The Florence daily tribune., 1899-02-17
THE GREEN BOX.

81 wouldD't never open it for anything
IN all this world. not sven If you should
give me s 900 right down, the handsom-
est house In all Clinton and dozen serv-
ants TO manage II. -
In her earnesrnes= Abigail Simpson
stenped rocking and looked asSanee at the
subject under discussion
IL was an ordinary, old fashioned,
round ehet--slox- painted a pale green
with very shiny surface. On the cover,
rudely carved, evidently with a dull knife,
were the letters = :.
That belonged TO my great grnndfa.
ther' Abigail went on, hitchine her
chair little farther away. and IL ain II
never brought good luck TO nobody, and
don't nobody have the least idea what =
In ii, and they ain { never likely To while
| m living
Her nicce iewetl the box with fresh in
terest VII, do you suppose is in irf'
she queried, with just thrill OF awe in
her volce. Maybe it's empty"
No. Unele tiershom shook 1t once and
there was things inside that rattled- He
Thought il might Ire money. and he most
opened il, but he didn't quite, you see
Nollody ever hns. -
But why noti'' persisted che young
girl.
Put il away. Abby, do 1t can't do
you no good, and IN tell you why We
don't never open IL any Of us.
The girl arose obedicntly and, taking
the box, returned IL 10 the dark corner in
the attic where size had found It, Her
aunt listened In trrmor ms the young
feet echoed over the thin boards of the
attic floor and came down the stairs.
She hrcathed u sigh OF relief as the girl
entered the room. -" IL gave me the shivers
to hear you up there and know you was
a-thinkiug OF the box she confessed.
-'You sounded SO much like Tryphcna
when she got took with the notion To see
the inside Of that box.
Poor Tryphenan she sighed dismally
she was the aunt whose lover was
drow ned, wasn't shey" the girl asked
gently.
Her aunt nodded assent ~ might as
well begin at the beginning" she said,
land then You'll SEQ why"
Great grandfather had that box for
something, but what he and the grave
only knew When he died, twas left up
in the attic. way under the caves, with a
/ hair trunk and lots of old rubbish, and
nobody didn't think of disturbing it till
| one dty grandmother had "a clearing up
! flt. she was awful energetic, and she was
! bound To get that attic cleared out for
once. IL had terrible lot OF old stuff In
I 1T, she began real systematic and was
going through everything
| Shed just got round to the hair trunk
/ and had becn reading some of the letters
| in it, and just took up the box to open it,
! when she heard an awful scream and went
| rushing down stairs and found that grand
father had got hurt bad and they was
| bringing him home.
% He was dreadful sick and didn't never
rally, and grandmother never finished
! cleaning, But after he died she tried il
| once, and when she came TO the green box
| 1t all come back to her 80 plain she just
| couldn' do any more
g. Then one day Aunt Tarnar was rum
| msging around, and she came across the
box and thought she'd like it to keep q
| hat in, and there came dreadful big clnl
| of thunder, and bolt OF lightning came
! right down the chimney and numbed hel
so she didn't get over 1t for hours And
If you believe me, that lightning Went
across the attic and when it got to wher,