Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1903-10-22
LOVE AND LUCK.


"Well, he's goin' at last, " said Mrs.
Deacon Milman, land I'm sure I'm
glad ov it"
"Going, is he?" said Simeon, her
tall stepson, who taught district school
and had just dropped in for a social
chat. Poor old man, l declare it's
pity"
~ don't think so, said Mrs. Mil
man, sharply. Folks haven't no
business to live to be as old as Me-
thusaleh. l declare, if I'd a knowed
he was to live with US I'd ha' thought
twice afore | married Deacon Milman.
Simeon said nothing, but there was
something in the expression Of his face
as he sat spreading his ten huge fn-
gers before the blaze of the beech logs,
that intimated his own inward convic-
ton that it would have been just as
as well if Miss Rachel Snapp mad
known the disagreeable fact before
she consented to become the second
Mrs. Milman.
"There amt no tellin' the trials
I've had with him" went on Mrs.
Milman, shaking her cap borders dole
fully.
81 wouldn't undertake it then, said
Simeon, dryly. "Do you suppose he
will last through the night?"
"Oh, he cant, no way in the world.
" sent for Bethiah Jones TO come to-
morrow and clean and whitewash the
room, and as for that old rack O fur
nitoor, the three chairs and the pine
desk, and the bureau, l mean to have
EN- split up for kindlin wood before
the deacon comes back. He'll be just
foolish enough to want to keep EN-,
and I won't have no such Noah's ark
trash about my house.
That's most a pity, amt it?" said
Simeon, who was engaged to pretty
little apple-cheeked village girl, and
viewed the far-off possibility of go
ing to housekeeping" as Moses might
have viewed the Promised Land.
They're awful rickety old things, "
said his stepmother.
But they re furnitoor, all the same, ,
pleaded Simeon, "and somehow it
seems to me as ifI'd like to keep lit
tie something to remember old Percy
Milman by, even if he amt no nearer
relation than my second cousin. He
used to be real good to me when l was
little tow-headed boy. Come, step
mother, I'll give ye dollar for the
lot of EN-"
"Well, said Mrs. Milman, reflective
ly, "its worth that to git the plaguy
things carted off the premises. You
may have EN-, Simeon"
81 don't suppose they're worth
much, said Simeon, "but it seems a
pity to split EN- up. And now III go
in and see the man"
Old Percy Milman, lying on the bed
from which be was destined never to
arise again, had listened to the whole
conversation, plainly audible through
the board partition, merely papered
over, that separated his apartment
from the family sitting room, for, dY-
ing man though he was, be yet retain
ed every faculty.
She's glad to get rid o en-" he
thought, mournfully, while Pang went
through the heart whose pulsings were
well nigh at an end. "Well, tain't 90
very strange, neither, as I knows on,
but Rachel Milmsn always was a sour,
cold-hearted woman. Simeon shall
have the furniture-I'll give it to him
myself afore the end comes.
And when Simeon came in on tip
toe the old man looked briskly up.
You needn't step so gingerly, boy;
l amt asleep. Snuff the candle, and
set down aside Of me; l want to say
word or two to ye, And tell Rachel
to come in, too"
"Oh, dear" said Mrs. Deacon Mil
man, when the old mans request was
l,rorr ~ bar HT'U baf he 1vante q