The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1907-12-10

was impossible to track the thieves.
or do more than guess which way they
mad gone. Not only had they taken
the melodeon, but they had searched
all the desks in the house and cap.
tured every copy of School Songs"
1t would be difficult to describe what a
wave OF indignation and excitement
swept through Number IL that night!
Naturally, we suspected the Number
boys from the first; but OF course
they could not steal our melodeon and
install 1t at their schoolhouse without
being detected. Indeed, we could not
Imagine what good it would do them
to take 1t. Six of us went over to the
Number 8 schoolhouse that very night
and looked in. We could see no sign
or the melodeon. On orr way back
we called at the Darnley farm and
asked Newman and Rufus II they
knew anything about it, They only
laughed at us. We could learn moth
ing whatever from them.
The news spread rapidly. We made
inquiries everywhere. Even the young
est scholars and little children over
In Number 8 were cajoled and ques-
toned as opportunity offered, in the
hope of picking up clue. The teacher
In that district, too, as well as several
OF the older persons, took the matter
up, and questioned the boys closely.
But not thing could be learned.
So | may as well relate here what
had happened, although the facts did
not all come out until twenty years
later
Our suspicious concerning the Num-
Der boys were well-founded; but OF
the four who had come to our musical
entertainment that Friday evening,
only one of them, Newman Darnley.
was concerned in the capture of the
melodeon. The three others knew
nothing about it.
On that Saturday afternoon New
man had gone to mill, four mics from
nome, with q grist of corn and barley.
His road lay through Number Il and
beyond 1t. AS it was late in the day.
he had to wait mis- turn at the mill
Till evening, and meanwhile he fell in
with crony OF his, named Alfred
Battellow, boy whose habits were far
from good. To pass the time they
called at rather disreputable grocery
near the mill, and had a drink of hard
cider
Newman did not get away from the
mill till after nine o'clock in the even
ing; Alfred set off with him. On their
way they stopped at a public house.
known as Tibbetts Tavern. to talk
with the drivers of two teams which
were conveying supplies to a lumber
camp up in the great woods near the
boundary, and had put up at Tibbetts'
for the night These supplies formed
bulky loads of boxes and barrels.
slowed on two long sleds which stood
In front of the tavern.
The schoolhouse in Number IL was
at the forks of the road, half a mile
from Tibbetts, and it was after leay-
ing the tavern, on their way home
that the two, feeling fit for some prank
Matched the plan of taking our melo-
deon and hiding IL in one of those
loads of supplies bound for the Ium-
ber-camps
The scheme presented itself to them
as an enormous joke They drove
home with the grist; but after New
mans parents and the rest of the
household supposed that the two had
gone to bed. they sailed forth again
procured a box. a hammer and nails.
md taking a hAnd-sled, returned to
the schoolhouse. BY this time the
night was well advanced No one was
astir on the highway. They broke in.
got out the melodeon, boxed it up
along with its legs and the School
Songs" then hauled Il to the tavern.
BY this time everyone at Tibbetts
was sound asleep; and the two boys
found little difficulty in overhauline
one of the loads enough to slip the
box inconspicuously inside It. This
done, they sneaked away home. vastly
tickled over what they deemed a ire
mendous joke on the "nabobs" of
Number IL.
Early the next morning the supply
teams went on their way with their
loads to the lumber-camp. seventy
miles TO the north And even after
the melodeOn was discovered i'm the
load IL was supposed to have been sent
to the losgers by some friend or char
liable person, to beguile their scant
leisure time The loggers received #
with delight without q thought that
10 was not designed for them.
a reed instrument like a molodeon
is hardly adapted to Terpsichorean
strains But those loggers contrived
TO dance TO &c. OF the thirty men ~
this camp. twenty-four were French
Canadians. and there were two among
them who could play &C. They played
everything on it, including iigs Of
quickest time and widest movement
Really. the pleasure those loggers
took from it was worth the price of
the melodeOn- although # would have
been hard to bring the bereaved scboI-
airs in Number II to think So We
we're filed wit hanger, and found no
consolation. Master Pearson. too. was
quite as inconsolable. He missed the
melodeOn sadly.
Worse even than the loss was the
aaunn ~ hrfuU rne,, ~ n4mf.. 49,