The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-11-07
ole Lost MelOdeOn.
BY c. A. STEPHENS.

No snow had fallen for week or
more; the roads were we'll trodden. 1t
was impossible to track the thieves,
Tor do more than guess which way they
had 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
8 boys from the first; but of course
they could not steal our melodeon and
install it at their schoolhouse without
being detected. Indeed, we could not
imagine what good it would do them
to take it. Six of us went over to the
Number 8 schoolhouse that very night
and looked in. We could see no sign
of the melodeon. On our way back
we called at the Darnley farm and
asked Newman and Rufus if 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 9 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 a thing could be learned.
! So | may as well relate here what
had happened, although the facts did
not all come out until twenty yes's
| 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
home, with grist of corn and barley.
His road lay through Number IL and
| beyond it. 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, a boy whose habits were far
from good. To pass the time they
called at rather disreputable grocery
near the mill, and had 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 public house,
known as Tibbetts' Tavern, to talk
with the drivers of two teams which
were conveying supplies to 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 II was
at the forks of the road, half mile
from Tibbetts', and it was after leav-
| 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 it in one of those
loads of supplies bound for the lum-
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,
and 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 it's legs and the School
Songs" then hauled it to the tavern.
BY this time everyone at Tibbetts'
was sound asleep; and the two boys
found little difficulty in oyerhauling
one of the loads enough to slip the
box inconspicuously inside it, This
done, they sneaked away home, vastly
tickled over what they deemed tre-
nendOus 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 in the
load, it was supposed to have been sent
to the loggers by some friend or char
liable person, to beguile their scant
leisure time. The loggers received it
with delight, without thought that
it was not designed for Them
A reed instrument like melodeon
is hardly adapted to Terpsichorean
strains. But those loggers contrived
to dance to it. OF the thirty men at
this camp. twenty-four were French
Canadians, and there were two among
them who could play it. They played
everything on it, including jigs of
quickest time and widest movement.
Really, the pleasure those loggers
took from it was worth the price, OF
the melodeon although it would have
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