The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-07-21

stable to preach. That same bell can
also be rung for prayer meetings. fires,
Fourth of July and funerals. 1t will
come in handy TO warn folks against
mad dogs, and its wild notes will tell
the people for a mile around when q
savage bull has broke loose aud taken
to the roads. You can't make no mis-
take in getting bell, while If you
don't have one you'll be looked down
on by the towns that have"
The peddler went his way, and there
was talk and talk. After three or four
days he came back, and there was
more talk. Everybody had decided that
it would be good thing to get bell,
but no one knew just how to go to
work to raise the money 1t was for
the peddler to show the way.
at can be done as easy as falling
off log" he explained, and you can
have some fun over it at the same
time. I'm going to lay up here for
couple of weeks while | paint my wag-
on, and I'll see you through"
His plan was to get gallon jug and
put lot of beans into it. No one else
should know how many. Everybody
should pay 30 cents to guess, and
came nearest to the number should get
his half dollar back, and the rest of the
money should go for a bell. Two or
three of the deacons hung off a little,
thinking the plan looked like lottery,
but after day or two the thing was a
go. Indeed Deacon Spooner. who was
always considered lucky man,
planked down 50 and recorded four
guesses, and the ball was started roll
ing. Inside Of four days every man in
Jericho had paid for at least one
guess. and inside OF week most of the
farmers for five miles around had
caught the spirit. The peddler had
charge of the money as well as the
beans, and every evening there was a
gathering at the postoffice to talk the
thing over.
When you get villager started he
goes the whole hog. Deacon Spooner
got enthusiastic and took three more
guesses, and, not to be left behind,
Deacon Harper and dozen others saw
the ante. Men who had taken only one
guess went in for two and three, and
every stranger who came to Jericho
was pestered until he came down with
q guess. If business tagged a little the
tin peddler was on hand to say:
LET the good work go right on and
weary not in we'll doing. When that
bell rings out of Sunday morning it
will be the voice of glad tidings, and
you will all shout for Joy. l never
want to promise more than can per-
form, but If Jericho real estate don't
jump % per cent within a month after
that bell goes dingdong then I'll never
show my face here again"
After two weeks there were no more
gueSseS to come in, and meeting was
arranged to count the money and the
beans and send committee up to Troy
to buy the bell. Everybody turned out
to the meeting. Deacon Spooner took
charge. He didn't exactly know
whether to open it with a Fourth of
July Grafton or the singing of hymn,
but upon a hint from Silas Wigfall.
who had just got over the measles and
was feeling happy, he recited a poem
and gave Christopher Columbus a GER
titicate of character, for sobriety.
Then the meeting waited for the ped
dler to show up, and while it waited
Fearnought Pilgrim got up and started
out TO eulogize George Washington.
He had been sorting over potatoes that
day and had got things mixed. He
said that Washington and Nero had
gone down in history together and that
the Father Of His Country and Captain
Kidd would never be forgotten while
the fires of patriotism continued to
burn. He was proceeding to compare
Washington to Scipio when he was
called to order and sat down with
jar that shook the hall
Just about that time Lish Billings
came sauntering in. 1t had been whis-
pered around that he was the only
man in Jericho who hadn't come with
a guess, but nobody had dared to ask