The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-10-09
JUST IN TIME.
BY ANNA SHIELDS.
I'VE HAD been telling stories. as

N n
wv we sat in the moonlight on the
porch of the old homestead. TWAS but
u summer resort then, left to the care of
servants in the winter; but well filed
with our friends in the hot, dry months.
Stories of adventure, of personal dis
asters, of land, of sea, had filed the
evening; but it was still too early to
retire, when Elsie, putting her pretty
golden head down on my shoulder, said:
Tell the story, father, of the day
you were just in time"
The only romance of my hum-drum
lifei was willing enough and this
is the story: Ten years before. while
was still in business as carriage build
er in the small town of Bolton, had in
my employ young man named Hart
ley, who was mere to me, having no son
of my own, than merely one of the
''hands."
He was the son of John Hartley, who
was one of the meanest, close-fisted men
in the world, and thoroughly disliked
by the entire population of Bolton. A
dealer in real estate, he was known as
one who insisted upon the payment of
his rents, even if it took the food from
the mouths of his tenants, or the beds
from under the sick, to pay him.
When young George Hartley first
came to me to seek employment he was
handsome lad of IS, with bright,
frank face, Swallowed at that time by
the recent death of his mother. 1t was
understood that the wages, George be-
ing minor, were to be paid to John
Hartley, and he was punctually at the
desk on pay day.
Knowing that the lad had been good
scholar, his mothers influence having
kept him at the Bolton school during
her life. lent him books and invited
him often to my house, where Elsie
would play and sing for him, or read
with him. He studied in every leisure
moment, but was good workman,
never shirling the manual labor that
was really too much drudgery for boy
of his ability. With my knowledge he
went through course of bookkeeping
under my own head clerk, and here be-
gins my story.
had had in my employ young man
as assistant bookkeeper who had left
me for what he thought better posi-
ton, and entered into an engagement
with George Hartley, who was to do
his work, after hours, receiving from
me five dollars week in addition to
his regular wages, which sum l paid to
him. unknown to his father. If it was
defrauding that worthy man of his
right to his sons brains and industry.
why, 1 so defrauded him.
BY my advice the money was deposit
ed in the Bolton bank, and for nearly
four years 1t accumulated there, until
there was more than 5000, some of the
money having been spent in keeping
the lad decently clothed
He was 20 years old when John
Hartley married his second wife, an old
maid, who was one of his tenants. and
who had property of her own. From the
day when she entered the house Mrs.
Hartley commenced series of petty
prosecutions of her stepson, pin-thrusts
to make his life miserable, but seeming
~ too trifling for man to notice. She
hated him because he had tried to pre-
vent the marriage, solely for love of his
dead mother.
IT was in April, when my physicians
ordered me to take sea trip for
chronic complaint that was troubliny
me and l made my preparations to go
In o schooner from Keyport, the near
est seaport town to Bolton, and some
30 miles east of it. There was a train
from Boston that passed through Boil
ton at ter o'clock in the evening and