Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-03-08

we mean Jess as well fur you
wimmen folks" returned the old man,
warming with his subject. "Ye're like
q passed. o. cuttlefsh when a gals good
names floundcrin' atween yer inky
tongues. But We only foul yersel's when
ye raise yer voice agin Whey. She had
a RICHTER go, if she wanted ter. She'd
q right ter stay, if she wanted term
The old man was so vehement that
his impetuous words turned the tide III
the absent Viney's favor at once.
"She was tn best schoolmom ever
cum to our deestrict," bridled up a farm
wife from near wagon. "She'd foot
it six mile, in m out; chop her own
wood an build her own fire; wasn't
above sweepin' out the school-house,
nuthcr; an then, arter fightin' sense
| inter them younguns' heads all day,
she'd set up all night nussin' to- sick.
Mebbe she warn't good huff for Penn
broke" this with mighty scorn, "but
she was good huff for plain folks out
our wayp
"Well, Whey was handy with her
needle" admitted one old lady with
trembling head.
I'M handler with q boat than emmy
man at tn head o. tn tide" remembered
another.
"What warn't she handy at ?" re-
sumed the old man on crutches, beating
the sand and single to emphasize his
words. ....
"She could cook like Malayun;"
offered an old salt in evidence.
"She cud work like a nigger;" insisted
the farmwife from the wagon.
"She cud pray powerfuler m tn
passon;" insisted clam-digger Ike, who
sat unmoved under the droppings of the
sanctuary all his hard old life.
NJ cudn't she sing purty9 Oh, my p
ventured one of the bravest of the bare
legged Pembroke lads.
Sing ?-singl Well rayther!" snorted
the old man on crutches. "Thar's war
tn hull trouble come. Tn Salvashun
band cudn't git note in edgewise, drum
n all, when Viney Jetsum jess hem'd
| and haw'd a leetle, m opened them
purity lips. Why, that gal worked her
skin T. tn bones, kcerin fur them three
captings," jerking his head toward the
hut. IN whatd she git2 Not nuthin'.
Whatd she ak 'em fur--them that's got
more money n this hull town."
No one answered and the sympathetic
oracle resumed
"What was it, jess a pesky origin,
or melodyun, fur tn Sund'y school.
Dye sp'Ose they'd do that little? Not
much. Said their wheezin' old Gordon
m their yelpin' old fiddle was a darn'd
sight more music m Pembroke he'd a
right Z git; m then when that colleger
cum long, vacationin' two year ago
m likely Teller he wash took a
leetle pity on Viney, m sent her a'orgin
from, Bosting, they jess up m sold it
out O. spite !"
"Said 'twuz putin unlikely notions
in her head, ! heefd 'em say as much, !"
interrupted the stonemasons wife, i'm
mediately swapping her lips together
and slowly nodding her head.
YES" continued he Of the crutches
triumphantly, IAN then Whey lit out.
But don't you forgit it, Teller citizens,
Whey lit out ON her own money; her
own hard.earned money She didn't
| light outwith no colleger, neither. I'll Jess
bet my next quarters pension money
agin all them captings 81 got, that wher.
ever Viney Jetsum is, she's workin' m
singin' m prayln', jess as steddy as she
did in Pembroke. Darn my hide Them
|
huntin' her stead O. sailing away for
their health; m if | had my way, they'd
bring her back T. Pembroke, 'poloaizin'
all the way, or I'd scuttIe their Happy
Thought for em, outside 'Quoddy Head!''
"'Iaint no such town 'thout her, as
'twu2!" sighed clam-digger Ike.
mo sech town. No town at all ri
sputtered the old man, stumping up and
down and around and among his lis.
teners, while making the sparks fly
from the gritty rock and Single with
the iron ferrules OF his crutches. mo
more spcllin's down; no donashun par.
ties fur tn passoh no singin' school; nc
more clambakes; no quiltin's; no pic.
nickin'; no revivalin'; no nuth'nl IN
them three critters done it-pshaw |"
The tender-hearted old fellow could
contain himself no longer; and with q
fierce shake Of the cruteh at the hut and
the gayly rocking Happy Thought
stumped vigorously away up the high.
way to his little cottage beside the mill
"rhem three critters done it," said the
farmwife responsibility, as her wagon
started away ON its homeward Journey
among the hills.
"rhem three critters done it, sure;'
echoed clam.digger Ike, Swimming bit:
of slivered rock like scudding sea-fow
along the surface of the creeping tide.
Unconscious and unheeding of Penn
broke criticism, though full OF impoItan
secrecy in their movements, the three
ancient shippers, still locked within the
hut, were holding the most solemn con
clave of their lives.
They were alike as the almost flowing
blue trousers that enveloped their re
spective shrivelled legs; the blue pea
jackets upon their bent old backs; tn,
fluffy gray shirts beneath; the hug,
black kerchiefs dangling from unde
spaniel-eared collars, over which poured
strikingly alike cascades of white ant
shaggy boards, which seemed to leay,
but little room for redeemed noses, bead,
eyes and wrinkled foreheads, as /
blended into shaggy white eyebrows anC
J shaggy white hair, running like wreath
of well-hackled hemp from the nape
of their scraggy necks up over thei
hairy ears-nicely defining little, rounC
spaces of led and shiny scalp, all pre-
ciscly as if cut from the same patch
, work pattern; and still us alike us tn,
ancient sou'westers they grasped in thei
left hands; for their right hands lait
together in solemn little wrinkly an,
, knotten pile on the top of an extinc
sheet-iron stove.
"Viney's got ter be got" said Captain
Benjamin Ballast, with force and feeling
"That's what we're here fur" assentet
Captain Rudolph Rudder.
| "By fair means er FOUL" added Cap
! tain Timothy Tacker, with determined
; | little twist of his head