The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-01-05
A GOOD TIME COMING.

St. James Gazette.
A GOOD TIME COMING.
1t was an October day, and the air was
charged with the aromatic sharpness
that follows the change in nature caused
by the first frost The sounds of the
woods had changed from the summer
murmur to the autumn rustic, and ma
ture, like an aging coquette. was dress
ing herself in gaudy colors for her last
season. The naples were clustered in
crimson magnificence ON the knobs and
ridges, while the elms and ashes in the
hollows clothed themselves in softest
yellows shot with green. And in the
fields departing summer was shod with
the russell of the stubble lands.
Through this scene of melancholy
beauty was wandering fitfully, now half
running now sitting down, disquieted
and unnerved, man who seemed
strangely out of keeping with it ALL He
was tall and gaunt, sharp eyed, and in
moments of repose man who bore all
the marks of authority. His lips invol-
unfairly shaped themselves to "sneer
of cold command, ? and his high, pale
brow, with its bright, transparent skin,
spoke of ceaseless thought
But he was acting like one possessed.
He would walk along rapidly for few
moments, scanning the trees like an In
dian pot hunter and holding his gun in
readiness for quick shot. Then be
would stop suddenly, arrested by a
thought. Sometimes the thought would
be one that would wiring an oath from
his lips, and sometimes it would bring
to his face look Of perplexity that
would end in the nervous laugh that
tells of an uncomfortable feeling at the
heart-the kind that often brings a
moisture to the eyes and choking feel
ing to the throat Hiram Pratt was
stirred to the depths Of his nature-stir-
red as he thought he never could be. At
one moment he would regret the i'm
pulse that had taken him back to his
old home on the farm, and at the next
he would thrill with boyish delight at
the thought of bagging gray squirrels
and quail, just as he used in his youth.
His friends in New York would have
been "deeply concerned" could they
have seen him.
He had just spent the night with his
mother in the old log house where he
was born and had learned anew some
thing that he had forgotten. In his
business career he had schooled himself
to consider money everything and SEN
timent nothing, but in that old house
sentiment was supreme and counted for
more than the riches of a palace When
he asked his mother why she did not
live in the fine brick house which he
had had built for her and which his
brother now lived in, she replied:
"Why, Hiram, your father brought
me here when we were married and
when there wasn't five acres cleared on
the farm. You were all born here, and
all who are dead died here, and as l
potter about you are all with me as
you were when you were young. 1t
wouldn't be the same i'll the new house. +"
Then she put up her old wrinkled
face to be kissed as in the other days,
and the worldly man stopped and kiss
ed her. As he did the hardness Of his
heart chilled him like curse, and
snatching up candle he fastened to
the room her loving hands had prepared
for him. All night he tossed on his pill
low, striving to strike a balance between
the love and tenderness he had lost and
the millions he had gained, and it was
because the problem was still painfully
unsolved that he wandered about so dis
tractedly through the October woods.
At last be came to the thicket where
there used to be a covey of partridges
every fall, but now there was no whir-
ring of wings at his approach. But the
fallen oak round which they used to
hide and beside which he used to set
the figure of four trap in the old days
before the game laws were enforced
was still there in almost the same con-
dition as when he saw it last. He seat
ed himself on the messy trunk, and as
his mind gradually quieted. soothed by
the peace of nature, he went back to his
boyhood and lived it all over again.
At last he remembered, and the
memory came to him with the shock of
a discovery who his companion and
guide used to be in almost all his hunt
ing expeditions Old Sam Ehret! Could
it be possible that he was still alivei
OF course it could? Sam was only 10
years older than he was, though every
body called him 'old'' 80 years ago.
But that was only on account of his al
most senile simplicity and natural shift
lessneSs. Sam couldn't be more than SO
yet, and of course he must be alive.
What times they used to have, trapping
mink and shooting squirrels This train
of thought cleared the moral atmos-
phere for the millionaire at once He
would not be satisfied with coming to
the old farm; he would go back to his
youth and go out hunting with Sam.
He had no real intention of doing any
hunting when he left the house and
had merely picked up the old gun as an
excuse to get away to the woods, where
he would be alone with his troubled
thoughts, But now he would visit OLD
Sam, and they would have an afternoon
Of hunting This decision gave him
such thrill that out of pure exuber-
ance of spirits he forgot his gun was
loaded and cooked, swung it up anG
drew bead on clump of leaves in the
top of tall hickory. The explosion
that instantly followed, sending the
echoes rolling through the woods anC
starting the crows cawing, brought hin
out of his dreams with shock, but the
sound Of the gun revived all his passion
for shooting. After carefully reloadinf
the old muzzle loader he started toward
Sam S farm.
As he reached the farm he was sur
prised to find it so changed. There
were new barns and stables and new
house, and everything was spick anC
span. He expected to see tumble dow1
buildings and rickety fences instead O
evidences of prosperity. But he strodt
cheerily across the field toward thu
house, inhaling the smell of the newly
plowed soil, resolved to find out from
the first person he met what bad become
of old Sam. Presently he saw a mai
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