The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-04-06
FIRED AT RANDOM.

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lot in marshy suburb. In Hardesty' 8
case it meant little better than that,
but it was no vast Anneke Jams tract by
any means.
He had not been in that little town
for II years-indeed since the days of
his school attendance He recalled how
ON one summer afternoon he had vault
ed out of a window just ahead of the
schoolmaster's hickory, how when wal
Hoped for it at home he had left the
house in anger, and how that night he
had boarded freight train bound Gin
innatiward-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 go
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 quad
rennial session of the Methodist confer
ence and had talked to him of Doras.
who had been a schoolmate, but in gen.
eral he had had little communication
other than that witnessed in the letters
which passed between himself and the
real estate agent. Now, on this even
ing, II years afterward, he trundled
into town in a sleeper and thought
smilingly 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 famous sum for the old Har-
desty homestead, purposing to cut it up
into an addition to the city. The agent,
a boyhood friend, had suggested that
Hardesty come down from Chicago to
give personal attention to the matter,
for by SO doing he believed that few
thousand dollars more could be realized.
Dreaming of the old days, Hardesty
left the train at the depot 1t was a
stone and brick depot, he noticed, and
not the little frame structure in which
he and Tom Coyne had loafed in the
summer of old days. He remembered
Tom Coyne very readily, and thought
with especial amusement and interest
upon the episode of the bumblebees.
Before reaching the town he 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 see
if the initials I'D. H." for David
Hardesty, were still there where he had
cut them on the wainscoting, to the fury
of Johnny Clark, the station agent. He
had counted great deal on the pleasure
of this investigation, and it annoyed
him somewhat to step off the car and
into 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 boy he had been able
to draw a map Of the town, showing ev-
cry residence, clubhouse, chicken coop
and fence. Somehow, however, he found
the quest a bit difficult. New streets APP
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 at
last and was admitted His friend, the
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 semblance to the patched and
reckled boy who had helped him to rob
Frank Stones historic melon patch.
The agent introduced his wife and said
Hardesty would remember her, but
Hardesty would have done nothing of
the sort, except for the fact that he had
learned from correspondence that his
friend had 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 a village in the
old days-and about the advisability of
Hardesty selling his property.
Really" said Hardesty, 81 don't
know that care to sell. You see, the
Did homestead has been in the family
for generations, and it seems almost a
Iacrilege to dispose of it. Why, 1 was
BORN in that house. 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
Fet?''
"Oh, mol They moved away long ago,
md fine, big, stone public school has
,een built there. "
"a stone public school? Why, Henry,
Ehen we were boys, a one room frame
iouse did us pretty well. Do you remem-
Der how we used to revile the boys who
.ttended the academy and call them
academy rats, because the academy
lad two rooms, and consequently two
tovesP"
eyes, and they called us district
rats. and we fought about It," said
Henry. "By the way, Dr. Culver lived
on the other side, didn't he? Well, there
is whisky cure institute there now-a
big one-the third in the state.''
The next morning Hardesty started
out to view the property before finally
deciding not to sell. He declared that it
was hardly worth while, as he had no
pressing need for money, and it was al
ways pleasant to think of the old times,
and the old place, and the old home.
when we get to that corner,'' he
said, proud to show that he still remem-
bered things, eve will turn and cross
the common, passing by old Mrs. Mar
wins cottage and swinging to the right
by Hen Gettle's hothouse.
I'm afraid we can't, :" said the agent
and friend. "You mean to cross the
common, don't you, as we used to in
making the short cut for the river when
we went fishing? Well, as Hardesty
nodded in a delighted affirmative, 1--WE
can't do it, for it is all built up now.
Mrs. Maryin's cottage site is taken up
by the residence of the mayor, and Hen
Gettle's home is now his home no lon
ger, but is three story hotel. You see
the town has been progressing in II
years. "
Hardesty looked at his friend in won
der and not altogether in pleasure.
ION the way" he said, 81 should
like to pass the old one room school
where Lo Fleetwood used to teach, and
out of the window of which 1 leaped II
years ago. tits down this way, ism it?''
1t has been moved back in the lot,
and big grocery has been built ON the