Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1896-10-07
A MRFFER OF PRRDEsF FttNhh Ft0&,
BY MARTHA MCULLOCH WILLIAMS
SS$S$

They were, for the most part, outside
lawyers and litigants, with one or two
reckless country gentlemen, who prefer
red squander1ng their hard cash fo1
lodging and horse feed rather than ride
the ten miles home and back again IN
the morning.
Everybody there knew Squire Eecock
Most of them knew likewise the state OF
affairs between him and young Mus
grave. He was short, pursy man, won
derfully agile in spite of his figure,
with little, winking, bright black eyes
set either side Of an enormous nose. He
wore a panama hat, beginning to turn
yellow from long service, clean, coarse
shirt, utterly innocent Of starch, an al
paca coat, sagging very much at the
front corners with the weight Of things
in the pockets and rising correspond
ingly in the back until it showed the
buckle Of his towcloth trousers. Not
withstanding, Squire Eecock was rich
man. Besides land and negroes he had
at least $50, 900 snugly at interest.
"Folks knows my circumstances.
daughter. I reckon they kin put up
with my looks At any rate, they'll
have ter do it," he said to Pixy when
she begged him mot ter look so owda-
cious outlandish. There was really not
little pride in this outlawry of attire
more indeed than would have been re-
quired for elegant ostentation of his un-
questioned prosperity.
A laugh went about the porch as he
sprang heavily upon his meek black
mare-a stout beast and we'll lnuscled.
She had been fed, though her master
had gone dinnerless. AS the pair am
bled past, one onlooker said to his elbow
neighbor:
"Do ye know why the ole squire rides
that critter 'stider any er the rest he's
got? tell ye, it's because she's such a
fine stopper. He CANT no more pass
anybody he meets in the road 'ithout
stoppin ter talk tell they jes' have ter
ride on an leave i'm than he can fly ter
the moon. Fact. I've seen it tried many
a time. Once he was summonsed as
witness here in court, an eff he WANT
on time it meant $50 fine. Jes' fer fun
two er three of US concluded we'd ride
out an meet him, like we wus goin off
somewheres. Well, sir, Joe's dead ef he
didn't set thar on that ole black an talk
an talk spang untel 1 erclock, KNOWN
all the time, too, that court met at 10.
The fun Of it wus he paid the fine an
never batted his eye over it. Ye see,
he'd found out by that time how we'd
played it on him. So as he handed over
the $50 ter the clerk he said in that dry
way er his: L sorter count this yere
missionary money. I'm payin it fer the
privilege had yistiddy er preachin
some sound sense ter er passel er fools
that stands mighty badly in need of it. ~
"He sorter got Us that time" said
another of the group. "But that amt
up ter the time he wus goin after the
doctor. 'Twus fer ole Israel Penick, ye
know. There want ra'aly never much
the matter with him, at least there
hadn't been, but he wus forever grunt-
in an tellin everybody that come how
his son Moses wouldn't send fer no doc
tor fer i'm. Him an the squire's broth
er's Baptists, so of course he went ter the
Penick place every now an then. One
day he found things jes' a-b'ilin thar.
Nose wus away, with all the he mig
gers, at er house raisin, an the ole man
had fretted hisself so wild about not be-
in took erlong he wus right skeery ter
look at. Noses wife wus cryin fit ter
break her heart: oh, oh, fathers got
a fit, an nobody here ter go fer the doc
tor! Whut shall do? Oh, whut shall l
do?'
"Of course the squire couldn't stand
that. He went gilpin, hard as ole Blacky
could clip it. But jes' before he got ter
the doctors house he met Nose Penick
an hollers out to him: Don't you stop
me; it's murder eff you do! Yo' fathers
a-dyinl Go home fast as you kinr
"'Oh, I reckon not, says Nose.
'Whut's the matter? Thar amt no chol-
cry anywhars erbout, an he amt got
blood ernough fer apoplexy. reckon
sho it's another false alarm. PAS been
dyin-ter let him tell hit-somp'n like
80 years.
"'Why, no, he amt. I remember he
wus the liveliest sort when wus er lad,
boylike, an you wus, too, Nose, says
the squire Don't you remember how
he thrashed US that time we put the
skeer face on the knobbly COW? 1t wus
us that thought erbout dyin then, not
him.
"Then Mose-I've heard him tell it
many time-Mose, he winked at his
self good. He knowed he wus safe frum