, 1897-03-26
FIRED AT RANDOM.

Hardesty had been called down to the
town of his birth by the summons Of
the real estate agent into whose hands
he had intrusted the care of the proper
ty he had received from his fathers es-
tate. Estate is Il big and general word
quent in speaking of a corner
lot i'll Il marshy suburb. In Hardcsty's
case it meant Il little better than that,
but it was no vast Annckc Jams tract By
any means.
He had not been in that little town
for II ycars-indced since the days of
his school attendance. He recalled how
on II summer afternoon he had vault
ed out of Il window just ahead of the
schoolmastor's hickory, how when wal
Hoped for it at home he had left the
house in anger, and how that night he
had boarded Il freight train bound Gin
Cinnatiward-and had never gone back.
Often he had thought of the old place
and when the days of his middle age
came they found him wondering and
wondering and dreaming at odd times
about Milt Woodlands cooper shop and
the other things-but he did not 20
back.
After the death of his father and
when he had come into the old family
residence he seemed to wonder and
dream all the more. Once he had met
the father of Doras Alderman at n quad
rennial session of the Methodist confer
ence and had talked to him of Doras,
who had been II schoOlmate, but in gen
eral he had had little communication
other han that witnessed i'll the letters
which passed between himself and the
real estate agent. Now, on this wen
ING, II ,T"ars aftcrward, he trundlcd
into town i'll a sleeper and thought
smiling.v of the day when he had rolled
out on a box car. The agent had writ
ten him to the effect that somebody had
offered Il famous sum for the old Har-
desty homestead. pulposing to cut it up
into an addition to the city. The agent,
Il boyhood friend, had suggested that
Hardcsty come down from Chicago to
give personal attention to the matter,
for by so doing he believed that a few
thousand dollars moro could be realized.
Dreaming of the old days, Hardesty
left the train at the depot. 1t was Il
stone and brick depot, he noticed, and
not the little frame structure in which
he and Tom Coyne had loafcd in the
summer of old days. He remembered
Tom Coync very readily, and thought
with especial amusement and interest
upon the episode of the bumblcbocs.
Before reaching the own hu had decided
that the very first thing he would do
would be to go into the little old wood
en- station and examine the walls to sec
if the initials I'D. H." for David
Hardcsty, were still there where he had
cut them on the wainscoting, to the fury
of Johnny Clark, the station agent. He
had counted Il great deal on the pleasure
of this investigation, and it annoyed
him somewhat to step off the car and
into Il spick and trig depot of masonry
construction.
After the affront of this evidence of
progress and prosperity had somewhat
worn away he started to walk down
the road to the residence of the agent,
his old friend. He knew the location Of
the house, for as Il boy he had been able
to draw n map Of the town, showing Cv-
cry residence, clubhouse, chicken coop
and fence. Somehow, however, he found
the quest Il bit difficult. New streets ap-
peared, inviting him to walk down into
what had been green fields, but which
were now "additions' and places, - all
built up with trinity painted frame
houses.
He found the object of his search ut
1n,t ,,,l ,,,, ,1,.,t.l II,, c,,,l a.,
agent, who had only partially expected
him. did not know him at first, and in
deed Hardesty would have passed the
other a thousand times before recognize
ing in his brown mustache and glossy
collar any scmblancc to the patched and
frecklcd boy who had helped him to rob
Frank stones historic melon patch.
The agent introduced his wife and said
Hardesty would remember her, but
Hardcsty would have done nothing Of
the sort, except for the fact that he had
learned from correspondence that his
friend lad married little Eda Stone,
daughter of the sovereign Of the melon
patch.
They talked, after dinner, about
business and about the Improvement in
the city-it had been Il village in the
old days-und about the ACCESSIBILITY of
Hardesty selling his property.
Really" said Hardesty, II don't
know that l care to sell. You see, the
old homestead has been in the family
for generations, and it seems almost n
sacrilege to dispose Of it. Why, l was
born in that house. l used to look over
the fence there at the gooseberry bushes
in Gallagher's place and wond-by the
way, are the Gallaghers living there
YETI"
"Oh, moi They moved away long ago,
and a fine, big, ston public school has
been built there"
"a stone public school? Why, Henry,
when we were boys, a one room frame
house did us pretty well. Do you remem-
Der how we used to revile the boys who
attended the academy and call them
academy rats because the academy
had two rooms, and consequently two
~stoves?"
Eyes, and they called us district
w