The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-04-23

gettin 60 a week now, an AVN prom
ised a rise wi tn New Yer"
A month had passed Poor Jiml All
his fair hopes seemed blighted Bromley
Bros, a firm in the neigh 1orhood with
whom Messrs. Peel occasionally did
business in checking their handbook
found themselves debited with an
amount paid by check to Peel 81 Co., for
which they could find no corresponding
item III Pcel's account and on making
inquiry from them, found that there
was 10 account Of its receipt i'll their
cashJook, nor did such an account ap,
pear to have been paid in the usual way
to their credit at the bank. Evidently
check had been drawn and paid Of
which the books Of neither firm had any
record. 1t was a sum under $40. But as
the youth who ran between the mill and
the bank in the adjoining town Of Black
brook appeared too unsophisticated to
! transact such fraud, and as jim Sum.
her was Immediately responsible for the
current cash Of the firm, he was held 10
be morally responsible, if not actually
criminal, and, according to the imme-
mortal custom of the firm, chad to go. "
Poor JIM He did not wait to meet
his chapel folks and intimates He just
kissed his widowed mother, who would
not have believed "owt again JIM on
the testimony of an archangel, and went
out into the frosty air, straight to the
station and away to town 80 miles
distant, to make a fresh start. His
sweetheart was still in the mill. He
ought, Of course, to hare waited for her
and told her. But he didn't He would
write She would learn soon enough:
The village would buzz with the news
as though the new 'hooter" had pro-
claimed it by nightfall. And it did
There were girls who seemed glad to
tell Rachel, and when she fared up and
said:
"Yo' know as well as Aw do'at Jim
meier did it, D." they only replied:
"Well, he's ta'en his hook, at any
rate. Yo'r Aunt Bet seed him goo an
says good radiance to bad rubbidge.
She doesn't seem to think as weel O.
Jimmie as her niece does. " What could
Rachel say? She went home with rage
in her heart against her aunt, and some
thing like resentment against her lover
for hasting away without word to the
girl who could have died for him. All,
little did she think, yet even now dead
misery had taken possession of her.
"Well, Miss Proudie, an how's thy
fine gentleman naa?" (Aunt Bets OWL
lad had had hopes Of the "office" once,
but had turned out wastrel; hence hel
bitterness Jaw thout wot it 'ud be
Some fowk can't stand gettin up i tn
world. Pride'll hev ia, an thy whip
persnapper's come a crOpper, at ony
rate.
In tongue warfare Rachel was no
where. Besides Aunt Bet wasn't wortl
!, answering. Then, that very day, tn,
overlooker had threatened to reduce he,
, to two looms and had humbled her 81
terribly before the other weavers tina
all the spirit seemed clean gone out o
, her She went to bed, but not to sleep
The "knocker up" had an easy tasl
next morning. That day was the black
: est Of many black ones during the pas
} few weeks, and now no lovers comfor
} awaited her Everything went wrong
} The stuff wouldn't weave. Her loom
seemed bewitched The overlooker over
looked with a vengeance.
) "Yo'll start on two looms tomorn,
he said "Think on that! Awe lots a
2 wenches O. IA at weave better nor the
an do moor wark ON two looms tan tina
con o. three.
1t was the last straw. She dare no
3 face Aunt Bet and her sneers.
"Oh, jim, Jim, was the cry of he
heart, why couldn't you say a word t
r me?" For when her heart spoke it erie,
3 for Jim, and not for looms Coming GU
l of the hot mill it was bitter cold Sh
Q drew her shawl over her head and hur
l ried away-not to the place she calle