The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-08-10
"1 TOLD YOU SO"

diLCLuOOuy OduiCI Lang CGtC1CQ TIC
house with a preoccupied look on his
face, which quickly vanished as he
caught sight of his wife.
"Well, I declare. Maria" he ex-
claimed, 'if didn't forget all about
that yarn Never thought of it till
this minute. And the gingham, too.
It's too bad p
After a search through his pockets
he finally produced much crumpled
bit of cloth. Here's the sample you
gave me-" he said, in a propitiatory
tone, as if there might be some slight
merit in having brought that back in
safety.
II told you so ~ said Mrs. Lang.
"Or, at any rate, I thought to myself
when you started off that you'd forget
more than you would remember. 1t
was easy enough to see that your
wits were wool gathering all the time
was giving you your charges. I
should think that you had been gone
long enough, though, to do all your
errands twice over"
"Well, you see,'' said Daniel, ''I
was tending to little matter of busi-
ness.
"Business?" cried his wife. ''Pll
warrant you've gone into that petrol
cum, Daniel Lang! Just as I expect
ed" she went on, as she read assent
to her guess in his eyes. 81 told you
that man Rosencraft would inveigle
you into that foolishness if you didn't t
look out"
"It isn't foolishness," protested
Daniel. "It's an A number one in
vestment. Everybody knows that
there's money in oil"
Money in oil !" scoffed Mrs. Lang.
Eyes, for Rosencraft, no doubt And
the oil is all on his tongue. HIS a
smooth one. I told you, from the
first"
"Now, Maria, do be reasonable.
Do you suppose that such men as
Deacon Locke, and Squire Marks,
and old Mr.. Evans, that's as close as
the bark to a tree, would let Rosen-
craft fool them, even if he wanted to ?
1 tell you, they don't go into things
with their eyes shut. They've in
vestigated. Squire Marks has figured
it out that those shares will pay from
fifty to seventy-6ve per cent. divi-
dends the first year, and nobody
knows how much after that. Why,
they've struck oil already! Rosen.
craft had bottle of it with him this
afternoon, and he let me smell of it. !"
Remember that patent churn,
Daniel? And what told you when
you bought the county right for forty
dollars? And how it came out? 7"
"Of course do. You've reminded
me of it twice week on an average
for the last ten years. But this is
different. This isn't speculation,
it's certainty.
"Now, Maria," he went on, coax
ingly, "don't be ofish. I'm doing
this more on your account and Ro-
setta's than on my own. I want you
to take some comfort as you get along
in years, and 1 want Rosetta to have
advantages. They say that every
man has his chance once in life, and
this is mine"
"For the land sake, Daniel You
talk as if you were buying whole
we'll yourself. How much are you
calculating TO put in 7"
"Well," said Daniel, avoiding his
wife's steady gaze, "you see Rosen-
craft has just fifteen shares left, and
we got to bantering, and on the spur
of the moment, so to speak, he offered
'em to me for an even thousand. He
was sorry the minute 1 took him up,
but it was too late.
A full minute passed before Maria
found her voice. "a thousand dol
lars p she gasped at last. "a thous-
and dollars Where is the money
coming from?"
"Why, I'm going to borrow it OF
Mr.. Evans-just for the time being. "
"And mortgage the farm? ODan-
iel, you don't mean it %
"It isn't going to be one of these
long g-running mortgages" said Dan
led, doggedly. 81 can pay off quite
a part of it before snow flies, and the
balance next year. You don't seem
to realize that the dividends will be
coming in right away"
The discussion lasted for long
time, but with no effect on either side
"It's no use arguing with you, Dan
iel,'' said Mrs. Lang, finally, drop
ping her voice from the key to which
it had been raised. "You are clear
bewitched. But when you wake vi
some day to find that you've beer
swindled out of house and home, per
haps you will remember that l tolt
you beforehand. And having thu:
spoken, she left the room.
When Daniel brought the note anC
mortgage for his wife's signature the
next day he was quite prepared to b
met by further remonstrance, ant
perhaps refusal but much to his re
lief she complied without word
although the look on her face as sh'
wrote her name under his on each o
the two documents was certainly elo
quent.
After Daniel had folded them ant
taken them away, so far as this par
ticular subject was concerned, ther'
was a silepce in the Lang household
that lasted for many day.
It was different in the town at large
Wherever men congested the tall
was about petroleum, until it nigh
have seemed that boring for oil up il
Canada was Greenhill's leading hom