The New York herald., 1922-10-01
Broke the Record.

Broke the Record.
I'm the follerin' spring." said the man
from Longeddy, "Octavia was chewin' on
sixteen pebbles and her April litter o. six
teen bruck the record in that part o. the
county.
''Well. sirs. by that time this Duroc
sow was pretty celebrated animile. as
you may well believe, and as for Beriah,
there wasn't no holdin' him. Got to callin'
himself Caesar the Supreme ag'in and
tellin' everybody what he was goin' to do
with Octavia fore he got through. Course
| it started considerable talk, especially
among the church people. Elder Uriah
Johnson happened along one day, remem-
ber, and laid him out 'Beriah Seeser'
says the elder, you are a presumptious
and sinful man attemptin' to control and
direct forces and laws of which you wot
not Of he says. and tribulation and trial
will be your portion he says. But Beriah
was past payin' heed then to the elder or
anybody else. Finally, one Saturday
evenin' at Tomasheks tavern Beriah made
his bet with Ermentrout Finch. I don't
know how 1t started, because / wasn't
there, but when happened along"
Huh said old man Ketchum
"Ermentrout Finch was sayin, It's bet.
There's my fifty; and Beriah was sayin'.
And here is the fifty of Caesar the Su-
preme-which if you win will make a hun
dred dollars you got o. mine says Beriah.
alludin TO the fifty dollars damages for
the millet field, which you won't he says;
and Lucius Ffnney,' he says, turnin' to me
shall hold the stakes Suits me- said
Ermentrout. with one o. his grins. Loosh
it s,' he says.
What was the bet?" said Tunk wharley
"Beriah bet Octavia would have a litter
of twenty pigs that comm October. and
Erm bet she wouldn't" said the man from
Longeddy
well, Beriah started in with that sow
to raise her from sixteen to eighteen in
mental 'rithmetic with the help o. them
stone counters. Seemed to get harder and
harder to teach her. the higher the figger
got. but along in June he told me he had
succeeded. Then he starts In worlin' like
mad with her to raise her from eighteen to
twenty. Seemed like he was at her day
and night. and you couldn't help feelin
kinder sorry for Octavia
"Erm Finch insisted on inspectin' her
from time to time to see that everything
was fair. as he said. I couldn't see no
sense in that, and it was pretty incon-
venient for me at times. as he said ii had
tn be done allays in the presence Of the
stakeholder. but he insisted on his rights
and had to give in. Last inspection he
made was early In October when Octavia
was pretty clust to her time She was
lyin' In the barn half asleep remember
and Erm had kinder fingered behind when
Beriah and got to the door. and Octavia
seemed to kind o. rouse up just afore Erm
Joined u.s. Think you're goin' to win. do
yous he says to Beriah NO, DON'T says
Berish. 7 don't think. know I am He
had already told me private that Octavia
had been handlin'. or rather mouthin', the
twenty counters for several weeks Mebbe
so, mebbe So says Ermentrout, but you
want to remember that there's many a slip
betwixt the pebbles and the lip he says
grinnin' some.
Next mornin' Ermentrout Finch came
along and routed me out o. bed right after
sun up. 81 want to make Just one final
Continued on Page T,oenty-three.