The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-26

Folks laughed and tn0ugnt Y was feai
cute in Liza Sam, and upheld her in what
she did. but / guess It made the men sort
OF afraid of her. At any rate. nobody else
offered TO pay her any attention, though 1T
was a fine place for any man. He would
have been well fixed IN that nice house.
and Liza was a good housekeeper and a
splendid cook. besides being as good a
woman as ever lived. But even "a man who
means well and amt any idea of not do
ing what's right don't just like the notion
of being held in such a tight rein in case
he should feel like kicking over the traces.
But there wasn't a man in the village who
didn't have q respect for Liza Sam and
straighten himself TO look as well as he
could when he saw her coming.
And as for other women, they all liked
Liza Sam, and l know one woman, who,
unless / miss my guess, would go down
on her knees and about worship her any
minute, and that's Roger Little's wife.
She was Ada Dean before Little married
her. and she was the ~prettiest girl ir the
village, and had her pick of all the likely
young men. and chose the one that wasn't
likely as usual. She would have Roger
Little, though all her folks were set against
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6ied not long after Ada was married. and
the poor child never got over it. She
had begun to see her mistake by tina time,
and her pretty light ways were changed
for old sober ones. L met her on the street
and hardly knew her, and other folks spoke
of doing the same. Roger Little wasn't a
man TO make any girl happy, least of all
a little meek, sensitive one like Ada Dean.
He came of the best old family in the
village, the old Squire Rogers, and he had
had n college education and plenty of
money 10 start with, and good looks, but
he's wasted everything. His money was
soon gone, and his good looks going, and
his education had been of small account
TO him, and his father, old Captain Richard
Little, as fine an old man as ever lived.
had about given him UP, and decided TO
leave his money way from him to for
eign missions. He talked with me about
it, one night, going home from meeting,
we came out about the same time, and
he was feeling sort of downhearted. and
1 suppose inclined to free his mind to some
body, though it wasn't his way generally.
Captain Richard was a rather gruff, keep
his-trousers-to-himself, sort Of a man, but
lit tlAlc COLHcS W every UOuy, WITCH they
have to speak to some other human being
or give up beat. I sort of wondered at
Captain Richard speaking to me, for l was
a good deal younger than he was, though
way ahead of his son Roger. However, 1
had the name of keeping things to myself
pretty well, and 1 wasn't married, and
didn't have any women-folks to talk to,
and / suppose he thought 1 was safe, and
! never did tell a soul as long as the old
man lived, though it couldn't have done
any harm as ! know of if / had, as things
turned out.
Captain Richard told me that night with
a hoarse growl in his throat. the way a
mans voice is when he's full of grief and
amt giving way to ii, that he'd about de-
cided TO make his will and leave his money
away from Roger. He is my only son,
Caleb" says he, land it seems a pretty
hard thing to do, but it's money that has
come by good, honest labor, for l didn't
inherit much with the depreciation of real
estate in this town, and l have it in trust
from the Lord and L can't let it be squan-
dered by a %drunkard and a spendthrift. l
know If anything happens to my son that
his wife will be taken care of, for her
liz CAlOdSh aANt 10 SCAAA6 ~ CN1O ~
on her. My money left to my sons wife
away from him would only make trouble
betwixt them. and I'm going to leave it to
foreign missions, and l may ask you TO
come over and be a witness some day,
Caleb says he, and I'm telling you all
this so there won't be any question of will
breaking and sanity afterward. 1t don't
seem as if my son would ever think of
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when a man gets started down hill snags
in the way only make him go faster. I'm
going to give Roger one more chance" says
he. It's about six weeks since he's been
doing anything, and next week he's called
on that arson case at Southbridge (Roger
Little is a lawyer, and if he's sober and
in his right mind and able to be there I'll
wait a while longer about that will, other
wise 1 shan't. I've just been over there,
Caleb" the old man wound up, land he
was away, had been away all night, the
Lord knows where, and that poor little
wife of his a crying" Well, Captain Rich
ard didn't say any more. He gave a great
grunt as if he'd been facing something he
hated, then he went off and 1 heard his
tramp, tramp down the street. The cap
tain was "a heavy man and his energy
seemed to add a third to his weight when
he walked.
/ wondered whether Roger Little would
come to time for that arson trial, it was
only three days off, and / knew from what
I'd heard, that he'd been doing pretty bad.
1t seemed to me 1t was doubtful, and it
was, and he would never have done it if
it hadn't been for Liza Sam. The trial
was set for Wednesday, and Tuesday
Roger Little was laying fast asleep on
account of the liquor he'd been drinking.
and he had another great bottle of port
wine ready to drink on the stand beside
the bed when he woke UP. 1t was a queer
thing, but Roger Little wouldn't get drunk
IN a thing but nice wine. He hated whisky
and rum like all possessed, and said he'd
go to the devil like a gentleman anyhow.
Drinking such costly stuff made his money
go faster. Often he wouldn't touch a thing
except champagne. Well, there he lay,
about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. when Liza
Sam came in. She was going by, when she
heard Rogers wife crying, the bedroom
window being open.
Liza Sam went right in, went through
the sitting room to the bedroom, and stood
there in the door.