The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-11-04
BURNT CHESTNUT RUNWAY.
UyCLB ANDY PIPER'S sTORT or
nov 1T cor IT'S NANE.
whsu oia Msu Robsrts's AZ sieton nnd chest
srMorey Were Founs There ~ Furnished
= Happy C1iunx 90 = Forest Romance.

Piper. He was tramping toward that famou
runway TO drive for deer.
ut happened a good many year ago. sonny, I
did. Fore I was born, I guess; any way, so lon
ago that there's durn few folks left In the count.
that ever heerd on IL. let alone recomemberin II
IL was way back in the early days Of stage
coach times, list after the road was dug an
blasted an cut over these hills from the Della
ware to the Siskehanner. an that's fur enough
back, goodness knows. Well, any way. On,
fall an OIL chap that folks soon got to know hi
name was Simon Roberts-an' you'll find his sor
Mordecai's name on the county books dozens o
times II you keer to look itup-got out Of a stag,
over TO the Valley one day, an said he was
lookin' fer a place to settle. He looked around
a good bit, an by an by thought that a tract o
pine land. two or three miled up the creek, was
list about what he was lookln' fer. an he bought
II. He sot men to work TO clearin' up a plot on
the tract, an 10 buildin' him a house. This
house was q log house, an the biggest an best
one ever seen in all this here deestric'. The next
summer three or four big wagon loads Of furni-
ture an housekeepin' flxin's arriv at the Valley.
an was took into the Morrow clearln' an put in
the big log house.
ut was easy enough to see, from the cut o.
them things, an the big heap of 'em that there
was, that the Roberts folks was some punkins,
an no mistake. Follerin' the furniture an
| lhlukh HlOnk Nhtnb vi hhh EOutTIh III EWO
young chaps. which turned out to be his sons,
an the p%ootiest young gal that any one in the
deestric' In them days had ever sot eyes on. She
want more than sixteen, an 1t soon got noised
round 'mongst the few folks that lived in the
deestric' that her name was Sally, an that she
was the oil mans niece. One o. the oil mans
boys names was Mor1ecai an t'other ones name
was Simon. Mordecai wasn't more'n twenty
one, an simon couldn't ben older'n twenty-three.
"Mordecai was a bully young Teller, 'cordin'
to the way things is handed down about him,
an he soon got to be poplar with all the scat
term neighbours. But Simon was an overbearin'
chap. He hated the woods an the people. an
didn't make no bones o. sayin' so. Consistently,
folks want so well sot lords him as they mout
n ben. Well, you know how thinRs'll git
circulated round, an anybody's business be
everybody US business, even II there amt more'n
half II dozent folks in a deestric' twenty milcd
square. SO 1t want long fore the woods all
knowed that oil man Roberts were tol'able
well fixed fer cash, that he, KEEP consid'a-
young Simon an his brother Mordccal was
both in love, with their pooty cousin sally,
an not fer simon, though Simon was his IA
Tiers fay'rite fer some reason or other. an
that consistently there was the old boy to pay
most o. the time at the Roberts clearin'. But
while simon was his pap,s fav'rite, an the OIL
an was ali the time tryin' TO have the boys patch
up Spu i9m he sort sItG 9i g a ni GoImp e, ssii SOS tie matter
bone that the family was piesin, at: There was
son the most OF it orter to be hls'n, an Mordecai
he allowed that he'd be burned II It had. But
could q ben settled easy enough, for that want
what he keered so much about, but when 1t
come to compermisin' on sally, no. stree! There
couldn't be no compromise on sally IL Mordecai
knowed IT,.
We'll Sir, SO things KEEP S;spin' fer a year an
to the Valley an said he had been listenin' to the
condingest quarrel Eoln' on 'mongst the folks at
heerd anywheres ON top o earth.
" By en- by says sam, oil man Roberts he
or! I'm gointer divide my money up 'twixt you
two boys, sheer an sheer alike, but by Gumbo!
Then says Sam, sally she bust out a-cry-
In an Mordecai he riz up and says:
YER NOME Me-; ye S d0nt, PA pap b.I ! dont want ant none on o,
last gicnyune, but me an sally hitchss!'
draw up the papers an fetch 'em back FOR him
TO sign. An Simon went
clearin' for two or three days, an folks was be-
ginnin' 20 think things was lookin' tol'able mys.
an investigation. when back comes young Simon
the county seat; ,Twa'n,t many hours
young Simon had found the big log house empty.
This oil man was missin', Mordecal was mlssin'.
sally was missini an the, chest o, money was
the d~eestric', an swore that Moriecai had muir
dered the OIL man, hid him some'rs In the woods,
away with sally. An he swore that everybody
IN the woods had helped Mordecal to do il, an
langin' match that'd string 'em all up.
But there want no evidence of any murder
t,and w 6sea q dS ali meant an, nS SS Q COULDN'T under.
simon, hndin' that he couldn't git a clue to
n6ra nns niah, hnrnad q 4, M SOY 'ne 10Y mouse
an tine next day left the deestric'. cussin' ev'ry,
body there was II 1t, an nobody, never see nor
doin's at the Roberts eieariin,, when who should
Sis S a an, an' s ssnge Both 81 hhs on '% 3as as on sm aTH SS az
basket o chips! Then mebbe there wasn't
when they ,heerd the news o what had ben
on at the clearln', cause that was ,he first
young Simon. An why hadn't they Lrerd
about ~ This Was why. 'cordin' to what they
everybody could easy see.
Me an sally was bound that II there was
Nlordecai, that it'd be- me an her as would do
Il. So, the night after simon started fer the
county seat TO git the papers fixed, we list slid
We footed it ten mIled through the woods, an
was a Squire VIZ didn't waste no more time, but
list got spliced, straight an strong. An we ben
IN 9 HH weddiG, tour ever sencs, SAYS MGrdecai
N NFNN' "sH ''NAAAA AhAN VIC vi HIATT =
money; an, the oil man was in bed, 50 far as they
knOw'd, when they slid outen the house. Morde-
,ai and sally staid In the deestric' a good while,
Iryin' % clear up the mystery, hut couldn't do
Z, an, then they went back TO the place they
from; which was over in Jersey some'rs or
Nobody didn't see nor hear nothin' %
Niordecai fer three year after that. and then one
all he come up here with two or three more
'haps to hev n deer hunt. They camped some'rs
nigh where my cabin is now, One day Mordecai
ne got lost In the woods. He tTapesed around
an there an everywhere. 'cept the right
llace, an, when night come he hadn't
his beaTin's yit, 50 he camped fer
he night; He started a big fire to keep things
warm an skeer the wolves away, an. laid down
n the leaves at the foot of a big dead Chestnut
rec. He never knOw'd what time In the night
hat IL happened, but anyhow he was woke up
" sumPin', an there he see, the dead tree
t:burnin' as IL II was the pillar o. lire that
,tnted the way fer the childern o. Isra'l outen
he wildernest. The IRE of his camp had crep'
long through the dry leaves an ketChed on tie
cad tree, an II bein' chestnut Il had list took
he fire up an snapped an cracked with il. The
luli o. one side o. the trunk Was Ahre, an Nor
Iecai hadn't more'n got Onter his feet an
uten the way when smash! come the hurnin'
ide o, the stub % the ground, leayln' t'other side
tst a ketchin' hre. But IL want the fallin' %
he buTnin' tree that made MOrdecAi iump ag'n.