The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1901-05-25
The Bidding Off
of Maria FaircI1iId
By Blanche Elizabeth Wade. :
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hT7HERE'D got to be an auction,
Jorettv Smith Wilkinson. best

4 II EOL IL DC dutlAOns
Loretty Smith Wilkinson, best
way / could fix it. l turned over
more'n a million plans in my mind.
till my head felt like a windmill in a
stiff breeze, aud there want nothin'
that seemed to kinder stand out be-
fore my dizzy eyes. 'cept an auction,
and / Jest thought the sooner | had
II the better. Pas been dead nigh
onto a year, and there's all them
farm tools goin' to waste for want of
bein' used. | shan't never undertake
TO hire my farm run ag'in, and
can't run it alone. Yes, sir, I'll jest
sell all but the house, and garden
patch, and one cow, and my bay
horse, and have an auction of the
farm tools and lots of old furniture
and stuff | don't need Then, Loretty
Smith Wilkinson, I shall begin TO feel
as though l was liyin' and had room
10 breathe, and opportunity to
breathe, without bein' all cluttered
up with that mess of stuff all the
time"
"You don't mean to say that you're
goin' to keep right on livin' here all
alone, Maria Fairchild! What'll you
do in tramp time, quarter of mile
away from the nearest house, and
them big, dark woods t'other side
of you? You're fyin' in the face of
Provideneel"
"How can I be fyin' if I'm jest
stayin', Loretty? Now don't you go
to work and worry 'hout me, for after
ha act
as comfortably fixed as you be, and
probly a great deal better"
'Well, don't get huffy, Maria. ]
didn't intend to hurt your feelin's
any, but 1 couldn't bear to think of
you livin' all alone where nobody'd
know if you was took sick or wanted
anythin' Have you decided when
your auctions goin' to be?"
Eyes, I'm goin' to have it on the
10th of February, and that'll be two
weeks from next Friday. Ebeneezer
Fishers jest taken notices to the vii
1age, for me, and his brother Abe's
goin' to be auctioneer. I'm powerful
sorry can't ask you to stay this aft
ernoon, but I've got such an awful
lot of work ahead of me to git my
house in order for folks as prob'ly
will be comm in to warm themselves
If it's too cold to stand outside all
day, that I'm too drove to spend
many minutes yisitin' jest now. Then
I've got to kinder fresh up a good
share of the stuff, SOS it'll bring as
big price as possible, and altogether.
I've got my hands full. But | hope
to see you at the auction, even if /
amt got nothin' you're likely to want
TO bid off, and say-I've Just thought
If faint too much trouble, I'd be real
obliged to you if you could stay all
day on the 10th, and help me make
coffee for them as wants it. I'm 60
in to make lot of doughnuts, too,
for there amt nobody goin' to say
Maria Fairchild's stingy, if she is an
old maid, ,sand I guess there's lots will
be thankful for somethin' hot, and
somethin' to stay their stomachs, aft
er standin' around in the cold"
"Ill be more'n glad to come and
help you, Maria, and I can as well as
not. If there's anythin' else I can
do for you beforehand, you let me
know"
After the departure of her visitor,
Maria Fairchild went back into the
kitchen of the large, old home, and
began her task of revarnishing a
massive table that until lately had
adorned the parlor.
In Squire Fairchild's prime, the
house had been considered little less
than mansion in those parts, and
his extensive farm lands were the
pride of the country. Ethan Fair
child had managed well, and, there
fore, must be rich man, concluded
his neighbors; but after the death
of his wife, the squire took little in
terest in anything. He rarely left the
door yard during his latter years, and
under the slack attentions of his
farm hands, his crops ceased to yield
SO abundantly as in former times,
and showed plainly the want of the
efforts of the master of the place.
Even the house, and the well kept
barns and stables began to look for
lorn and dilapidated, and the general
appearance of shabbiness extended to
the animals as WELL With rough, un-
kempt coats, the once. sleek horses
ambled along with downcast heads,
meekly giving up to. the spirit of
gradual decline, which seemed to pre-
vail. When Maria demonstrated, call
ing her fathers attention to some
new evidence of neglect on the part
Of the hired men, the squire would
say, merely:
There, there, Maria, I'll speak to
Joe about it, Don't go to fussin' over
nothin'. Things will come out straight
In the end"
But the result was that things be-
came crooked rather than straight.
The fences sagged, posts leaned,
scraggly branches droope6-in fact,
everything seemed to have become
tired and to have settled down fer
rest. This feeling likewise seized the
squire himself, and one day he, toe.
sank into a peaceful slumber from
which he never woke.
People said that now Maria Fair
child would likely spunk up and
marry Jed Tompkins. whom the
squire had disliked for no apparent
reason than that Jed would deprive
him of his daughter who, to the best
Of her ability, made her father com
Portable. But jed had left the town
some years before, and il he had