The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1905-11-30
BlackberrieS
For Supper
By c. 3. LEWIS
Copyright, 1905, by R. B. Mcclure

Aunt Judy Taylor. relict of Hiram
Taylor, had come on from Iowa to live
with her brother and his family for the
vest of her kfe. She had sold all her
earthly possessions in the west for a
thousand dollars in cash, and a few
days after her arrival She had turned
this money over to her brother James,
with the remark:
Now, James, this is all yours but
5000. That 5000 is for Clara when she
gets married. It's for her to make a
wedding tower on. When / was mar
ried wanted to make wedding tow
er to Niagara falls, but Hiram hadn't
but $13 to 80 on. I've always said that
if one of my nieces ever got married
she should see Niagara falls if she
had to wear one petticoat for the next
five years
Clara was the daughter of the breth-
er and his wife, and she already had
beau. He was a young man from the
nearest village, and after seeing him
two or three times Aunt Judy said to
the girl:
"Clara, that Teller of yours will never
set the river afire, but there's nothing
mean about him. He'll provide a good
table and have plenty of wood at the
back door, and l guess that will be just
as well as if he was swelling around
and telling what great man he was
I'm judging him by his nose. When
you see a man with his nose bumped
up in the middle you can set him down
for good tempered man"
The brother put the money in bank
at the village, but after little Aunt
Judy began to worry about it. She
was assured that the bank was as
sound as the hills, but she shook her
head and replied:
Il dunno, james, dunno. OF course,
it's your money now, but I'm sorry /
didn't see the banker before you gave
it to him. | think I'll have you drive
me to town some day, so that l can get
look at him."
But SCOTS bank has been here for
twenty years. persisted the brother
Eyes, s'pose it has, but out in Iowa
they caught man stealing pumpkins
who'd lived an honest life for sixty
years. l wouldn't like to see you lose
your money, and if anything happened
to Clara's 5000 I'd have a fit She's
got to make bridal tower to Niagara
falls or | won't see her married Folks
have told me that more water runs
over the falls in day than would run
mill dam for week and that there's
asroar going on just like half dozen
bulls bellerin in the distance. l want
to get look at that banker. l can tell
in a minute whether he's honest or
not
A few days later she was driven to
the village and an errand made to the
bank.
James" Aunt Judy said while they
were driving home, do you know that
woman knows forty times as much
as MANI?
81 hadn't heard of it, was the reply.
"Waal, you hear of it now. That
banker hain't an honest man. 1t won't
be a year before he'll bust up and
leave you all in the lurch."
'Poohl Pooh! Mr.. Scott has the
confidence of hundreds of people, and
l don't worry over my money any
more than as if it was buried in the
cellar You mustn't get such notions
into your head
9'It's no notion, James. Out in Iowa
we had three different hired men on
the farm who turned out to be thieves,
and each of them looked like that
banker. | never in the word would
buy thing of a tin peddler until had
looked at his eyes. There's something
in them l always can tell. | wish that
money of Clara's was out of his hands,"
Come now, Judy; don't be silly. I'd
trust Mr. Scott the same as my own
brother"
"All right. Wen say no more about
it. Only if Clara is disappointed in
seeing Niagara falls l shan't be the
same woman / was. They say that
when you stand and look at all that
waiter pOuIilIS ONtls tliC go OP y Jul
back and you don't feel knee high to a
grasshopper. Isn't there any way to
catch that water in rain barrels and
store it up agin a drought?"
might be- replied the brother, who
had very hazy opinion of things out
side his own township
At intervals of every two weeks dur
ing the next eight months Aunt Judy
came back to the subject of the bank
err, and her worry never ceased. 1t
was treated as notion and not tax
en- seriously
In due time Clara's beau popped the
question and was accepted and the day
set, and Aunt Judy was so busy sew
ing that there were times when she al
most forgot her fears. 1t lacked but
two weeks of the marriage day when
the brother drove to the village on an
errand. He came back looking as white
as dead man. Aunt Judy, who was
the first to see him, gave him a long
look and said:
WAL, didn't tell you soY
SCOTS bank has bustedr' he groan-
Oh "a he sat down