Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-11-22

son had become millionaire IN New
York, or of talking of her cousin, who
was senator at Ottawa, and her sis
ter-in-law's brother, who had been
appointed lieutenant-governor of a
province once, but who had died in
advertently before he, was sworn in.
Little Alec looked upon these distinc-
tions, and he saw that they were
good. He saw that the men who got
respect and consideration when they
came to his fathers house were not
farmers like his father, but the doctor
in the black coat, who ordered some
body to hold his horses and asked ap-
prehensiyely if the dog bit, or the
minister, who kept the men after q
hearty dinner from the hay, while he
was praying, and thunder cloud was
gathering overhead. It was for men
like these that the silver and the best
table napkins were brought out, and
the household routine set aside as a
thing of small consequence. The boy
began to be ashamed Of an occupation
that compelled o man to wear rough
clothes and carry rough hands, and
the town made him shy and i'll at
ease.
Mrs. McPherson's remedy for the
disadvantage under which her son had
been born was education. She told him
what it could do. Education could
make him. q gentleman, give him
money and clothes, and respect and
power, and put his heel on the neck
of lnen who otherwise would have
their heel on his neck. So it came
about. that by the time Alec was "a
and his iather. laid safely to rest
unG.er the sod, the boy had taken his
bachelors degree at college, spent o
year abroad and was plunging into
the study of Blackstone and the civil
code - -
It was on an eveningin early spring
that he came home. There was still
frost in the air, and night was coming
on windy with q. moon that was mo
more than tilted horn wracked with
clouds and Insignificant beside the
lights beginning TO come ont in the
houses: fter 10 miles in q stage oyer
this bas country, sole passenger, ,hud-
died into corner, with rug wrapped
ronnd his knees ard his hands thrust
deep into his overcoat pockets, the
gnsh of yellow light from bis own
door. was the. welcomest of sights.
The low-ceiled room, the familiar en-.
5gravings on, the walls, bis mothers
lined face under the gray hair, were
furniture of his earliest recollections.
,7 ttMothel," he said, "my health is
broken down. If I don't get help
somewhere, Pm useless for life!"
He told his story, his nervousness,
his sleeplessness, all the long months
he had'speut irving to work and doing
nothing. Ever since that hot day
last summer when I was overcome by
the heat, I've never been the same
since. When Invent back to lectures"
he went on, 81 couldn't work. There
was doctor I knew, a young fellow.
: he thought he could fix me up. Bro
mide, morphia, chloral-I tried them
all. Then I went to specialist. and
he told me everything. 1t was
shock TO the brain; was victim of
neurasthenia. Mother, I may live to
be an old man, but II. never be geod.
for anything, 80 far as head work is
concerned, again. ,t..s. 1900
Mrs. Mcpherson stood mp indig-.
.nantly. :. "Alec! With your constitu-'
tion! A little thing like that can't
break you down. Your father was a
strong man, aud I'm sure there's never
been much sickness on my side of the
house." t'Yes," he said, 'that was
what the doctor said. He said it was
in my favor that I came of country
people and hadn't inherited the
hysteria and debilitated nerves that
are. the common curse. He said,
mother, that coming back to the farm
was my only hope" He sat. silent,
with his clenched hand holding his
head; then looking round him. ST
was in hospital for while," lie said.
''Thank God, I'm homer
One day in the middle of the fore
noon Alec came downstairs with the
unusual feeling that he was slug.
gard. The sun was strong, and just
outside the door turkey cock dis,
tended himself in its warmth; the bees
were busy in the flowers, the men
were haying. He took his hat and
went ont, walking past the barns and
along lane where beside him lay
field of potatoes, their regularly
spaced clumps of green radiating like
the spokes of wheel from whatever
point the eye chose as beginning.
An unremarkable man was walking
between two rows that ran parallel to
the fence. In one. hand he held
pail filled with green-tinted water, and
in the other whitewash brush. He
dipped his brush in the green water.
and founced it over the potato tops
OH either. side, and talked aloud to
himself as he walked. "Saul has slain
thousands, AMI David tens O. thou
sands; but I'm slayin' millions OF 'em
-millionsI"
"Hello, Henry" Alec called lean
ing over the fence; 'paris- -greening
the potato bugs?" The man set down
his pail and stood erect. "Yes, but
it does mighty little good" he
drawled. ."Tlis new man Crawford
that's just bought the old Garrison
place has got a potato patch over there.
and his bugs believes in reciprocity.
Line fences IS no obstruction to them
fellers." Doesn't Crawford believe
in paris greene" he asked. "No, nor
in hoein', neither, guess.
Alec. laughed. "Mr. Crawford
doesn't seem TO be thriving farmer" "
"Well now, Mr.. McPerson," Henry
said, briskly, asif entering on topic
that Interested him, "Mr. Crawford.
he thinks hist Self gentleman, bnt he
don't own that farm no more nor / do.
=