The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-07-31

The Goodwin oxen were out again 10
one unacquaintcd with the fractions
beasts the statement may lack interest,
but there was not 9 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 bound 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 threats 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
lor 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 a 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 p~asturage 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 a rookery or tumble a 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 fishcd-for
man in the South Hanaford pond. The
Newberrys had come from Windsor and
were descended from Governor Bradford
and from the earliest times there had
been one handsome OLD bachelor who
did not surrender his freedom until vel.
along in years, and it looked as if True
man would carry out the tradition as
far as not marrying young went, if, in
deed, he was ever ensnared.
Trueman had two hobbies, a love foI
old furniture and q passion for flowers
The farmers about smiled ~inwardly as
they saw him wasting valuable time, tina
might nave been employed at farming
in making a bed of "posies," and il
afterward Watering them like Apollos
but if they had laughed openly he would
not have cared. AS long as he pleased
Truem9n NeWherry he did not care wheth
er any one else was pleased. Not tina
he was selfish. but he was independent.
When Miss Grayson came to Soutt
Hanaford to hold in check the rebellious
youth who attended the district school
Trueman was visibly impressed with
her charms, which, in the language O
the boys of today, were of the 'peachy'
variety. He saw her first at church
where she supplied a rich contralto to {
choir that needed richness of some kline
but he did not see her to speak to he
until the donation party that was in.
fiicted upon Mr.. Hardwicke in the latter
part of August, and then he found tina
she was interested in old furniture, like
himself. In fact, she had a low-boy tina
had been in her mothers family sine.
it came over with Salathiel Gaylord OF
the good ship Mary and Ellen in 1859.
His heart had warmed to her afte
that avowal, and he had felt that if h,
ever married it would be to one lik,
this, who could bring with her a Wagon
load of antique furniture. He was go
ing to ask her if she adored flowers an,
the care of them, but Mrs. Curtis
brought her son William over to NEE
her and he did not have another oppOr
tunity to talk to her that evening. Blu
she was distinctly pleasant and lively
and he found himself thinking of he
many times after that night, and befor
many days had passed he discovere
that although the choir had five basse
to two piping tcnOrS, they stood in grea
need of his resonant bass, and he i'm
mediately Joined that body of singers
and, at Friday evening rehearsals, g
luck would have it, was assigned tn
seat next to that occupied by Miss Gray
son. Only she had gone home to New
ington to spend Sunday. He had half
mind to resign when he heard this, bu
coming, SO he pitched into the tune
with a fervor that that excited the jeal
ousy of the other basses. Trueman had