The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-03-31
Caring for the Pennies.

" oAeS
than a farmer. You can see his coun-
terpart any day on the drivers seat of
any OF those farm wagons that bring
vegetables into the city to market,
His trousers, which were patched,
were tucked into his boots, which were
muddy. His overcoat was shabby and
discolored by exposure to the weather,
and frayed at the edges and worn white
at the bu%ttonholes. He wore one of
those caps which you can draw over
your ears, I'M are made for wear while
driving over wind-swept roads. His
lace was weatherbesten, and he wore
a bunch of whiskers on his chin calcu-
lated to set the Bowery to chuckling
and draw it in pursuit of him.
A transaction in eggs was the matter
which he was explaining with such
prolixlty. 1t seems that the LAWYER
liked fresh eggs, and was in the habit
OF driving owe to his farm to get eggs
warm from under the hen. On the last
occasion when he had done so, the
lawyer had made a payment on account
OF 81. The question at issue was
whether or not there was a balance in
eggs or in an egg due the lawyer. It
was complicated by some previous deal
IN which the egg was not warranted
fresh or strictly fresh, but simply an
egg, and by some other transaction in
which the responsibility for a broken
egg was involved. The farmer had
evidently been putting in his winter
evenings at thinking the matter over,
and he gave his views on the subject of
whether or not there was an egg due
he la VI UQr with q coraE,1 Ia1,I-.oAsN-
OF name and speech that made the
third man in the room wonder how the
lawyer stood it so long. The lawyer,
however, exhibited not a sign of impa-
tience or lack of interest, but sat look
ing at him with the air of extra gravity
that he reserved for clients of the first
class. After a first vain effort to per-
suade the farmer to call it square as
matters stood, he uttered no remon-
STRANGE or protest concerning the waste
of his valuable time.
The farmer finally settled the matter
OF the one egg according to his view of
the equities of the case. Then he sat
down at a table, hauled off his thick
leather gloves, and laboriously append
ed his signature to a paper laid before
him by the lawyer. That done he ex-
amined with prodigious interest the pen
he had used.
"You haven't another pen like that,
have your" he asked slowly.
"Why, certainly" returned the law
yer, dumping half a dozen out of a box
on the table.
"What do they cost you?" continued
the farmer, lingering them cautiously.
"Oh, l don't know" replied the law
yer carelessly; give or six cents a doz-
en- maybe"
The farmer took up four of them, and
began a prolonged search of his peck
cts. He had an extra number of coats
for some time. Finally he came across
the object for which he had been look
ing--a two-cent postage stamp. This
he handed to the lawyer.
"There's something 1 found in my
pocket" he said solemnly. "Maybe
it'll be more use to you than it is to
me-" Then he turned to go.
"Hold on" called the lawyer. John
was saying that you talked of seeing
me about some mortgage"
The farmer turned indifferently.
SID forgot that" he said. 81 guess
won't do nothing about that just yet,
anyhow"
"Any interest due9" asked the law.
yer.
"Well," replied the farmer, "there
amt nom been paid since two years
ago last June"
isn't it about time to be doing
so~mething?"
"The lands all right" replied the
farmer indifferently. cts worth the
money. Besides, it amt the thing to
sell up a neighbor without giving him
q chance"
Chow much is the mortgageT"
"Thirty-two thousand" replied the
farmer, "I'd ought to have known bet
ter than be lending money to a neigh
Dor; but that amt helping it any as
the matter stands" he added carelessly,
and went away.
ibid you see him?" said the lawyer,
with a chucble, to the other man in the
office. Taking up an hour of my
time with talk as to whether or not he
owned me an egg and giving me a
postage stamp in payment for my pens,
and by way of contrast showing all that
indifference to a thirty-two-thousand
dollar mortgage with the interest nearly
three years overdue. He has absolutely
no conception of the value of money
in large amounts. For two hundred
years his family have been living off
their farms. They have raised almost
everything they have needed, and al
most all the money paid in to them has
been stuffed away into mortgages or
old chests or banks. They have been
taught two things, n is never to
spend any money. The other is never
to sell their land unless some one offers
them $1,000 or $4,000 an acre to cut it
up into building lots. They have been
trained for generations to make the
closest kind of bargains when they sell
their produce; but when 1t m to
handling the tens of thousands of dol
lars they have accumulated, they have
no idea of the value of money. AT the
same time it is mighty seldom that any
of it gets away from them. There are
lots of such farmers about New York"
FIRST TRAMP: 81 tink dey could
make dem model lodgin' houses putty