The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-05-02

side was linen bag, and in the bag,
he found eight thousand dollars in
Revolutionary era gold.
Nobody saw Sim make the discovery
except two village boys who were
watching him furtively through a
crack in the fence. The story, spread
through the village, recounted that,
after the find, Sim sat down and ran
his fingers through the gold for half
an hour and more.
Everybody soon had news of the
treasure. For week nobody saw
Sim Lane or his wife or girl, except
that the druggist fancied he had seen
the women hurry with averted faces
through the streets toward the depot
one evening. However, week later
there was . sensation in Colville.
Mary Lane, looking ten years young
er, and Amanda, the girl, walked
quietly up the street toward the
church one Sunday. They were
dressed in decent clothes, there was a
gold bracelet on Amanda's wrist, and
they were altogether transformed.
Youths who had never favored Aman-
da Lane with second look stared af-
ter her. She was positively beautiful
A great sensation followed the next
day, when the local builder called to
excavate for the barn and talked of
renovating the farmhouse. The coal
dealer followed, and then furniture
man from the city. And on the Sun
day following Sim Lane went to
church with the women, In white lin
en- and a new broadcloth suit. And
soon there were callers at the cot
.tage.
Mrs. Lane opened her mouth not I'M
reluctantly to her friends.
Now you'll see that you misjudged
SIM" she said. You see, the thought
that Amanda would have to grow up
without any chances just drove him
wild. And you can't blame him If he
got a mania for scrimping money to-
gether. 1t got so that he boarded ev-
cry penny in the hopes of some day
6OII1n6 CuO06A " oCdAb WACAO LILO AcA-
ther left OF. They called him a miser,
but he's the best man in the world"
Amanda's smiles were eloquent tes-
timony too. The young man who was
calling on her for the first time was
obviously infatuated.
Then, you know, he discovered this
colonial money. Eight thousand dol
lars, which his great-grandfather must
have buried at the time when the Brit
ish were here, and If it doesn't rightly
belong to us l don't know who can
claim it.
Sim was like a man in a daze when
he brought the money into the house
that night. He couldn't believe it.
There we sat counting and counting
it over, and eight thousand dollars 1t
was, all in big, new twenty-dollar
pieces. There were four hundred OF
them, with King Georges head
stamped on one side, and st. George
and the dragon on the other.
Presently Sim said to me, I've got
four thousand more, and l guess our
scrimping days are over, wife, Well,
at first / didn't understand But then
he told me. And so the four thousand
is going to be spent-yes, spent,
Ma'am, and the eight thousand Sim
has got laid away where no banks go
ing to get hold of it and then burst
up on him. Amanda's going to enter
college next term, and guess the
neighbors won't think so hardly of
Sim in future, when they see that it
was all on account of his wife and
child"
There was no doubt as to the mag
nitude of the change that came over
Sim Lane. The whole nature of the
man had changed. By the time his
daughter came back from college the
village had forgotten his miserly repu-
tation. Secure in the knowledge OF
the eight thousand gold dollars hidden
in the mattress, he spent freely. With
this change, too, his farming began
to prosper. Ten years afterward,
when Amanda was happily married to
the young man who had called, and
the mother of children, Sim Lane was
elected mayor.
OF the two boys who had watched
him through the fence, one was q
thriving lawyer, the other who attend
ed Sim in his last illness. Mrs. Lane
had died the year before, which made
the lawyers ordeal less hard. A few
weeks after the funeral he had a pri.
vate interview with Amanda, who first
looked indignant, and then laughed
She could afford to laugh, for her hus
band was the richest young man in