The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-05-23

you TO-DAY, Meg. Neither 0Iu 81
pect to come, father" the girl replied,
'but here I am, and guess what in
the basket" why, you don't mean
to say that you" Smell 1t, father,
only smell it," Toby was going to
lift the cover all at once, but Meg
gayly interposed with No, 40
lengthen it out. I'll lift b corner
just a little. tiny way. Now SMELL
why, it's hot" cried Toby. It's
burning hot.' cried Meg. "Ha, hal
laughed the old man. 1T amt, L sup
pose, polonies?" tAfter a sniff It's
mellower than ~polonies.' Then, TAX
ing more shifts, he went On: It's
too decided for trotters. It improves
every moment. Liver? No. There's a
mildness about it that don't answer
to liver. 1t amt faint enough for
pettitoes. And I know it amt sausage.
It's chitterlings!' No it amt, no 1t
amt laughed Meg in a burst Of de-
light; tits tripen!' And she uncovered
the basket. Maybe Toby did not go
into ecstacies owe that basin Of tripe.
There was a potato with it, too, and
half a pint of beer in a bottle. That
was a feast. Toby took his banquet
to the steps of a ~neighboring house
and sat down to eat it in a ~gastronomic
rapture while Meg watched him with
beaming eyes.
I've had my dinner, father said
Meg, with Richard. His dinner time
is too early and he brought his dinner
with MIN when he came to see me and
we-w had it together. father. And
Richard says father'-then she stop
ped and blushed and was silent. After
a pause the old man said: Richards
a long time in saying it, He says,
father esume Meg. that another
year is nearly gone and what's the use
of waiting on from year to year when
it is SO unlikely hat we shall ever be
better off than we are now He says
that if people in our condition wait
until We see our way clear it is like
to be a very narrow way-the grave.
So Richard says, father, that as his
work was yesterday made quite sure
to him for some time to come we
had better get married on New Years
Day" She said all this with some
times a laugh and sometimes a sob
and sometimes a laugh and sob to-
gether.
Toby said never a word and left his
tripe cooling on the steps. Just then
the door Of the great house opened
and a footman very nearly put his foot
in the tripe. "Out of the ways there,
will you, out of the ways Will you
clear the road or won't you?" snar1ed
the footman. What's the matter
what's the matter?" said a gentleman
who came out of the door with two
companions. They were all three very
prosperous looking and we'll groomed
men.
The first one, and evidently the pro-
prietor of the house. was one of those
who always give the impression Of
having a wealthy engagement some
where. One was a small, low-Spirited
looking man with a taste for statistics
and showed it. The other was a
large. red-faced, portly gentleman with
q knowing smile, who seemed to say
Il know the peOple-they can't fool
me. [ get right down to their souls"
He was Alderman Cute, and the thin
one was Mr.. Filler, who compiled
statistics showing the prodigality and
riotous waste Of the poor of the realm.
Filler took up Toby's basin and began
jabbing at its contents with a fork.
This is a species of food. Alder
man. said he, commonly known to
the ~laboring population of the coun-
try as Triple. Now Triple is, without
exception, the least economical and the
most wasteful article of consumption
that the market affords. The loss
upon a pound Of Triple has been found
by actual experiment to be, in boil
Ing, seven-eights of a fifth more han
any other amman substance whatever.
l n the amount Of waste on the
Triple produced in the United Kingdom
would, If boiled, victual a garrison Of
five hundred men for five months Of
~thirty-one days Zach and a February
over. The Waste The Waste!"
Trotty stood aghast: his legs shook
under him; he felt as if he had starvcd
a garrison Of 500 men with his own
hand. Divide the amount of fripe
at present existing in this country by
the number of widows and orphans"
went on Filler, and the result will
be one pennyweight for h-n a
grain left for that a Consequently
he's q robber." TTotty was 50 terri
fed at this that it did not concern him
at all to see the Alderman calmly finish
the tripe himself. It was a relief to
get rid of it. Now said the Alder
man, L know the people; I am a
plain, practical man. And You. porter.
don't tell me, or any one else, that
YOU have not always enough to eat
and good things. 90 l have tasted
Your tripe. you know, so you can't
fool me. Now, my friend, there is a
lot of talk nowadays about hard-up'-
ha. ha: that's the phrase, isn't it?