders.
"You know what l think about
grau'pa's doings," he said "you know
where l think folks had ought to go
when they lose their faculties and are
no good to themselves nor anybody
else"
"Now, Abner, said his wife, re.
proachfully, "don't say you'd send
gran'pa to the poorhouse! Think
what good man he's been, and what
smart man. How can you be so un.
feeling You wouldn't want your
children to do SO by you, in your old
age"
81 sha mt probably outlive my USE
fulness, answered Abner, coldly. "My
father worked till the very day of his
death-morc' paid his keep till the
last"
"And father Pinney has already
more than paid his keep, if he lives to
be hundred, and you know it," re.
turned his wife, Indignantly. "You
always lay out to forget that he's give
us the old place |"
"Well," said Abncr, az sha'n't hire
help at present; we can't afford to,
not while we have such an expense
a-going on in the family"
Her father, when he came to live
with them, had made over to Abner
the old homestead, the "Pinney
Place." rs it was called. 1t was good
farm lying adjacent to theirs, but the
house was old and of little value So,
also, was the house they now occupied,
Gnd the 0lan WAS to sell the "Pinney
Place" and with the money build
new house where their own now stood.
But Abner seldom chose to remem-
Der the ample provision grandpa had
made for his support, and on this oc-
casion, instead Of replying to his
wifc's reminder, he picked up pack
age of early lettuce seed, and started
of. At the door he turned, however,
and said, perhaps with some idea of
encouraging her:
"Ain't it about time for gran'pa's
Maymoving? He won't be round un.
derfoot SO much when he gets up in
his tree"
"l hope he won't GO. I hope he's
forgot all about it, she said, anxious.
ly. Il tell you, Abner, it isn't safe
and 1T isn't respectable for IN old man
like father to sleep outdoors in a tree
Seems as if | couldn't have him do it
again"
She dashed the tears away from her
eyes as her husband went out.
81 do wish l could ever learn to
holt my tongue, complaining to ABB
ner : she exclaimed, bitterly. "He
always blames everything off on to
gran'pa, and That's all the good it
does. It's n burning shame | can't
hnI fhrA,,r,l, h., 4
i Gran'pa I'll only give up his May
moving this year | won't say another
word if | work my fingers to the
bone -
Two years before. when the spring
came round, Grandpa Pinnoy had
taken queer freak into his head. As
Abner expressed it. che got cranky
on air. When the weather grew
warm, and the trees leafed out and tho
birds began to sing in their branches,
the old man became strangely restless
and uneasy, talked iucohercntly about
'stifling" and 'smothering, and in
sisted on having all the doors an |
windows in the house wide open.
Later on, he seemed unwilling to
stay In the house at all, and moved his
armchair out under the great twin
oaks across the road. There he spent
most OF his time, reading his large
print Testament or watching the birds
and looking contentedly off over tho
pleasant fields.
They had hard work to get him in.
doors for his meals. The idea of
sleeping outside, however, had not
then occurred to him.
lhls was two years ago; the next
year, not content with ii ting under
the trees, he built IA sor; OF rude plai.
form around them, just below where
the main branches joined the trunks.
and made some steps to lead up to it.
Then on the last day of MAY, which
was unusually warm for the season.
in spite Of his daughter coaxlng and
scolding, he insisted on dragging his
bed and bedding mp there. A single
chair and his Testament completed
the furnishing.
From that time on, not only did he
spend his days in the tree chamber,
but he actually slept there at night.
N,f l,,,t ~ oh