Year: 1875

went night out 10 the barn tC
see how everything was there, and
while | was out, suppose Maria
made. her mother understand how
it was, for when ! came in again
she had on her bonnet TO go home,
/ said,-'Hadn't you better stay al
night 2 ooh, no. she replied, q
must go home. / did not calcu.
late to stay all night, I must be
home in the morning to see to
thingsv l offered to go home
with her, but she refused and went
away alone to her lonesome old
house, from which l had taken all
the sunlight and joy.


"I felt pretty mean, 1 tell you,
but not half as mean as / did a few
years afterward, when l had to go
to her for shelter for us all. / tell
you how it was. Things went on
swimmingly for about two years
and half !; then everything took
turn, and all went wrong. I took
job of building a grist mill for
John Terry. He was reported to
be worth a million or so; and ]
took the job, and found everything.
To do it, / had to call in all my out
standing debts, and get credit be-
sides. Just before completion old
Terry failed up and couldn't take
the mill so l undertook to run il
myself, but / ran behind every day
till the mill burned upset on fire
by miller I had discharged for
taking double toll.


Well, there l was-heels over
head in debt; so 1 mortgaged my
house and lot to Squire Hogarth to
pay my worlkmen. Next, | fell off
barn and splintered my leg into
forty pieces. The doctor wanted
to take it off, of course, but moth
er Coolidge declared she had seen
a worse fracture heal, and make a
good deal better leg than none, and
that she believed that this one
would heal too; and it should not
be anputated. She was right too
God bless her! / can never pay
her for what she did for me. She
staid right by me night and day,
and when the old money-lender
foreclosed the mortgage, she took
us all home-Maria and /, and the
two children. laid on my back
for more than yaar, and she went
out to work by the day to support
my family. She went up to the
American House and did the cook
ing, and with what she earned and
what they gave her, she managed
to feed and clothe us all.


But it was mighty tight squeeze,
I tell you and if the railroad had
not come just then, don't know
but we would all have gone to the
poorhouse. But it did come just
in the nick of time, and the COM
pany bought fourteen acres of
mothers land to put machine shops
on, and they paid her three thou
sand dollars in cash for it, and she
gave Maria one half of it, and Ma
ria gave it to me--as all wives
most foolishly do, give every dollar
they have to their husbands /; and
I got well mighty quick, when !
saw chance for myself, and went
to work, and things have gone all
straight since.


"When / cainc from mothers to
this house, we tried our level best
to have her come with US, but she
d,-'No, I'm too old and cranky,
and l like my own way too well to
live anywhere but in my own
house, and besides, I'm going to
send for my sister Hannah and her
cripple girl to come and keep me
company. Mother, comel do
come r 1 begged you make mo
feel meaner than / ever thought ]
should feel, by refusing NO, no,
John I shall stay here, just to
make you all place to come to
on Christmas and Thanksgiving,
and to give the children the pleas
ure of coming to grandma's every
day. But, she added, there's ono
thing you can do for me, seeing
you feel so badly; you may repair
this old house for me, and build on
an addition for Aunt Hannah and
Sophie Agreed said /, and ]
did IL, and a prettier cottage is
not to be seen in this city