The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-08-08
st TOLD YOU sO."

house with preoccupied look on his
face, which quickly vanished as he
caught sight of his wife.
well, l declare, Maria,' he ex-
claimed, eff 1 didn't forget all about
that yarn! Never thought of it till
this minute. And the gingham, too.
It's too bad |"
After search through his pockets
he finally produced much crumpled
bit of cloth. Here's the sample you
gave me" I" 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 p said Mrs. Lang.
"Orl at any rate, thought to myself
when you started off that you'd for
get more than you would remember.
Il Mas easy enough to see that your
wits were woolgathering all the time
! I was giving you your charges. /
should think that you had been gone
long enough, though, to do all your
errands twice over"
''Well, you see," said Daniel, II
was tending to little matter of bus
iness."
"Business?" cried his wife. "I'll
warrant you've gone into that petro-
leum, Daniel Lang Just as / ex-
pected," she went on, as she read as
sent to her guess in his eyes. II
told you that man Rosencraft would
inveigle you into that foolishness if
you didn't look out"
"It isn't foolishness," protested
Daniel. "It's A number one invest
ment. Everybody knows there's
money in oil"
Money in oil p scoffed Mrs. Lang.
eyes, for Rosencraft, no doubt And
the oil is all on his tongue. He's 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 tree, would let Rosen-
craft fool them, even If he wanted to?
tell you they don't go into things
with their eyes shut. They've inves-
tigated. Squire Marks has figured it
out that those shares will pay from
fifty to seventy-fve 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,
Daniel1 And what I 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 avarage
| for the last ten years. But this is diff
ferent. This isn't speculation, it's
fngly, don't be ofish. I'm doing
this more on your account and Roset-
ta's than on my own. want you to
take some comfort as you get along
in years, and l 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 had 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 I took him
up, but it was too late"
A full minute passed before Maria
found her voice. IA thousand dol
lars p she gasped at last. "A thou
sand 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 p
':It isn't going to be one Of these
long running mortgages" said DAN
iel, doggedly. IT 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,
Daniel" said Mrs. Lang, finally,
dropping her voice from the key to
which it had been raised. "You are
clean betwitched. But when you
wake up some day to find that you We
been swindled out of house and home,
perhaps you will remember that I
told you beforehand. And having
thus spoken, she left the room.
When Daniel brought the note and
mortgage for his wife's signature the
next day he was quite prepared to be
met by further remonstrance, and per-
haps refusal but much to his relief
she complied without word although
the look on her face as she wrote her
name under his on each of the two
documents was certainly eloquent.
After Daniel had folded them and
taken them away, so far as this par
ticular subject was concerned, there
was silence in the Lang household
that lasted for many day.
1t was different in the town at large.
Wherever men congested the talk was
about petroleum, until it seemed that
boring for oil up in Canada was Green
hills leading home industry.
1t must be nearly forty years now
since the brief period of Mr.. Rosen-
crafts activities in Greenhill, but that
suave and engaging gentleman and
the enterprise that he brought to the
attention of many substantial citizens
are even yet not wholly-forgotten.
Late in the autumn Daniel Lang
was drawn on the jury" and con-
sequently was absent from home for