The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1894-06-22

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my spring work
cleaning and everything If I didn't
have to keep one eye on gran'pa I
could do more. Seems as if he grew
worse and worse. "
She paused with sigh. Her hus-
band waited silently for more.
"When the peddler called yesterday
he was setting quiet as lamb by the
stove, with the cat in his lap, kind of
playing with her, 50 I ventured to go
up garrett and pick over the rags-it
makes such litter down here-and
when l got back CRAMPS was still set
ting there and fast asleep. I thought
everything was all right, but come to
make my fire for dinner few minutes
after, there was an awful towsing and
mewing in the oven. 1 opened the
door and out jumped the cat If
there'd been hot fire he'd done Just
the same I supposed"
Abner, who was sitting by the table
looking over lot of garden-seeds for
the spring sowing, laughed shortly and
shrugged his shoulders.
"You know what think about
gran'pa's doings," he said; "you know
where I 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 a good man he's been, and what
a smart man. How can you be so I'M
feeling! You wouldn't want your
children to do so by you, in your old
age"
81 sha'n't probably outlive my USE
fulness, answered Abner, coldly. "My
father worked till the very day of his
death-more'n 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 Abner, 81 sha'n't hire
help at present; we can't afford to,
not while we have such an expense
R-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" as it was called. 1t was good
farm lying adjacent to theirs, but the
house was old and of little value. So,
also, was hehouse they now occupied,
and the plan was to sell the "Pinney
Place" and with the money build a
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
wife's reminder, he picked up pack.
age of early lettuce seed, and started
off. At the door he turned, however,
and said, perhaps with some idea OF
encouraging her:
"Ain't it about time for gran pas
May moving? He won't be round un
derfoot so much when he gets up il
his tree"
81 hope he won't go. I hope he'i
forgot all about it," she said, anxious
ly. 81 tell you, Abner, it isn't SAFE
and it isn't respectable for an old maj
like father to sleep outdoors in tree
Seems as if l couldn't have him do i
again.
She dashed the tears away from he
eyes as her husband went out.
81 do wish I could ever learn t,
hold my tongue, complaining to Alb
ner !" she exclaimed, bitterly. "H
always blames everything off on t.
gran'pa, and that's all the good i
does. It's burning shame L can
have help through house-cleanin' bu
if gran'pa II only give up his May
moving this year l won't say anothe
word-not if l work my fingers to tn
bone -
Two years before, when the sprin
came round, Grandpa Pinney ha
taken a queer freak into his head. A
Abner expressed it, che got crank
on air" When the weather gre
warm, and the trees leafed out and tn
birds began to sing in their branches
the old man became strangely restles
and uneasy, talked incoherently abor
"stifing" and 'smothering, " and il
sisted on having all the doors on
windows in the house wide open.
Later on, he seemed unwilling