The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-12

Havin' lived next door to the Ho-
bart place fir goin' on thirty years.
l caPlate that I know jest about ez
much about the case ez anybody else
now on airth, exceptin', perhaps, it's
OF Jedge Baker, and he's so plaguey
old nd so powerful feeble that he
don't know nothin'.
1t seems that in the spring NV NJ
the year that Cy Watson's oldest boy
was drowned in West River-there
comes along a boOk-agent Sellin' VOL
yumes md tracks FIR the diffusion NV
knowledge, md havin' got the recon-
mend of the minister nd NV the Sc
lectmen, he done an ALFRED big BUSH
ness in our part NV the country. His
name was Lemuel Higgins, nd he wuz
ez likely talker ez ever heerd, bar
rim Lawyer Conkey, md everybody al
lowed that when Conkey wuz turned
round he talked so fast that the town
pump I'D have to be creased every
twenty minutes.
One Nv the first Nv our folks that
this Lemuel Higgins struck wuz Lean
der Hobart. Leander had just marr'd
one Nv the Peasley girls, md had moved
into the old homestead on the Plain
vile road, old Deacon Hobart havin'
give up the place to him, the other
boys havin' moved out West Qike a
lot of burned fools that they wuz).
Leander wuz feelin' his oats jest about
this time, md nothin' Wuz too good FIR
him.
Wa-al, he bargained with Higgins
FIR set Nv them cyclopeedies, nd he
signed his name to a long printed pa
per that showed how he agreed to take
a cyclopeedy oncet in so often, which
WIZ to be eS often eS a new one NV
the volyumes wuz printed. A CYCLIC
peedy isn't printed all at oncet, be-
cause that would make it cost too
much; Consistently, the man that gets
it up has it strung along fur apart SO
as to hit folks Oncet every year or
two, and gin'erally about harvest
time. So Leander kind Nv liked the
idea, and he signed the printed paper
md made his affidavit to it afore ledge
Warner.
The first volyume NV the cyclopeedy
stood on a shelf in the old sekertary
in the settin' room about four months
before they had any use FIR it. One
night Squire Turner's son come over
to visit Leander and Hattie, an they
got to talkin' about apples, nd the sort
Nv apples that WuZ the best. Leander
allowed that the Rhode Island greenin'
Wuz the best, but Hattie an the Tur-
ner boy stuck up FIR the Roxbury rus
set, until at last happy idee struck
Leander, and SEE he, We'll leave it to
the cyclopeedy, bgosh! Whichever one
the cyclopeedy SEE is the best will set
tie it,
'But you can't find out nothin' bout
RoXbury russets nor Rhode Island
greenin's in our cyclopeedy," SEE Hat
tie.
"why not, I'd like to know" SEE
Leander, kind Nv indignant-like.
r yet" SEE Hattie. 'rAH ours tells
about is things beginnin' with A."
"Well, amt we talkin' about Ap-
ples?" SEE Leander. You aggravate
me terrible, Hattie, by insistin' on
KNOWN what you don't know nothin
about.
Leander went to the seckertary md
took down the cyclopeedy md hunted
all through it FIR Apples, but all he
could find wus: "Apple-See Pomol-
ogy."
How in thunder kin I see Pomol-
ogy," SEE Leander,, when there amt
no Pomology to see Col durn a cy-
clopeedy, anyhow"
An he put the volyume back onto
the shelf md never sot eyes into it
agin.
That's the way the thing dun FIR
years nd years. Leander would've gin
up the plaguey bargain, but he
couldn't; he had signed a printed pa
per nd had swore to it before JUS
tive Nv the peace. Higgins would have
had the law on him if he had throwed
up the trade.
The most aggrevatin' feature NV it
all wuz that new one Nv them cussid
cyclopeedies wuz alters sure to show
up at the wrong time-when Leander
wuz hard up or had jest been affiict-
ed some way or other. His barn
burned down two nights afore the vol
yume containin' the letter B arrived,