St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-07-27
A Rit Out Of One Of Richard Jeffrey's Last
Published Papers.

published Papers.
Iob had a way OF shaking hands with
s,;s r;ebt hand, while his lett hand was
nasually doing something else in de.
tached sort of way. Eyes, SIR" aud
mo. SIR" and nodding to every thing
YOU said, all so complaisant, but at the
end OF the bargin you generally found
yourself few shllings, III some round.
about manner, on the wrong side. lob
had a lot OF shut up-rooms in his house
and in his character which never seemed
TO be open to day light. The caves of
his cottage hung over and beetled like
his brows, and he had forelock, a reg.
ular antique forelock, which he used to
touch with the greatest humility. There
was long bough OF an elm hanging
over one gable just like the forelock. His
face was blank, like the broad end wall
of the cottage, which had no window
at least you might think so until you
looked up and discovered one little ar
row slit, one narrow pane, and woke
with start to the idea that lob was al
WAYS up there watching and listening.
That was how he looked out OF his one
eve so intensely cunning, the other being
a wall eye-that is, the world
supposed so, as he kept it half shut, al
ways between the lights; but whether it
was really blind or not cannot say.
lob caught rats, rabbits and moles and
bought fagots or potatoes, or fruit or
rabbit.skins. or rusty iron; wonderful
how he seemed to have command OF
money. 1t was done probably by buy
ing and selling almost simultaneously
so that the cash passed really from one
customer to another, and was never his
at ALL Also he worked as a laborer,
chiefly piece work; also Mrs. Job had a
shop window about two feet square,
snuff and tobacco, bread and cheese, i'm.
inense big round jumbles and sugar, hept
on the floor above, and reached down bv
hand, when wanted, through the OPEN
ing for the ladder stairs The front door
Jobs right hand-was always open in
summer, and the fagstones Of the floor
chalked round their edges; clean table,
clean chairs, decent crockery, an old
clock about half an hour slow, a large
hearth with minute fire to boil the ket
tie without heating the room. Tea was
usually at halfpast three, and it is fact
that many well-to.do persons, as they
CdIDC dlOHS tuN iOdd uOl anu uuSIy, uStu
to drop in and rest and take cup-very
little milk and much gossip. Two paths
met just there, and people used to step in
out OF a storm of rain, a sort of matched
house club.
lob was somehow on fair terms with
nearly everybody, and that is wonder
full thing in a village, where everybody
knows everybody's business. and petty
interests continually cross. The strang.
est fellow and the strangest ways of lite,
and do not believe a black mark was
ever put against him; the stiffness was
all for nothing. 1t arose, no doubt. out
of the constant and eager straining to
make an extra penny. Had Job been a
lew he would have been rich. He was
the exact counterpart OF the London Jew
dealer, set down in the midst of the
country. Job should have been rich
Such dark brown jumbles, such cheek,
distenders-never any French sweetmeets
or chocolates or bon bons to equal these
really think could eat one now. The
pennies and lour-penny bits-in those
days-that went behind the two-foot
window, goodness! there was no end
lob used to chink them in pint pot
sometimes before the company, to give
them an idea of his great boards. He al
ways tried to impress people with his
wealth, and would talk of ffty-pount
contract as if it were nothing to him
Jumbles are eternal if nothing else is.
thought then there was not such anoth
or shop as Jobs in the universe. l hav,
found since that there is a Job shop il
every village, and in every street in every
town-that is to say. a window for jun
bles and rubbish; and if you don't know
it you may be quite sure your children
do, and spend many sly penny there
Be as rich as you may, and give then
guided sweetmeats at home, still they
will slip around to the Job shop.
1t was pretty cottage, well backed
with trees and bushes, with southeast
mixture of sunlight and shade, and LITTLE
touches that cannot be suggested By
writing. Job had not got the Semiti,
instinct of keeping. The art of acqui
stion he possessed to some extent-tha
was his right hand; but somehow tn
half-crowns slipped through his unstable
left hand, and fortune was greasy fat
to him. His left hand was too cunning
for him; it wanted to manage things too
cleverly. lit had only had the Semiti
grip, digging the nails into the flesh t
hold tight each seperate coin, he woul'
have been village rich. The great score
is the keeping. Finding is by no mean
keeping. Job did not flourish in his oil
days; the people changed round about
Job is gone, and l think every one Q
that cottage is either dead or moved
Empty.