The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-11-09
THE VILLAGERS
CHAPTER Xxx

Strange to say, it was the recently
discharged hired man who settled our
difficulty for us.
For one night, when heavy storm
had settled down, with a steady pour
ing rain that drowned outside sounds,
he came back to the barn and stole
our three horses and the new light
buggy. We found later that he had
pulled the buggy from the wagon she'd
back of the barn and into the fields.
Then he led the horses out one by
one, and apparently hitched the light
horse to the carriage and tied the 9th
ers on to lead behind.
At least, next morning we found
wheel ruts and marks of hoofs in the
soft earth, leading around the barn.
through the field. and later, some bars
let down into the road, where the
stone wall was broken by a barred
gateway. But which way he went,
away from the village, or daringly
past our house in the storm, we could
not tell. The hard roads were wash
ed over by the rain; there were no
surface marks to go by.
OF course, we sent out an alarm.
and the county police began to search.
The farmers about us would have
helped too, had it not been the busy
IL,
over the state line and disposed of the
horses one by one, or perhaps he had
an arrangement with some dealer be-
torehand.
In any case, it gave us excitement
for weeks. All our neishbors were too
busy to be able to lend us horses, so
Jim had to buy two heavy work horses,
at once, and one for light work later.
The cost of these and the search came
almost to a thousand dollars. Esther
blamed Jim Tor not carrying insur-
ance. and Jim stormed angrily about
the place for weeks.
But the result was that. one evening
on the porch, he turned to me and
said:
Enid. if your offer to send vi to
college, still holds, I'll take it. Esther
says I'm wrong to accept your money
for the education of my daughter. And
l think | ought to have enough 20 do
it myself, or else that she should be
willing to take only what her father
can give her"
He leaned over to the post and
knocked the ashes from his pipe into
the flower bed, and went on:
But Wis a spoiled, headstrong girl.
You've helped to spoil her, by giving
her her own way all the time. Any
way. ! can't spare the money now. so
I'll accept your offer, even if Esther
doesn't want me to-
1t was u long speech for Jim. He
settled down to a new pipeiul when
he had finished
SO Henly Falls heard again that
Violet and | We're TO so the city that
fall And this time there was an even
greater amount of gossip. Some |
overheard one afternoon when | was
busting the bedrooms. Some people
had stopped in on their way past the
house. Laura was doing crocheting.
Esther. soup ladle in hand. was stand
ing talking in the doorway.
Il couldn't do nothin' about it, she
remarked ungrammatically. 81 did
all | could, but then, she's Jim own
sister. not mine. And when she and
vi get together-
She left the sentence unfinished. |
could picture her there, her eyes roll
ing up as she spoke, a picture OF Vlr-
tuous helplessness.
"Of course it will be hard on you,
with her away" Mrs. Hasklns SAID,
Laura | suppose will be goin' off soon
Charles amt comm up here so Oft
en- for nothin."
Laura probably dropped her eyes
and looked pleased and embarrassed
at this. | could picture the scene so
~