Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1899-05-11
SHEPHERDSTOWN W. VA THURSDAY MAY II, 1899.

.
you? You'll make yourself the laugh
ing-stock of the country if you go
around writing out what you We got to
say when you've got as good tongue
in your head as anybody"
Simeon made no reply, but picked
up the bit of pencil and wrote on
another scrap of paper:
"Whare is that pattern p
q think you'd had better learn to
spell before you 60 TO conyersing in
writing-spelling where with an "a
and pattern with only one t Ifyou
don't get sick and tired Of this sort Of
tomfoolery before two days, l miss my
guess, Simeon Sayles r.
Whether he grew tired Of it or not,
Simeon Ssyles said all he had to say
in writing from that time forth. His
only reply to his sisters ridicule and
remonstrances was written in these
words
You sed you wisht I'll shut up my
mouth and keep it shut, and I'm ago
ing to do it.
lie bought little blank book, in
in which he kept pencil, and all his
communications to the world and in
dividuals were made through the me-
dium of this book and pencil.
The neighbors said that "the Say
leses always were a queer lot, any
how :" that some of Simeon's ances-
tors had been rather eccentric, and
that Simeon himself had never been
quite like other men. No matter how
true this may have been, his sister
Myra was thoroughly well-balanced
woman, with a large fund Of strong
common sense, and her brother freak
caused her great secret modification
and distress, although she had declared
at the beginning of it: 1T will be an
actual rest to me to get rid Of your
eternal scolding,
But Simeon had not scolded "eter-
nally, as Myra felt obliged to con-
fess to herself in her reflective mo-
ments. He was, indeed, somewhat in
firm of temper and sometimes gave
himself up to prolonged fits of petu-
lance, but there had been days and
even weeks at time when Simeon
had been as serene Of mind and as
companionable as any man.
lie and his sister Myra had sat side
by side on the little porch over the
front door of their old red farmhouse
throughout many a peaceful summer
evening, quietly talking over the past
and the future. The long winter even
ings had often been filed with quiet
happiness and peace for them both,
as they sat at the same hearthstone at
which their parents had sat, Myra
with her knitting and Simeon reading
aloud or smoking his pipe in peace
They had nearly always eaten their
meals in harmony, and now, as they
sat at the table facing each other in
hard, cold silence, there were times
when, although neither would have
confessed it to the other, their food al
most choked them.
"This freak of his is harder to put
up at the table than at any other place
or time, his sister confessed to sym
pathetic neighbor. Sometimes itJust
seems as if I'd fly. There he sits as
mum as a griudstone. Sometimes l
try to rattle away just as if nothing
was the matter, but l can never keep
it up very long. I've tried all sorts
Of little tricks to catch him u2swares
and make him speak once, but he
won't be caught. One day, Just when
he'd come in from the field, smelt
something burning so strong that |
said, 4 DO believe the house is on fire,
and he opened his mouth as if to speak
and then claPped it shut again and
whipped out that abominable little
book and wrote, WHARF p
a was 50 put out that flung the
book clear out into the gooseberry
bushes. I really doubt if he ever
does speak again in this world, and
the prospect Is pleasant for me, isn't
lt?"
The two lived alone in the old red
farmhouse in which they had been
born 50 years before. They were with
out kith or kin in the world with the
exception of much younger sister
named Hope, who had married pros
porous young farmer and had gone out
west to live. Il had been a time
Of great sorrow to them when this pret-
ty, young sister had married Henry
Norton and gone from the old house.
They rejoiced in her happiness, Of
course, and were quite sure that Hope
boJ nJora u-al1 " but n yras rona the