New-York tribune., 1909-07-04
==zg =z= m n Il 7as1g m
HOLD oNTHI\yERANDAL
EeFzlASSlJNtl NJ ER|2HEi0TEEE
~

regular dime museum wonder thst feIler IS" he
| says
and me. like the rest OF folks around wellmouth.
had TO to take Beriah Crocker and his weather
notions as the regular thing. like baked beans on
! a Saturday night Beriah. he
| But there! I've been sailing stern first Let's
| get her headed right. # We ever expect TO turn
| the first mark You see twas this way:
Twas IN the early part Of May folering the year
| that the Old Home House opened. Wed
| had the place all painted UP. decks holystoned.
hunks overhauled, and thing mother. and the
| Old Home all taut and shipshape. ready for
the creW-boarders. 7 Passages
booked all through the summer and it looked as Il
| our second season would be better'n our first. s.
Then the DIllaway girI-she was christened Lo-
bella ike her mother. but she'd painted II out and
crlised under the OF Belle since the family
got ricf-she thought 'twould be nice to have what
she called spring house party for her particular
friends fore the regular season opened So Peter
he being engaged at the time and consequent IN
that condition where he'd have to put horns and
'mooed" If she'd give the order-he thought tvvould
be nice too, and for week it "All hands
deck :" getting ready for the house party
Two days afore the thing was to go of the ways
Brown gets letter from Bee. and in It says she's
invited whole lot of folks from Chicago and New
York and Boston and the land knows where. and
that they've never been to the Cape and she wants
10 show 'ern what quaint" place it Is Cant
you get" says she two three delightful queer.
old qongshore characters 10 be at work round the
hotel? I'm give such a touch Of local color" she
says
So out comes Peter with the letter.
''Barzilla,' he says TO me, 81 want some cherao-
tiers Know anybody that's q character
Well says L there's Nate Slocum over 20
orham- He'd steal anything that wann't spiked
down. He's about The toughest character can
think of, ofhand, this way"
"'Ch, thunder :" says Brown. II don't want a
crook; that wouldn't be any novelty to this crowd
ne says. What I'm after is an odd stick; feller
With pigeons IN his loft Not lunatic, but jest
Qneer genius-little queerer than you and the Capn
here"
After while we got his drift. and I happened
to think OF Beriah and his churn, Eben Cobb
They lived in a little sharty to Skal1t Pint
and got their living lcbstering, and Both
Of EN- had saved few thousand dollars. but
you couldn't get q cent of It without giving en-
ether and they'd rather live like Portugees than
white men any day. unless they was paid to change
Beriah's pet idee foretelIing what the weather
was going to be And he could do It. toe bettern
anybody I ever see He'd smell a storm further'n
cat can smell hsh. and he hardly ever made
mistake. P-ided himself on it. ycU understand
ike boy does his first long pants. His prophe-
cies his idols. SOS to speak. and you couldn't
have hired him to foretell what he knew was
wrong, not for money.
Peter said Beriah and Eben Just the scrt of
cards" he was looking for. and drove right over
to see EN- He hooked 'en. too. knew he would.
he could talk e Come-Outer into believing that q
Unitarian wasn't COOKED Ior lcpnHL. II ne set
out to-
So the special train from Boston brought the
house party down. and our two-seated buggy
brought Beriah and Eben over They didn't have
anything TO do but TO look picturesque and say
'sI snInnp' and 'I swan TO mani and they could
do that 10 the shippers taste. The city folks
thought they vas ~just too dear and odd for any
thing" and made EN- bigger fools than ever.
which want necessary
The second day OF the party was to be a sail
@rin rla,r r. - cvI
setuckit Beach. It certainly looked If twas
going TO storm, and the govment predictions said
il was but Beriah said NO and stuck out that
'tvvould clear UP by and by Peter wanted to /
know what I thought about their starting, and I
told him that twas my experience that where |
weather was concerned Beriah & good safe |
anchorage. So they sailed away. and. enough, |
it cleared up fine. And the next day the gov'ment |
feIlers said clear and Beriah said rain and |
she poured q food And after three or four of /
house party and they looked al him as a sort
of wonderful freak, like two-headed calf the
snake child or some such outrage.
So, when the party over. round comes Pc
ter. busting with notion What he cal'lated
to do was to start weather prophesying bureau
all on his own hook. with Beriah for prophet and
him for manager and general advertiser. and jon
adab and me to hel. put up the money to get her
going He argued that summer folks. from Scitu-
ate 20 Provincetown, on both sides Of the Dape
predictions The gov'ment bureau. he said,
cred TOO much ground. but Beriah was local and
hit her right the head. His dee TO send
Beriah's predictions by telegraph TO agents IN
every Cape town each morning and the agents
was TO hand 'en to subscribers. First week
free trial. after that, much per prophecy.
And It worked-oh. land, yesl it worked Peters
letters and circulars would satisfy anybody that
black was white, and the free trial was sure
bait 1 don't know why 'ts. but If you offered the
he harr Of Irfy
ing in line TO down with it. Brown rigged
up a little shaaty the blun In front of the
Old Home and filed II fun of barometers and
thermometers and chronometers and charts. and
put Beriah and Eben inside to look wise and make
blieve do something. That was the office of THE
South Shore Weather Bureau" end twas sort OF
sacred and holy. and 'twouid kill you see the
0osrders tiptoeing up and peekipg in the winder to