The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-03
T0MZIE'S TREASURE.
John HabbertOn in the Pittsburg Dis
Feh

beach line Of the town was broken by
several coves, each of which was narrow.
deep. tortuous and ending in clumps Of
trees which would have hidden any ordi-
nary vessel from the eye Of a lookout
in the Offing.
At least twenty of the cabins
ashore sheltered people who could
tell pirate stories and other sea
yarns an hour long, and the
tellers were too much in earnest to let the
truth ever stand in the way Of a story
being strong enough to stand alone
1t stands to reason, therefore, that Tom
zie had heard of buried treasure ever
since he had been able to remember any
thing he heard. If Capt Kidd hadn't run
into at least one Of those coves he must
have been a bigger fool than any one
imagined him. and if he hadn't buried
treasure there he must have known of
some spot where the digging was easier;
otherwise, he couldn't have had any treas
ure to hide which was a possibility not
to be thought of for an instant
1t was true that the shore had been dug
over again and again. without Welding
anything more valuable than clans. but
mat merely proved that Kidd and the
as any pirate had to be if he wanted ii 10
leave his property where he was sure of
nnqlng IL when he wanted it.
IOmzle had done some treasure hunt
ing on his own account but none of il
mad paid expenses. one day he un-
earthed an iron pot, from half of it's
length beneath the surface of the beach
Every boy who has heard stories of bur-
led treasure knows that an iron pot I'M
DER ground ought to be full of money, but
When Iomzle got the rusted cover off
ne found only some trash and a very
bad smell, as If some one had begun to
COOK something and left il behind. He
Q a nm, hfrr ,.Fr,
ike gold when he rubbed the edge of it
against stone, but when he had scour-
ed II with soap and sand it proved to ne
British tWo-pennY copper. Such eX-
periences, however, were just the things
TO sharpen a boys imagination, so Tom
zie went on digging and dreaming.
one day an artist strayod down to
the town in search of the picturesque,
and found a large shower instead, so
he quickly packed his cClOrs and white
umbrella and hurried back to the city,
leaving behind him on the beach a copy
Of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure
Island which he had been reading on
the way down on the train. TCmZie found
the book, and began to read it, and when
he went to bed his head was fun enough
of rascally sailors, unexpected hiding
places, secret memoranda and bags and
bars of gold to make the fortunes of all
the treasure hunters in the world.
About this time the Columbian fair
a Chicago broke out and TOmZes father
astonished himself and his wife and the
town by taking Mrs. Trubb out to Chi
cago to view the wonders Of the world.
Tomzie was big enough to take care of
himself when left alone at home, for lie
knew how to fry bacon and fish and to
make biscuits out of self-raising flour,
but to. be alone at night in the house
when big gale was shrieking along the
coast, was anything but fun.
One night the wind and the rain, and
lot of biscuits made of flour, which for
some reason didn't rise" kept Tomzie
very wide awake and very mucn scared.
He was sure there were ghosts in the
Ir4f fnaH wa mi of
them out of doors. so there was no place
for him to hide, or to which he could es-
cape. He got under the bed, but did not
feel much better. how he did wish he
could get under the floor! There was lot
of household trash under the bed, but
Tomzie pushed it aside and felt the floor
boards, one after another, hoping there
might be some one of them which he
The house, which was a mere shanty.
was one of the Oldest in the village;
some of the neighbors said it had been
built of wreckage from Noah's ark, but
that probably was a mistakes nevertheless
TomZie knew the timbers were quite rot
ten, and he hoped he could loosen a plank
or two of the floor.
Finally he succeeded. and as the ground
beneath was dry and sandy, he soon
scooped a comfortable resting place in
it, and fell asleep. He awolSe in the morn
ing from a dream that he was a fishing
smack. and that another smack had run
into him and punched a hole in his side
with the tip of its bowsDTit and wouldn't
stop punching. When he got fairly awake,
he ceased to be q smack but the bowsp.iit
continued to punch, so he investigated,
and found his left side had been resting
upon a stick which was protruding up
ward from the sand. He called the stick
some uncomplimentary names, and tried
to pull it out but it would not pull.
Suddenly he remembered that pirates
who buried treasure, often planted stake
as a mark-not ,tall stake, which any
one could see but one which could be
found by one who knew it was theIse, and
who would dig Off the surface of the
sard. ''Whewi What if this should be a
treasure hoard-right under his own
home It wouldn't take long to find out
Pushing the bed toward the one win
dow, so that it might hide him from
any neighbor who might stray toward
the house, Tomzie took the fire shovel,
lit candle, got under the floor, and
began to dig about the stake. Hurrahi
He soon reached the edges of a box.
Then he began to dig as if his life de-
pended upon it, and soon he got down
Carefully removing all the sand, he
found a knob by which he lifted the
board. Beneath this he saw real door,
about foot and a half square, with
hinges at the upper side of the edge.
Raising this, and holding his candle so
that he could see the contents, he
Well, he came as near to fainting as
any healthy boy ever did. for he saw
a silver cup-a big one, with silver money
in it, and he saw tin boxes. and shot
bags-just such things as the old pirates
always tucked jewels and gild and bull
lion into for safe keeping.
Tomzie sprawled upon the sand, blew
out the candle, and went to thinking
of what he should do with his great
find 1t took him very little time to
make up his mind to buy a ten-pound
box of candy a four-bladed knife and a
red necktie. He would want other
things in the course of time but these
four he would get without delay Yes,
and he would go that very day to the
Universe race course only ten miles
away and bet high on every race whether
he won or lost.
How much money could there be in
that box? TomZie could count coin
quite accurately up to five dollars
worth, but after that his arithmetic was
somewhat shaky; he wished he had
known what luck was to befall him, so
that he might have studied his arithme-
tic lessons better during the occasional
months when he had been compelled to
go to scool
Again, getting from under the floor he
hung a bit of rotten sail across the win
dow, on the inside; this was the towns
recognized sign that the inmates of a
house were asleep, or praying, or house.
cleaning, or doing something else which
made the presence of visitors undesirable.
Then he set himself to the task of count
ing his find.
The job took long time, and the money
tNA