Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-02-17

SAS gu v lllC
choWder were snow white and the chow
der itself a triumph, where there were no
voices but those of the wind and sea.
no
"Don't!' busts out Jonadab. Don't!
l can't stand it,"
lie was hopping his eyes with his
red ~bandanner. l was considerable
shook up myself. A hog would have
cried. l know l couldn't help it.
AS for Peter Il. Brown, he fairly
crowed.
ut gets you?" he says. II knew it
would. And it'll get a heap of others
too. Well. we can't send ZEN back to
the old home, but we can trot the old
home to them, or a mighty good imi-
tation of it. Here it is right here!!
And then that Brown teller took his
feet down off the rail. hitched his chair
right in front Of Jonadab and me and
commenced to talk. And how he did
talk! Say, he could talk a Hyannis
fisherman into a missionary.
He proposed to turn Aunt Sophrony's
wind plantation into a hotel for sum-
mer boarders.
"Confound it, man" he says, they're
sick of hot and cold water, elevators,
bell wires with Il niger on the end,
and all tina There's a raft Of old
dodgers that call themselves self made
men'-meanin' that the Creator won't
W 'em, and they take the response
Dlllty themselves-that are always
wishing they could go somewheres like
the shacks where they lived when they
were kids. They're always talking
about it and wishing they could go
to the old home and rest"
But twill cost SO like the dickens
to furnish it," l says.
Furnish it," says he. "Why, that's
just it: 1t won't cost nothing to fur
nish it%-nothing to speak Of. l went
through the house day before yester-
day-crawled in the kitchen window.
Oh, it's all right! You can count the
spoons, and there's eight Of those bed
rooms furnished just right-corded
bedsteads, painted bureaus with glass
knobs, God Bless Our Home and I'm
Gle Jeremiah's coffin plate on the wall,
rag mats on the floor and all the rest.
ALI she needs is a little more of the
same stuff. That l can buy round
here for next to nothing-I used to buy
for an auction roora-and a little paint
and filings, and there she is. All l
want from you folks is a little money.
I'll chuck in two hundred and fifty
myself, and you two can be proprie-
tors and t]reasurers if you want to.
But active manager and publicity man
that's yours cheerily, Peter Theo-
dosius Brown!" And he slapped his
plaid vest.
Well, when he heaved anchor Jona-
dab had agreed to put up a thousand,
and l was in for five hundred, and Pc
ter contributed two hundred and fifty
and experience and nerve. And the
Old Home House was off the ways.
And by the LIST of May twas open
and ready for business too. You never
see such a driver as that Teller Brown
was. He had a new wide piazza built
all round the main buildings, painted
everything up fine. hired the three
best women cooks in Wellmouth-and
there's some good cooks on Cape Cod,
too-and a half dozen chamber girls
and walters. He had some trouble
getting corded beds and old bureaus
for the empty rooms but he got 'em
finally. He bought the last bed of
Beriah Burgess. up at East Harniss,
and had quite a dicker getting it.
He thought he ought to get S. for
- - r. q VIC prcu, fnllinr Inna1oh and
me about it. "Said he hated to part
with it because his grandmother died
in it. l told him l couldn't see any
good reason why l should pay more
for a bed just because it had killed
his grandmother, SO we split up and
called it So. Twas too much money,
but we had to have it."
And the advertisements! They was
sent everywheres. BY the middle Of
April most Of our money was gone,
but every room in the house was let,
and we had applications coming by
the pailful.
And the folks that come had money
too. They had to have to pay Browns
rates. I always felt like a robber or
u SIduOoIO VII u4lCSIOA CtCAy IAL4C L
looked at the books. The most Of
'em was rich folks-self made men,
just like Peter prophesied-and they
brought their wives and daughters and
slept on cornhusks and eat chowder
and said twas great and just like old
times. And they got the rest we ad-
vertised. We didn't cheat EN- on rest.
There was one old chap that we'll
call Dilaway Ebenezer Dillaway.
That want his name. His real ones
too well known to tell. He runs the
"Dillaway combination stores'' that
are all owe the country. In them
stores he'll sell you a moving mo-
chine and the grass seed to grow the
hay to cut with it. He'll sell you a
suit Of clothes for 1925, and for 10
cents more he'll sell you glue enough
to stick 1t together again after you've
worn 1t out In the rain.
He come to the Old Home House