Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-12-11
The Shortsightedness
of Thomas Bulpit,

/
The Bulpits were a sensitive family;
hence in part, Thomas prostration of
spirit and knotted brows as he medi-
tated about his approaching end.
! Never had Blakedale looked more
bright and prosperous; and withal such
mockery. The ffty-acre wheatfeld
was so much sunbrowned gold under its
particular patch of blue sky, inset, as it
were, among black thunder clouds, and
the dark green of farther woods was
perfect in color relief to it. From the
other window of his bedroom he could
see the fat kline swishing their tails at
the flies He had known most of them
as calves, and in his quiet way loved
them ALL Right underneath were the
smaller fry of the farmst ead--eager hens
fussing with their latest broods, ducks
and geese, strutting turkeys and their
offspring in the gawky. self-conscious
stage. With his hand to his fevered
brow, Thomas watched one of the young
turkeys peep into the pigstye and then
bird had premonition of the coming
Christmas and sausages? The thought
would have occurred to some people, but
| SCdTctly 10 1HOLldS db SuCu d Ullue.
| He Numbered back to the box by his
bed and again took up the sheet of
white paper.
"Ihis is my last WILL" he read with
staring eyes. 1t was as far as he had
got when he faced those windowed out
looks upon the life which had been
everything to him for six and twenty
years.
"Ay," he painted; "it is that, sure
enough"
He might have added, my first also"
but missed this point.
Then he stood to attention and lis
tened. There were footballs on the old
oaken boards of the corridor; the slip
pered tread of woman. His gaze froze
upon the door and the coats and waist
coats hanging on it by their necks, even
as in an hour or less he also would hang
in the 1.-THE barn That is to say, if he
selected such a death. There was for
and against it,
Are you still there, dear lad?" asked
the voice he loved best in the house,
save, perhaps, one other voice.
He gulped ere he answered.
What do you want, mother?" he re-
piled with forced sprightliness.
Three rabbits, my dear, for dinner
Do take your gun and shoot them quick.
Father says there's storm coming
What's aiiing you, dear lad?"
Thomas gulped again.
"Ailing me?" he laughed hoarsely
There's naught ailing me, to mentions:
! I'll-Pll be off and shoot them directly"
IT'S past 10, DEAR" said the mother
"Ay," said Thomas, lit will be,
reckon"
The loved feet receded, and, the paper
i still in his hand, Thomas narrowed mind
confronted this new suggestion.
| 1t viii be a speedier death, if he shot
well home, as of course he would.
Rat poison and Blackwater pool in
the wood had hitherto bid for favor
against the hanging; without much sue
cess. But dozen lead pellets in the
heart were best of all. Fairer, too. 1t
was his heart that had brought this
trouble on him, and, therefore, deserved
to suffer first
/ He soon settled it now. He would
shoot himself. He would take his gun,
and by and by they would find him
stretched out in the warren-a lesson to
Hannah May for the rest of her life.
He knew the very spot for it. The
warren had steep bank, with haw-
thorn elump at the top, and convenient
red rabbit holes for the posting of his
feet and the touching of a trigger in
a recumbent posture not much out of
the vertical And they should discover
him smiling in death, if he could bear
| that in mind at the very last
Tragically contented, he took up his
pen and finished the testament that was
to bequeath Goals of fire las well as a
useful moral lesson) to his deeeitful
darling's head
This is my last will, and | am in my
right mind. | leave all / possess that
belongs to me to my second cousin,
Hannah May Evans of Quekloft who
is on visit to us at Blakedale. / for
| give her for making me think she loved
me, and then being so much with Mr.
! Cyril Wisely, who is here for his health.
and dropping me because L have never
been to college But there is one thing
! wish her to do, and that is name one
of her children Thomas--after me. 1t
is not much to ask, and in the world to
come | shall like to think of it. And
that is all / have to say. Amen.
Signed, Thomas Ralph Bulpit
1910 a. m, Sept 25. 1906"
lie was reading it over 10 himself,
with burial-service feeling and parted
| lips. when his mothers steps returned.
Wont YOU let me in, lad?" she plead
ed this time.
"Why do you want tor" he retorted
with some impatience
Because I'm not satisfied that YOU
are well, my dear"
Tn as well as l ever shall be. and
better" said Thomas stoutly ut won't
be long before you have those rabbits n
He added low and seandalous Il don't
think" with curling lips.
Never mind the rabbits. Tom dear
Mr.. Wisely has taken your fathers gun
and he'll shoot them Hannah is going
with him. Don't lock yourself up like
this and keen thinns frnn, ,.o,,r -