The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-07-29
A NEW
TIN PAN
pv NJ OTIAn
BY NJ. QUAD
Copyright, 1912. by Associated Lit
erary Press.

when tin peddler approached the vii
lage of Harrison.
| He stopped his rig at the first house
The house belonged to Deacon Rush
| On the back steps, seated side by side
| were the deacons wife and her nearest
neighbor and best friend-Mrs. Burt.
'Tinware, ladles?'' he asked. Every
thing new and bright. Finest milk pan
In the country for only 10 cents"
"I've always paid Is cents for milk
pans" replied the deacon's wife.
Yes, and I've sold 'em as high as IS
but they have got new way of max.
ing EN-, and I'm giving you the benefit
of 1t. I'll bring one in"
The pan arrived, new and shiny,
and stood all the tests it WIS put to.
No leaks, and 1t would almos serve as
a mirror. A dime was borrowed to pay
for 1t, and after little more talk ii
was left on the steps while its owner
made call at another house and the
deacou's wife entered her own to make
up the bed that had been airing
Now came the COW. She belonged to
man at the other end of the village.
There was grass in plenty, but she
longed for garden truck She leaped
the back fence and helped herself In
her stepping about she approached the
kitchen door and saw that new pan.
She saw the reflection Of her face
and became astonished and indignant
A crop cared, one horned critter gazed
at her In defiant manner, and as she
was a bovine that had never taken a
bluff she bumped up her back and
sailed In.
An hour later Mrs. Burt came back
after her pan, and her first yell
brought the deacon's wife out of the
house. There lay the once shapely
and shiny pan In the dirt, trodden as
fat as pancake. 1t might do to stop
a hog hole in the back fence, but no
artisan could never mold 1t into pan.
Lands alive"' exclaimed Mrs. Burt
mercy on mem exclaimed Mrs. Rush.
"That COW did itr'
"She must have"'
Anu you let ueE!
Sarah Burt, don't you say anything
like that to me! I didn't know there
was a COW in the garden
But you ought TO have known II
you'd keep your fences like other folks
the cows couldn't get In. Look at that
pan that cost me 10 cents an hour
agor'
was / to sit out here and watch
it?" protested the deacon's wife.
You ought 10 have heard the COW
when she was tromping it,"
you ought to have taken it home
or carried 1t along with you
That's nothing to do with it, II
was left here, and it's destroyed, and
III be switched If / ever pay you the
10 cents.'
IF you don't I'll sue your
"You dasn'ty'
There it was, you see-the first real
quarrel between neighbors the village
had had in many long years. The
happy minded peddler and the fighting |
COW disappeared from the scene, but
the quarrel remained 1t did more than
that. The news spread and within two
hours Mrs. Henderson was saying:
Mrs. Burt shouldn't try TO lay the
blame off on Mrs. Rush. When wo-
mans busy making bed she amt
thinking Of cows. hope Mrs Rush
sues for the 10 cents"
And in the house right across the
street Mrs. Holiday was saying:
I'D let her sue and be hanged to
her, When new 10 cent milk pan
is left on my back steps by neighbor
it's my duty as Christian woman to
go out there every few minutes and
see that it's all right. / shall certain
" advise. Mrs. Burt not to pay the
10 cents"
By the next day the village was
about equally divided on the question,
though some few were inclined to blame
neither the peddler nor cow. 1t was all
ak for a day or two, and then came
lction. The factions no longer bor-
owed nor lent. They bowed stiffly to
zach other or not at all on the street.
they revived gossip that had been
lead fifteen years and rolled It under
heir tongues. Carried into the church
IS? OF course 1t was When 4 Ling
Ike that gets started in a village .
here's no telling where 1t will end 1t ,
rev the elders and deacons and two !
in, and it made the attend
nee at sermons and prayer meetings
Mighty slim. To all peacemakers the ..
eacon's wife would reply:
II wasn't set here on this earth to ,
,ok out for other folks milk pans, and '
Jest won't do it," IL
And the reply of Mrs. Burt would be. !
"She ought to have known about the /,
ow, and I'll never pay that 1G cents" Q
II was quarrel and a division that
lsted FIVE years and might have gone I
n for another five but for providence i
liking hand in the game. A !
ramp who had the measles headed =
nat way, and he simply handed the
,wn an epidemic. Not score Of
eople were spared. While none died.
1 went to bed TO be doctored and 10
D a heap of thinking. and the result II
as that as fast as they could crawl !,
ut they eased their consciences by ~
their errors and asking for
'rgiveness. p
Here is the 10 cents" said Mrs. &
urt as she tottered over TO the dea- .
ms as soon as she could stand.