The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1898-05-04

been killed or at least most OF her limbs
would have been broken. So be made
the endsof the rope fast to beam and
called out to Miss Payson not to lose
.coufage, and he would soon think OF
some way of getting her out Of the diff
Guilty. She begged him to draw her up
again, and he actually tried to do 1t,
knowing all the while what the conse-
quences would be if he succeeded, but
he found that he didn't have the neces-
sary strength. Miss Payson was heavier
than she looked to be, though she was
mostly bones.s but she was good rs
feet below him, and it would have
taken two men of his strength to have
hoisted her up into the steeple again.
He pulled at the rope till he was pretty
nearly exhausted, for he naturally felt
little ashamed of acknowledging to a
woman that there was anything that he
wasn't STRONG enough to do. However,
he had to come to it at last and tell her
that if it was to save both their lives he
couldn't manage to pull her back into
the steeple. So she settled down to cry,
and he settled down to smoke pipe,
with view to clearing his ideas.
.sAll Of a sudden he saw what he
ought to do and wondered that he had
been such an idiot as to not have seen
it before. There was the bell just above
his head, and all he had to do was to
climb up and ring it by swinging the
clappsr from side to side till the alarm
should bring back the sexton with the
keys. By this time it was getting rath-
er dark, and Ha,sey set to work at that
bell and kept on tolling it slow and
regular, for that was the only way he
could manage 20 ring it.
t'It's the custom with Us to toll the
hell when anybody dies and to give
just as many strokes on the bell as the
deceased had lived years. When Halsey'
hegan to toll the bell, the Athensville
people listened to find out how old the
deceased had been. When the strokes
had got up among the eighties, they al
lowed that the Oldest settler in the
town must have died very sudden, for
he had been seen drunk. as usual. and
in perfect health that afternoon as late
as s O'Clock. But the bell kept on, and
himeby, after it had tolled some $50
times and showed no signs of stopping.
folks began, to tr;n1 That The Sexton
had just hapreped to bear about the
death of Methuselah and was notifying
other people of the fact.
"You may ask why didn't somebody
so to the church and find ont what the
bell was ringing for. Well, for one
thing, it was just supper time, and no.
body felt anxious TO take walk of
mile or two just at that hour. Then,
too, it had been said that the Baptist
churchyard was haunted, and there
wasn't any general desire to interfere
with ghosts in case they should have
taken notion to toll the bell. The toll
ing kept on till Halsey had tolled the
bell over 400 times, and then Rev. Mr>
Humphreys arrived on the spot. and
when he heard Miss Payson's voice
somewhere in the air over his head he
was considerably startled, though not
being believer in ghosts he wasn't the
least bit friahtened.-
'<.How on earth did you come up
there, ma'an, asked the minister. and
what are you tolling the bell for?'
miss Payson explained what was
the matter. She said that she and Mr..
EEalsey had come to the church III the
afternoon, cal'latin to find the parson
there and to get married; that not find
ing him they had gone into tie steeple
to see the view and had accidentally
been locked in. She was sure that she
couldn't live many minutes longer, she
felt so weak, and she hoped Mr..
Humphreys would marry her to Mr..
Halsey without another minutes delay,
and so save her reputation even If 1t
didn' t save her life.
"The minister wanted to send for
help and get her safe on the solid
ground before marrying her, but She
said that she must be married before
she could dare to face any Of her towns
men. Such, she said, were also dear
Mr.. Halsey's views, and if Mr. Hum
phreys had the feelings of man and q
Christian, let alone Baptist minister,
be would so ahead with the marriage
service.
"Mr. Humphreys finally consented
and called out to Halsey to nod when
he shoul,, see the minister wave his right
arm, that being the cnly way in which