Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-04-10

ago, duu LUZ tIlc IcAo u'c years CQc
squire KEEP right on, riding over
everybody, and actin as. if he owned
all creation. ! III B. s.*
Long about that time there was
craze in this part o. the country
for investin' in mimi stock, and the
squire, though gently a pretty
shrewd business man, went into it
hot and heavy. Fact, he was so
greedy about it, he seemed to be-
grudge anyone else havin' chance.
But all of sudden the mine caved
in, so to speak, and the squire had a
stroke O. paralysis that come mighty
near making an end of him. And
when they come to look into his af-
fairs they found that his house and
pretty much everything else that he
owned had been mortgaged to raise
money for the mimi stock.
GIN the meantime his daughter had
moved somewhere away out west.
and there wasn't soul to give the old
miser a helpin' hand. But he'd had
the sense to leave few hundred dol
lars in the bank, and when the folks
that held the mortgages shut down
On him, his doctor took a room for
him in cheap lodgin' house and had
him move into it. Seemed quite
come -down, but nobody pitied him
very much.
"Well, to make a long story short,
in the course of a year or two the
county was voted a new poorhouse,
and the Hone property being for sale
the committee concluded it'd be-
cheaper to buy that than to build.
You see, there was about 20 acres
of land and not a neighbor within
quarter of mile. The squire had
another stroke when he heard what
they were goin' to do with it, and his
landlord, findin' that by the time the
doctors bill was paid he wouldn't
have a dollar left, turned him over
to the town. I dare say the select
men were sorry to do it, but of
course they had to treat him the same
as the rest O. the town poor; and
when he came to himself there he
was in his old home under an over
seer, and herded with paupers-
some of 'em, too, that he himself
had helped to make paupers by bein'
so graspin' in his dealin's with 'em.
And there he's likely to stay till he
dies. Pretty hard lines, amt it?
But, when you come to think about
it, seems nothin' more'n Just ret'i-
bution.''
Two years later I CHANGED to be-
passing over the same road with
Capt. Bob Moreley for driver.
''Say!" he cried, facing about as
we came in sight of the Hone place,
member my tellin' you bout the
old squirrel Well, sir, there's been
great doin's up there, and they say
the old mans so changed that his
own wife wouldn't know him. Seems
his daughter long bout that time
lost her husband, and when some of
her friends wrote her what the old
gentleman had come to. she packed
right up and hurried on east with
her little girl and took a house down
in the edge O. the village SOS to be
near him. Tell you what. the way
some women in this world forgive
helps a fellow to understand the for
givin'ness of the Lord.
"But she hadn't more'n got here
when she was taken down with
rheumatic fever, and not, bein' able
to go herself, she sent her little girl
over to ask about the squire. The
old man was sittin' on one o. the
benches there by the gateway, with
his chin on his cane, when the little
one come in, and he started as if
he'd seen a ghost. They say she's
the born image of her mother when
she was her age, and she's named
after her, too, and when her grandad
called her Annie she run right to
him and clumb on his knee and be-
gun chatterin' as if she'd known him
all her life. He's gently rough as a
bear with children, but they say he
broke down and cried like a baby.
'Well, that little midget KEEP COM
in right along. bringin' flowers and
jells and lovin' messages from her
mother; and bout the first question
she'd ask him would be: Have you
said your prayers this mornin',
grandpa And then she'd make him
recite with her Our Father And
before folks knew what was goin'
on the old squire was converted.
You know the Bible says: "A little
child shall lead EN- and it seems as
if the Lord must have sent that little
one there on purpose to bring him
to repentance; at least, that's the
way it looks to me. His daughter,
soon as she was able to be up, want
ed him to come live with her, but
he was afraid he'd be a trouble and
thought he'd better stay where he
was. To be sure, he said, twas the
poorhouse, but twas in the poor
house that he'd found the way to
Heaven"
At this point the off horse began
to balk. and it was several minutes
before the captain conld go on.
Queer" he remarked, as he set
tied back in his seat, "what ups and
downs sometimes come to people.
All of a sudden, one day, bout a
year ago, the squire had letter
sayin' that a new vein had been
struck in the mine that he'd invest
ed in, and that the stock had doubled
in value. Seems he'd been smart
enough to hold on to the paper, so
he was once more rich man: and
the first thing he did was to deed
20 acres of land to the county and
buy back his home. Then he had
the house put in order from top to
bottom, and to-day his daughter An
ME and her little girl are livin' there
with him and the two nenhowc +b,+