Daily Kennebec journal., 1902-10-07
QUILL'S YARN.
He Lays the Blame for It on a
Street Laborer.
A Story to Interest Antiquarians and
Young Cooks.
The Story is Here and the Reader Can
Supply the Dialect.

engaged i'll excavating a cellar on one
or Augustas prominent thoroughfares.
had often stopped few moments as
! passed by to chat with the workmen
and watch them at their labor, One
In particular, good looking French
| man with pronounced accent \and
| Partisan whiskers, l had become quite
| friendly with and used to rather enjoy
| hearing him struggle with the English
| language in expressing himself I
| came along by the place, last week,
| and having a few leisure moments. as
| usual. to lean against the temporary
fence that enclosed the hole, l looked
Tor my friend. the Frenchman. Pretty
soon he got his eyes focused on me and
when there WAS a lull in the work he
came over to have his customary chat
| He talked about the coal strike and
| the outlook for the poor man. the COM
ing winter, and hit on various subjects
and finally, he said, I'VE came across
very peculiar thing the other day,
and if you had been here you could
| have gotten a very interesting story for
| the paper"
I asked him to give me this story
which he did in his peculiar dialect,
which I will not attempt to give He
said. I'VE had been digging over on the
south side of the lot. for some little
time. when one of the wOrkmen un-
earthed peculiar substance. 1t was
about Is inches long by four inches
wide. round and oval in shape, and
perfectly smooth, as if it had been
polished, light in color and harder than
Pharaohs heart. 1t was SO different
than anything we had found that
called the bOss's attention to it, and he
examined it pretty closely and tried to
brake it with hammer, but did not
succeed very well. He said it must be
a geological specimen lost from some
ones collection, or a fragment where
some meteor had burst. years ago. We
had number come to look at it and
they all had a different idea.
One said it was petrified wood, an
other thought it was iron-stone, AL
still another thought it was some sort
of an implement used by the Indians
One old revolutionary fellow said that,
in his opinion, it was a cannon ball
that had become fattened in it's con-
tact with the earth, or it's flight
through the air. No two had the same
opinion, which struck the boss as being
very peculiar. Somebody wanted to
send it down to Professor Lee Of Bow
doin College to get his opinion. The
boss said he guessed he would wait Il
little while and possibly something
would turn up that would shed some
light on the subject. So he waited
couple of days, but nothing new de-
veIoped when somebody who used to
live. here just after the Indians had
~ hn In. ha anrlnnnl tn tylrn
over a few back pages in their memory
and discovered that there used to be
a cobbler or shoe maker who lived IN
little, small building that stood on
this spot for number of years ana
could possibly throw some light on the
subject.
So the boss started out to hunt up the
cobbler 1t was easy enough to nnd IL
sherry ccbbler but this particular COR
bier was a hard man to find. AT last
he got on his trail and he Uhe coppiec
came down to get a view OF TINS ihys
terious substance. He knew What II
was the minute he got his eye on II.
And as he stood and gaized on IT, IL
carried him back in memory some forty
years when he and his wife were in the
prime of life and the world mad rosy
hue to him. 1t would call to mind
many incidents connected with ms
early life that he had forgotten lie
could almost see his little girl as she
used TO bring his dinner to him When
ne was too busy to go home and get IL.
and how he watched her grow up ana
b,,d into womanhoOd and wondered
what her future would be. He seemed
TO be quite affected as he told the story.
but was awfully glad to get that heir-
lom back again he said it fad Deeh III
his family for 30 years, almost as Il con-
slant companion, ard when ne iost IL
he hunted for days and weeks without
success. And to think it should ne re-
turned to him after all these years. was
something remarkable. He offerec 10
nay the boss for all his trouble ana
said it would never go out OF ms slGht
again The boss said he was welcome
to 4. but that it was such ouahdar!
to him that he wondered what IL was.
WHY. the old man said when my glri
got to be 15 or 16 years old she got an
idea in her head that she wanted 10 go
to q cooking school, and as her mother
induiged her in most every tnlns, she
went, And that was the first loaf OF
sponge cake she had made after gradu-
ating: and she wasso delighted with her
success that she presented 1T TO me ana
7 used it as a Iap-stone till went out OF
business The old gentleman after
thanking us all round gathered up his
lap-stone and departed.
Now, I like a cheerful liar-one VINO
can do a good off hand job. inpromptu
and thought l had net some IN my
travels. but 1 find. alas. / was mistaken
They were but amateurs, while this was
the real thing and ought to hold q dis
pensation from Ananias with Saphira's
right of dover thrown in. for he had the
most delicate touch of any prevaricator
of the old school since Ananias' Won
derful record He bad one OF those
honest faces that one sees in picture
books, and all he needed was a halo to
oass himself off as a saint and next
wear when the State fair starts to get
in its work. if the management VIII
hang up a prize Of any size for the big
gess liar. free for all, will hunt up this
son of sunny France and back him
against the field, and if he don't take
first money and blue ribbon l shall
think the judges are biased IN their
opinion and don't know merlno sheep