The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-08-23
IN His OWN
COUNTRY
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It was long past the usual bedtime
of the household. The wooden clock
on the kitchen wall struck a surprised
and aggressive "ten,'' then proceeded
to tick off the seconds with an en-
phasis in which there was something
bordering on disapproval. The crack
ling fire in the stove had long since
burned itself into bed of silent Goals;
even the teahettle had tired of its
monotonous humminG, and now the
thin thread OF vapor which fioated
from its nose did SO in noiseless,
half4hearted fashion.
On one side of the kitchen table
Sophia Bently nodded drowsily over
the pile of socks she was darning.
Opposite her her husband pored over
the pile of old almanacs before him,
oblivious alike to the flight of time
and the suggestive yawns OF his wife.
Presently he pushed back his chair,
ran one hand nervously through his
sparse gray hair and gave utterance
to an exclamation indicative, seeming
ly, of deep satisfaction.
'It's comm, nigh as I can figure
out" he announced, somewhere be-
tween the eighteenth and tWenty-sixth
of next month
Mrs. Bently tossed her pile OF socks
on the table, and pushing her spec
tacles up to her forehead, rubbed her
sleepy eyes. what is it now, father?"
she asked with gentle resignation. "a
dry spell or furries O snow?"
"'Tain't either one of EN-" he as
serted, "it's a tornado"
"a what?" said his wife. bending
over to peer at him beneath the lamp
shade.
"a tornado!" he reiterated, with con-
viction. "One of the kind that'n blow
down trees an bust in winders, an,
like enough, II onroof a barn or two.
I tell you,' he went on, sit amt goin'
to be any zephyr. l shouldn't wonder
a mite if it was worse than that blow
we had in the fall of 81 I'm goin'
to write the papers about 1t tomorrow
and give 'em warnin'."
Mrs. Bently did not seem duly i'm
pressed by the threatened calamity. In
deed, her smile, as she turned to her
husband, was more than skeptcal.
'When was it you said it was COM
in'?" she asked.
Somewhere between the eighteenth
and twenty sixth" he replied.
"Pass me the last almanac" she
demanded; and when he had done her
bidding, she slid the spectacles to the
bridge of her nose and slowly thumb
ed the pages.
"You ought not to have your tornado
coming along that time" she remon-
strated. THE third Thursday in the
month comes on the eighteenth, an.
that's the day the sewing-circle meets
here. Then the twenty-third, which
comes of Tuesday, is the day that
Mis- Bragg is goin' to have her birth
day party You couldn't have picked
out more unhandy time for lorna
does. Seems to me, if l were you I
should put it off till the last Of the
month"
Harrison Bently smote on arm Of
his rockingham. "Ain't that just like
women?" he burst out, in scorn. Don't
be so foolish, sSophy. You talk as If
I held tornadoes in the hollow of my
hand and turned 'em loose any time
was a mind to. hain't got anythin'
to do with maxim of it. All l can do
is to warn folks that it's command
It is, too just as say" She did not
ask him from what source he drew
his knowledge of the impending disas-
ter, nor by what deductions he was
able to approximate the time of its
appearance. Precedent cases had
taught her the futility of such a
course. She returned the almanac,
none too gently, to its place among
its predecessors, and putting her ell
bows on the table and resting her
ohin in both upturned palms, she sur
Keyed her prophet husband in a du-
bious silence.
"Of course" she remarked, at last,
most OF the folks won't pay any
attention to it, even it does come out
In the paper; but then there'll be 9TH
SIS that'll be just fools enough to.
Folks like Liza Crowell, now, would
not stir out of the house if they
heard tornado was predicted. want
good full gatherin' when the sew
ing-circle meets here. an guess Mis-
Bragg wouldn't ever forgive you if
she knew you were the cause of keep
in any one away from her party
Since you know it's comm. why can't
you tell just what time it's goin' to