The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1895-02-15

capturing a desirable husband. Hal
sey rugged up sort of seat for the
woman, so that could sit in the blight
OF the rope with lashings around her
here and there, and couldn't fall out il
stand on the window ledge and low
cred away. Miss Payson shrieked
good deal at first and begged Halsey
to let her come back aud die close to
him, but he wasn't going to have any
woman dying around his neck IL he
knew himself. So he lowered her
down gently and easily, encouraging
her all the time, till he found thai his
rope had come to an end. 1t wasn't
quite as long as he had su opposed that
it was, and the upshot was that there
was Miss Payson about thirty feet
from the ground, with no possible way
of reaching it unless Halsey should let
go his end Of the rope.
HE thought OF letting 60 OF it, but
being a humane, good-tempered man,
do it, since the result would have been
that either Miss Payson would have
been killed, or at least most of her
limbs would have been broken. So
he made the end Of the rope fast to
beam, and called out to Miss Payson
not to lose courage, and he would soon
think Of some way of getting her out
of the difficulty. She begged him to
draw her up again, and he actually
tried to do it, knowing all the while
what the consequences would be if he
succeeded, but he found that he didn't
have the necessary strength: Miss
Payson was heavier than she looked to
be. though she was mostly bones but
she was a good seventy-ive feet below
him, and it would have taken two men
of his strength to have hoisted her up
into the steeple again. He pulled at
the rope till he was pretty near eX-
hausted, for he naturally felt little
ashamed of ack knowledging to a woman
that there was anything that he wasn't
strong enough to do. However, he
had to come to it at last, and tell her
that if it was to save both their lives
he couldn't manage to pull her back
into the steeple. So she settled down
to cry, and he settled down to smoke
pipe, with view to clearing his
ideas.
"All of a sudden he saw what he
ought to do, and wondered that he had
been such an idiot as to not have seen
it before. There was the bell just
above his head, and all he had to do
was to climb up and ring it by swing.
ing the clapper from side to side, till
the alarm should bring back the
sexton with the keys. BY this time it
was getting rather dark and Halsey
set to work at that bell and kept on
tolling it slowly and regularly, for that
was the only way he could manage to
ring it.
bell when anybody dies, and to give
lust as as many strokes on the bell as
the deceased had lived years. When
Halsey began to toll the bell the
Athensviile people listened to find out
how old the deceased had been. When
the strokes had got up among the
eighties they allowed that the oldest
settler in the town must have died
very sudden, for he had been seen
drunk, as usual: and in perfect health
But the bell kept on, and bimeby,
after it had tolled some 80 times and
showed no signs Of stopping, folks
began to think that the sexton had
just happened to hear about the death
of Methuselah and was notifying other
people of the fact
You may ask why didn't somebody
90 to the church and find out what the
bell was ringing for. Well, for one
thing, it was just supper time, and
nobody felt anxious to take "a walk Of
mile or two just at that hour. Then,
too. it had been said that the Baptist
churchyard was haunt d and there
wasn't any general desire to interfere
with ghosts in case they should have
taken notion to toll the bell. The
tolling kept on till Halsey had tolled
the bell over 400 times AMI then Rev.
nh orriU N
and when he heard Miss Payson's
voice somewhere in the air over his
head he was considerably startled,
though not being believer in ghosts
he wasn't the least bit frightened.
"'How on earth did you come up
there, ma'am ?" asked the minister,
and what are you tolling the bell
for 2"
"Miss Payson explained what was
the matter. She said that she and
Mr.. Halsey had come to the church in
the afternoon, cal'latin' to find the
parson there, and to get married; that
not finding him they had gone into
the steeple to see the view, aud had
accidentally been locked in. She was
sure that she couldn't live many
minutes longer, she felt so weak, and
she hoped Mr.. Humphreys would
another minutes delay, and so save
her reputation. even if it didn't save
her life.
THE minister wanted to send for
help and get her safe on the solid
ground before marrying her, but she
said that she must be married before
she could dare to face any Of her towns
men. Such, she said, were also dear
Mr. Halseys views, and if Mr.. Hump
hreys had the feelings OF man and a
Christian, let alone Baptist minister,
he would go ahead with the marriage
service.
"Mr. Humphreys finally consented.
and called out to Halsey to nod when
he should see the minister wave his
right arm, that being the only way in
which Halsey could make the re-
sponses, seeing as his voice didn't
fairly reach to the ground. Having
this satisfactorily, as he
thought, Mr.. Humphreys went ahead,
and in about two minutes he had Miss
PaysOn married to Mr.. Halsey. just
then the sc yton came up with the keys,
and knowing where he could lay his
hand on length of rope, he took it
up into the stecple with him and bent
il on To the bell rome Then he and