The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1921-12-16
CONDENSED
CLASSICS
~
JEROME
~
By MARY E. WILKINS.
FREEMAN
Condensation by
Mary e. WiIkins-Freeman

UNOR poor New England boy,
II Jerome Edwards, the tragedy Of
- life began at the age of ten. His
father, Abel Edwards, had gone that
morning, with his wagon and old
nodding white horse, to his woodlot
to cut wood for Doctor Prescott.
Doctor Prescott had an obsession for
owning land. When there was lack
of ready money to pay his exorbitant
bills, he seized with avidity upon a
mortgage and he foreclosed without
grace or mercy.
Doctor Prescott had held thousand
dollar mortgage upon the Edwards
house for years.
The old white horse coming home,
turning out at the beck of a phantom
driver for the bad places in the coun-
try road, was met upon his arrival at
the Edwards cottage with wild shrieks
in a woman's voice, childs fright
ened sob, and a boys sober answers
to the eager questions of small mob
of men and boys following after.
There was an immediate rush to
the wood lot, but Jerome had reached
the spot the first of ali. On the shore
of a black pool of water, reputed
among the boys to be bottomless, he
found his fathers hat. Jerome
weighted it with stones and flung it
in. Then he bolted for home by an
other route. "'Let 'em say father
drowned himself now" he gasped out
az he ran.
Abel Edwards had been missing two
years when Jerome, studying the stu
alton day and night, knew the truth /:
They could never, although they half
starved themselves, meet the interest
of the mortgage. He made plan.
He went to consult Squire Eben
Merritt. The squire was a notable
hunter and fisher, and had been bent
that morning upon fishing excur-
sion.
Jerome looked straight at the squire,
and made his little speech. He had
rehearsed it often. When he had fin
ished, the squire burst into a great
roar of laughter, and caught the boy
by the shoulder. "You don't mean
you planned this all yourself?'
"Yes, SIR I've been layin' awake
nights, plannin'."
"How old are your"
Twelve, SIR"
"By Jove!"
Then a lovely, gentle little girl stole
| into the room. Her dimpled arms and
neck were bare and her shower of gold
curls fell to her waist. She wore a
frock of soft blue.
The squire told Jerome to call on
Doctor Prescott and show his plan.
A small dark, very kind and quick
lady, who was the squire's wife apd
Lucina's mother, showed Jerome the
| door, and he went down the street in
a daze. Jerome almost forgot the i'm
portant paper he carried. He had
never seen a little girl like Lucina
| Merritt.
Jerome called ON Doctor Prescott
who deigned to read his paper and
then summarily dismissed him. He
hated him in a strange way for man
! to hate a boy. On his way home
Jerome encountered Squire Merritt
| coming out of a woodland road, with
a great string of fish. "What luck,
SOM" he called out.
"He turned me out I'd like to kill
! him."
The squire laughed and made
| Jerome walk along with him to his
sister Camilla's, who kept elderly
maiden state in the old Merritt house.
Jerome always remembered that
hour of tea-drinking and cake-eating
in the arbor with Squire Merritt and
his sister and little Lucina. as he
would have an especially beautiful
| turn of his kaleidoscope of life.
Until he was much older, Jerome
dic not fully comprehend in what way
Eden Merritt had solved bis financial
| difficulties. Then he discovered that
the squire had made great sacrifices
of his none too large competency to
buy from Doctor Prescott, and take
| the Edwards mortgage into his own
! hands.
Now life began to look brighter for
4
Jerome. He could not go to school in
the ordinary sense. so he went direct
| to nature. He, in his scanty free
| time, roamed fields and woods. Jake
Noyes, queer character who ostensi-
bly, was Doctor Prescott's coachman,
! but who had been permitted to as
simulate, and some said had even
| been taught much of the doctors
medical lore, taught Jerome much
| about simples.
Jerome attained a local under
celebrity, since he gave aid for moth
ing and with success.
Gradually Jerome's business ideas
developed and strengthened. There
was an exceptional chance for a saw
mill in the village. He went one eve
ming to Lawyer Means with a request
that he should sell two hundred and
sixty-five dollars worth of his land on
Graystone Brook, and came away
with the deed. He then began to save
for the MILL
In those days he worked like tiger.
for he was in love.
Lucina Merritt had come home from
school, and he had seen her in church.
Lucina Merritts was very great