The Penn's Grove record., 1895-08-16

corn comes down to an unprecedentedly
low figure, will still pay all expenses for
seed, rent, tillage, and leave US enough
70 fatten our hogs after all"
The deacon was silent from astonish
ment.
~ shall raise as many chickens "a
possible through the heat OF tie coming
summer; SC that the next spring I shall
have eggs by the quantity, when the
market reports quote q good price, with
'upply less than the demand"
"You talk like a farmer, Priss," eiac.
ulated the dazed deacon. "When did YOU
earn SO much, l wonderT
H'Don't ask me questions, but promise
me-" giving him a tight squeeze.
"I promise"
She shook herself loose from him,
and poured out for herself a cup Of hot
ga.
"Very we'll; go to work and make mi
some chicken coops and q hen house,
aud fetch home my hens tomorrow, and
this fall / will show square accounts
with some folks / know orr
In the course Of time the COWS were
driven home, the chickens roasted in the
deacon's hen house, and the "femals
hog, with her seven children, occupied
the attention OF the deacon's daughter.
OF a morning Prissy went into the cellar
and skinned, and strained, and churned,
and outside the deacon himself, with
the spade and al made good time among
the stumps, thereby saving hired help
and the additional cost Of a wood pile.
The deacon had lived all his life under
a lazy cloud. He couldn't cut wood, he
said, because it made him 90 tired. He
couldn't work at farming, because the
weather was either too hot or too cold,
or too wet or too dry. He couldn't stay
all the while at his place OF business (ne
was a photographer and wait for GUS
toners, because he "wanted to get out
and stretch his legs" But suggest the
idea Of an impossible enterprise to him,
or ask him to invest in q lottery ticket,
or talk travel, and directly the deacon
vas your man.
He wal utterly and abominably LAZY
and selfish. He forced Prissy to pinch
and save e dollar, while he would
squander fifty, and have nothing to show
for what he had paid out. Such Is man
that is, SO much Of it as went by the
nams OF Deacon Dodge.
One OF the things the strong. minded
| girl got him to do was to make fence,
| which she insisted should be hedge. A
hawthorne hedge, she declared, was
| both beautiful and attractive, besidei
Just as useful as any other.
So, under her vigilapt generalship, h.
delivered some trees tor the nursery
men and took his pay In hedge plants,
which she made him set out and attend
TO.
Little by little she put the deacon On
his mettle, until at last she herself wa,
surprised to find how much she had mad,
him accomplish. At the end OF the first
| year he had grubbed their one and
half acres, put the first coat Of paint Oh
the house, made the fence, dug the cei.
lar, built %outhouses, cut all the fire wood
| and made five dollars a week besides.
At the end Of their first year Priss,
| found she has sold six dozen chickens at
four dollars per dozen, and had as many
more to winter over. She had sold six
hundred pounds of butter, at an average
of thirty cents a pound. The two calves
fetched twelve dollars readily, and the
fatted hog twenty-seven more. Their
household expenses had been just one
hundred dollars, aside from what she
had raised in the garden, and the butter
and eggs were Of home manufacture,
also. She spent not a penny for cloth
,ng.
Together they checked off account.
one evening, and to bis intense surprise
the deacon found q little matter of -four
hundred and fifty dollars to his credit,
besides having a much better start tor
The next year.
He paid the balance due on his lum
Der, and thankfully took up three othe
notes, after which he. breathed inor
freely. The next year the invlncible
Prissy sold two hundred dollars worth
of hogs, sixty dollars worth of eggs, and
ten dozen chickens, still keeping house
hold and personal expenses at the lowest
possible point.
The deacon, too, had better luck, Of
perhaps attended more strictly to his
business, and the end of the second year
was also the death knell Of the Unsuitable
mortgage.
AS this is no fancy sketch, but, on tn,
contrary, is a veritable 'sleaf from life,"
I cannot state what the result was FOL
the third year OF Miss Prissy's manage
ment.
But I saw the deacon the other da.
trimming his hedge, which was all white
md sweet with bloom, and he tells me
hat the carpenters are busy at his house,
1 and that he shall have enough produce
10 dispose of In the fall to take him COM
pletely out Of debt. He certainly has
The handsomest place in the country, and
| by far the most stylish house. As for
Prissy, her face 10 tanned a light brown,
and her hands are not quite so white and
small as they once were-not $50 useless
by half" she says, turning them over
carefully, and showing the little cal
'oused Jumps on the palms.
"But we are out of debt anyway" sh.
added, triumphantIy. "This thing Of
being dunned by every other person ons
lees Is anything but funny"
May Forrest Hill long outshine itA
reighbors, aud stand as a striking me.
mento Of one woman's wili.-New Yort
Weekly.
How Deaf Mutes Dance.