The Negro world., 1900-03-10

more for fertilizers since took the
place. What you throw into that there
wagon don't do nobody NO good. II
don't hold It's shape long enough TO
pass fer a tatur and get paid for as
sich; it jist grinels up inter dust and
shakes out of the wagon on the road
To town.
Lem retorted: "Uncie Peter. don't
you reckon you git even on that with
what mud yon bring in of the road in
wet weather
The hoe had been bought at the store
where the pleasant and outrageous
town OF Lombard now is. When IL was
new Uncle Peter used 10 treat IL like
a fine.tempered razor. lie never al
lowed a hired man TO use IL, and he
used 10 bring il In with him from the
field at noon and stand IL up in the
kitchen. where he could watch II while
he tae his dinner. When the year =
work was done he would give II coat
of axle.grease to protect IL from rust
and then would lock IL up in the tool
shed.
In course Of time, however, the hoe
grew dull, and Uncle Peter had to take
n file 10 IL. After the third fling he
let Lem jackson take II 10 bill up the
beans. and Lem got tired and leaned
on II too heavily.
Uncle Peter took II very had. He told
Lem he would just as soon have had
him haul of and slap him In the face.
The hired man offered to pay for the
hoe, and Unele Peter said that was the
least he could do. He held back si.65 of
LENS wages, figuring IS cents for
wagon hauling from Lombard. Then
he nailed up the fracture in the handle
and swathed IL with wire, and. handing
II 70 lem. told him 10 use II more care
fully in future.
II dunno but ought TO charge you
fer my time a-flxin' IL, remarked Uncle
Peter.
The hired man said he'd like 10 know
how he made that out, and "accordin
to the way he hggered the hoe be-
longed ter him"
II amt a-goin' TO arRyer with you
about t." said Uncle Peter, with dig
nifty. "The hoes mine. bought an
paid fer II. II IL was yours I'd still be
entitled TO charge you for repairs, but
/ didn't say that / would charge you.
| only said ought to charge you--and
so ought. Dy gum! l b'lieye | will
charge YOU"
when you get man thatll do
things like that you've got mighty
mean man, said Uncle Peters brother
in-law.
III used 10 pity his women folks" he
continued "Ile had right nice wife,
aud as saving as n woman need be-
but she wasn't saving enough for
Peter. He'd go nosing around in the
pantry and figuring with them on the
laundry soap, and he'd pick up scrap
Of something or another that he didn't
think ought to be thrown out and pack
IL back into the house and say: See
here. M'rier; these blamed spen'thrift
ways OF yours had ought TO be quit At
the same time he never got mad or
mean before company. When there
was company at the house. his wife told
my wife onoe, she used TO sit and just
look al him and wonder II II could be
that she was mistaken about him after
all.v
About this time something usually
occurs To break the thread of che mar
rutiye. II seems 20 work the same way
with the nephew, 80 sothatanobody in the
suburb has ever heard the story Of the
hoe In It's fullness. Both father aud
son start In good faith, but the tempta-
tion 60 digress Is too much for them.
They cannot resist telling about the
time that Uncle Peter insisted ON the
utilization Of the water In which Aunt
Maria boiled the potatoes--ho he In
sisted that potato soup was palatable
and nutritious article OF diet, and
would by no means be convinced that
II was at least necessary 20 peel the
potatoes before boiling them, holding
the peellng OF potatoes TO be sinful
waste. A hundred instances of their
relations frugality tempt them To
daily In side paths from the straight
and beaten track. The hoe has been
filed down 70 stub since II was last
delivered TO the hired man. and
there II n rumor that a man In the
subdivision named Wheeler was told
that a nelghbor came by night and
borrowed II, but beyond thatsis moth
ing but the most vague surmise. IL
Is agreed, however. that Uncle Peter
Ia n pleasant, ehatty old man. In
fact. he seems to be liked outside OF
his family Chicago Daily Record.