The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-01

"Well. parson," McMonigle began at
last, "ef had O. seen you standin' in the
front o. the sto'e clean to the minute
you come back here, I'd think you'd
heerd more'n names.
"Of co'se we couldn't put it quite ez
eloquent az you did, but we had jest
everyone of us lowed that sense the
day May Meredith dropped out O. Simp-
kinsvile the sky amt never shone the
same.
But for story? Well, / don't see
tibet ther's much story to it, and to
them thet didn't know her / reckon it's
q common enough story.
But ez to the old niger, Proph',
being mixed up in 1t, can't eggsac'ly
say that's so, though l don't never
think about the old Niger without
seemin' to see little May Days long
yaller curls. an eff 1 think about her, l
seem to see the old man, somehow.
Don't they come to you all that-a-
way?"
He paused, took few puffs firm his
pipe and looked from one to another for
confirmation of his story.
"Yas," said the doctor, Just exactly
that-a-way, Dan'l. Go on, OF man.
You're a-tellin' it straight"
We'll, that's what I'm amin to do"
He laid his pipe down on the stoves
fender as he resumed his recital.
''Old Proph'-which his name wasn't
Prophet, of co'se, which amt to say a
name nohow, but his name was Jere-
my, an he used to go by name o Jerry;
then somebody called him Jeremy.
the prophet an from that it got down
to Prophet and then 'Proph'-and so
1t stayed.
We'll, as I started to say, Proph' he
was jest one O. Meredith's OF slave mig
gers--a sort o quare, half luney, no
count darky-never done nothn'
sense freedom but what he had mind
to, jest livin' on Meredith right along.
He wasn't to say crazy but-well,
he'd stand and talk to anything, dog,
cat, tree, a oadfrog-anything
Heap O. times I've seen him limpin' up
the road an he'd turn round sudden
an seemed to be talkin' to somethin'
tibet was follerin' him, an when he'd
git tired he'd start on an maybe every
minute look back over his shoulder and
laugh. They was only one thing Proph
was, to say, good for Proph was a
capital A l hunter-shorest shot in the
state, in my opinion, and when he'd
take a notion he could go out where no.
body wouldn't sight a bird or squirt
all day long, AN he'd fill his game bag.
well, sir, the children round town,
they was all afreed of i'm, and the mig
gers-th'aint a niger in the county
tibet don't b'lieve to this day that Propll
would cunjer 'em eff he'd git mad.
AN time he takin' to fortune-tell-
in, the school child'en thetd be feerd
to. go up to him by themselves, they d
go in crowd, an he'd call out fortunes
to ,em, an they'd give him biscuits out
o their lunch cans.
From that he come to tellin' any.
body's fortune, an so the young men
they got him to come to the old yeal
party one year, jest for the fun of it
an time the clock was most on tbs
twelve strike, Proph he stood UP an
called out events of the comm year
An, sir, for crack-brained fool Niger
he'd call out the smartest things yo,
ever hear. Every year for five yea,
Proph called out comm events at the
old year party; an matches that no
body suspicioned, why he'd call ZEN
out, an shore enough, fore the yea
was out, the weddin's would come off
An babies! He'd predic' babies yea
ahead-not always callin' out full
names, but jest insinuatin' so that any
body that wasn't deef in both ear
would understand.
But to come back to the story O
May Meredith-he amt in it, no way
In particular. It's only thet sense sh
could walk an hold the OF mans han,
he dotted on her, an she was Jest e
wropped up in him. Many time whe,
she was toddler he's rode into town