The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-29

one unacQualnted with the fractlouS
beasts the statement may lack interest,
but there was not a soul in South Hama
ford who would not have been keenly
alive to the possibilities consequent on
their getting out For when the Good
win cattle broke bounds nothing was safe.
No precincts were too sacred for them
to enter, nor was there anything green
that was not esteemed of their palates.
The Rev. Sigourney Hardwicke had seen
a whole cabbage patch disappear down
their huge throats while he lay on his
lounge too i'll to chase them or to call
assistance; they had wandered in at the
open door of Mrs. Henry Sedgwick's par
Tor on the afternoon that the sewing So
ciety was to meet there, and before they
could be removed the amount of damage
that they had inflicted could not have
been rivaled by their old ancestor, the
bull who invaded a china shop; and that
was not tenth of the unusual exploits
to their creditor discredit.
No fence out of barbed wire could re-
sist their seductive horns, and as George
Goodwin did not believe in wire fences,
the two oxen used their spare time in
finding out new ways to escape from the
fve-acre lot in which they were con-
fined and where the pasturage was sweet
and the water abundant A love for
mischief is not generally set down among
an ox's characteristics, but the Goodwin
oxen were as mischievous as monkeys.
Indeed, Sam Moneypenny had averred that
he had heard them chuckling with delight
when they ate up the last stalk of his
prize evergreen corn.
Goodwin had been begged and ordered
to tie the beasts up when his man was
through using them, but Goodwin, al
though he owned the farm on which the
cattle were pastured, himself lived over
in Canton, and as out of sight is out OF
mind with most people, he did nothing
except ask his man to strengthen the
fences.
But as the strength Of the oxen kept
pace with the fences, a new rail in the
morning simply meant a broken rail at
night and the two brothers in crime
would eat up a bed of nasturtiums or
overthrow rookery or tumble wood
pile down with all the Zest of wanton
schoolboys.
Trueman Newberry was an old bach
elor, very good looking, fairly equipped
in worldly goods and the most fished-for
man in the South Hanaford pond. The
we're descended from Governor Bradford
and from the earliest times there had
been one handsome old bachelor who
did not surrender his freedom until well
along in years, and it looked as if True
man would carry out the tradition as
far as not marrying young went, II, in
deed, he was ever ensnared.
Trueman had two hobbies, a love for
old furniture and passion for flowers
The farmers about smiled inwardly as
they saw him wasting valuable time, that
might have been employed at farming,
in making a bed of "posies,' and in
afterward watering them like Apollos
but If they had laughed openly he would
not have cared. AS long as he pleased
Trueman Newberry he did not care wheth-
err any one else was pleased. Not that
he was selfish, but he was independent.
When Miss Grayson came to South
Hanaford to hold in check the rebellous
youth who attended the district school,
Trueman was visibly impressed with
her charms, which, in the language of
the boys of today, were of the 'peachy"
variety. He saw her first at church,
where she supplied rich contralto to a
choir that needed richness of some kind,
but he did not see her to speak to her
until the donation party that was in
fiicted upon Mr.. Hardwicke in the latter
part of August, and then he found that
she was interested in old furniture, like
himself. In fact, she had a low boy that
had been in her mothers family since
it came over with Salathiel Gaylord on
the good ship Mary and Ellen in 1899
His heart had warmed to her after
that avowal, and he had felt that if he
.;od Z ho tn lyo
this, who could bring with her a wagon
load of antique furniture. He was go
ing to ask her if she adored flowers and
the care of them, but Mrs. Curtiss
brought her son William over to meet
her and he did not have another oppor-
tunity to talk to her that evening. But
she was distinctly pleasant and lively
and he found himself thinking of her
many times after that night, and before
many days had passed he discovered
that although the choir had five basses
to two piping tenors, they stood in great
need of his resonant bass and he i'm
mediately joined that body of singers
and, at Friday evening rehearsals, as
luck would have it, was assigned the
seat next to that occupied by Miss Gray
son. Only she had gone home to New
ington to spend Sunday. He had half a
mind to resign when he heard this but
after all, there were other Sabbaths
coming, so he pitched into the tunes
with a fervor that that excited the jeal-
ousy of the other basses. Trueman had a
fine voice: all the Newberrys had been
singers from the earliest times.
Truman sang at morning service and
evening prayer meeting with his eyes
on the notes and his mind on Miss Gray
son. He was hard hit. There was no
doubt of that. At 26 he was likely to
go the way that had seldom been trod
BY a Newberry bachelor until twice rs
years had been passed in this vale.
After prayer meeting he walked home
alone and sank into a mahogany chair
that had been a Newberry possession for
200 wears. But his thoughts were not
of furniture, but of form and face
that would have made kitchen chair
look like a piece Of Chippendale.
He smoked his pipe out, and then he
retired, but not to sleep. His thoughts
were with Miss Grayson, who even now
was returning from Newington. That
much he knew, because he had heard
Il.