Morris tribune., 1906-07-07
The Master Mechanics story From page :.

mere. i WISH W OOu IL was LIE, anu llllu
standing over. A man that's color
blind and don't know thing on Gods
earth but runnin' an engine is worse
n dead man.
Neighbor went home thinking.
They buried Delaroo. But even then
they were not through with him. Della
roo had insurance in every order in
the Bend, which meant almost every
one on earth. There was no end to his
benefit certificates and no known bene-
ficiaries. But when they overhauled his
trunk they found every last certificate
filed away up to the last paid assess
ment and the last quarters dues. Then
came shock. People found out there
was a beneficiary. While the fraters
were busy making their passes Delaroo
had quietly been directing the right
honorable recording secretaries to make
the benefits run to Neighbor, and so
every dollar, of his insurance ran. No
body was more thunderstruck at the
discovery than the master mechanic
himself
L
After Neighbor had studied over 1t
nights the best of month; after MAZE
Sampson had tried to take the color
test and failed, as he persistently said
he would after he had gone to tinker
ing in the roundhouse, and from tinker
ing respectfully, and by degrees down
the hill to wiping at $1.4O a day, with
time and half for overtime, Neighbor
bethought himself all of a sudden one
day of a paper Delaroo had once given
him and asked him to keep.
He had put it away in the storekeep-
er's safe with his own papers and the
drawings of his extension front end
patent-and safely forgotten all about
it. 1t was the day they had to go into
the county court about the will that
was not, when he recollected Delaroo's
paper and pulled it out of it's envelope
There was only half sheet Of paper
inside, with this writing from Delaroo
to Neighbor:
r. B. A-What is coming to me on In
surance give to Marty Sampson, wife OF
MAZE. Give my trunk to P. McGraw
Rispk., z. DELAROUA.
When the master mechanic read thai
before the probate judge, Maize Samp
son took attending; Martie hid bel
face in her shawl, crying again. May
be a glimmer of what it meant came
for the first time in her life over her
Maybe she remembered Delaroo as he
used to sit with them under the kero
sene lamp while Maze untiringly
pounded the money question into him
smoking as he listened, and Martie
mended on never ending trousers
looking from Maize Sampson, heated
with monologue, to his wife, patiently
stitching-no comments, just looking
as Pierre Delaroux could look.
Strange, Neighbor thought it, and yet
maybe not so strange. It was all there
in the paper-the torn, worn little BOOB
of Delaroo's life. She was the only
woman on earth that had ever done
him a kindness.
Nobody at Medicine Bend quite un
derstood 1t, but nobody at Medicine
Bend quite suspected that under all thu
barrenness up at Maize Simpsons al
ambition could have survived; yet ont
had. Martie had an ambition. Way
down under her faded eyes and ne
faded dress there was an ambition, ant
that for the least promising subjects IL
the Rocky mountains - the brlckbats
Under the amending mending and tn
poverty and the toll Martie, who neve
put her nose out Of doors, VINO neVe
attended a church social, never ven
tured even to free public school show
had an ambition for the boys. Sh
wanted the two biggest to go to tn
state university, wanted them to g
and get an education. And they went
and Maize Sampson says them boys
ary one, has forgotten more about tn
money question than he ever knew. L
looks as if after all the brickbats Nigh
come out; a bit of money in Martie'
! hands goes so far.
There are few soldiers buried a
the Bend. Decoration day there is al
attempt at turn out, a little speech
inc and little marching. A thin
struggle column of the same warped
! bent old fellows in the same faded OH
blue Up the hill they go and arount
| to the cemetery to decorate.
| When they turn at Maze Sampson
| place-there's a gate there now-Marti
and more or less of the boys and Maj
| kind of join in along and go over witt
! them carrying basket or so OF flow
| ers and bucket of water.
The boys soon stray over to Wher
| the crowd is, around the graves of tn
heroes, but Martie gets down by
grave somewhat apart and prods tn
| drifting gravel all up loose with al
old caseknife You would think sh
| might be kneading bread there, tn
4 4 Il Io q