Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-12-23
EZRA BRIGGS
REVENGE 3, D. H.
TALMADGE.
copyright, 1903, by T. G. Mcclure.
By D. H.
TALMADGE

ment lazily putting small clouds OF
blue smoke into the air and blinking
comfortably at his sippered feet
which were resting against post on
level with his face. l spoke to him,
and the feet slipped down with thud.
"Howdy," he said. "Some warmish,
amt it?"
l nodded. wiping from my face the
perspiration engendered by an ill ad-
vised walk of two miles over road
unshaded from a merciless July sun.
The family at the farmhouse where,
from motives of economy, was spend
ing my vacation had gone to funeral,
and had wearied of my own compa-
n.y. Wherefore. the afternoon. being
too hot for fishing. / had com to Har-
leyville to seek companionshil.
I'D have went to likes funeral my
SELF" said the storekeeper when had
explained thus to his understanding,
'only the rest of the folks wanted to
go, and l didn't like to close up the
place on account of the postofice.
| was down to likes when the great
damp breath blew his lamp out. I set
up with him two or three nights along
at the last"
"He was a close friend Of yours"
| asked.
"Well," signing explosively, "there
amt much doubt he was considerable
close, and we was always friends, him
and me. l had a feeling Of sympathy
for him during the last years of his
life, too-sort Of an admiration for
him, because he took his medicine like
a man. 'Tain't every male human that
does"
'"Then he had long been an invalid"
"No; that amt the idea. He wasn't
sick a great while. The story dates
back nigh on to twenty years. when
him and Ezra Briggs was rivals for the
hand of Martha Telford. Twas nip
and tuck between 'em, but Ezra finally
won the match. Ike was fool enough
to get mad about it, and when his pa
died, leaving among his other effects
mortgage on the old Briggs place where
Ezra was living, his parents both being
defunct, he fOreclOsed the thing and
made regular dickens of bad mess.
Ezra could have paid if he'd had an
other six months, but Ike wouldn't
wait. That was the beginning of a
mighty hard time for Ezra. Nothing
he touched after that seemed to pros
per. Him and Martha-there wasn't no
children-cOme at last to live in house
not much better than shanty down by
fhn mil NJ
so my wife and daughter say, sort Of
took sick and died. I've heard tell there
amt much female love that's proof
against poverty long drawn out, and
heaps of what passes for real honest
affection leaks away through the worn
out places in woman's clothes.
cts my opinion that Martha wasn't
a real comfortable person to live with
during the last two or three years of
Ezra's life. I've got a suspicion, more
or less founded on fact, that she was
sourer than the dregs of vinegar and
that her patience sort of shot off like a
Calling gun once it had busted. Ezra
took sick finally with somebody or 9TH
er's disease of something or other that
the doctors said was incurable, and he
didn't keep up after that. just poked
around and grOaned till the trouble
knocked him down into bed
"He kept his own counsel pretty
much, but I've got a notion he was
nursing feeling of bitterness against
Ike most of the time then. l said to
myself 'twould be blessing if the old
death angel would only flop down and
carry him off before he done anything
that would shock the community.
"But l was worrying unduly. How
ever much he may have been figuring
on revenge, there wasn't no bloody vio-
lence mixed into his figuring. He did
give the community sort Of shock,
though. such as twas. Most of us
couldn't understand then why he done
as he did, but it is as clear as molasses
to me now.
''The river yonder five years ago
last March got on a ripping tear owing
to a sudden thaw, and among other
things it done it swooped down across
1ke's barnyard and carried off lot Of
live stock and things, including Ike
himself, who was trying to rescue a
valuable ram he'd paid big price for
at the state fair.
"He went along with the food and
never stopped till he stuck in the
branches of small tree about seventy
or eighty feet from shore near where
Ezra's house stood. And as chance
would have it Ezra heard him yelping
for help and dragged himself out Of
the house, where he was staying alone
with his disease while Martha washed
dishes up to the hotel over at Bottom
village.
"Now. 'twould have been no more
than natural for a man in EZra's po-
sition to have done nothing but gloat
over the situation. But Ezra didn't
do nothing of the kind. He hustled
around as fast as his disease would
let him to save Ike before the tree
come unrooted.
To av,1 %u;a b.