THE BOTTOMLESS JUG

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1724, 24 December 1887, Page 2

THE BOTTOMLESS JUG

— ♦ _ X iv a iT ifc hanging "P In the kitchen, of a thrifty, healthy, stordy fawner la Oxford county, Malae-a bottomless jag. The b oB t saw that the curions thing ooghttn y ye , and smiled. " You are wondering what that jug ia haoglrg up there for with its bottom knocked out," he oaid. »My wife, pernapa can tell you the story better than I can | bat she la basbfal and I ain't, so I'll tOll it, 1 My father, aa you are probably aware, owDed this faim before mo, He lived to a good old age, worked hard all hia life, never squandered money, waa » oautious trader, and a good calculator ; and, as men were accounted m hia day and generation, he waa a temperate man I was the youogeat boy ; and when the old" man wao ready to go—and ha knew lithe otbera agreed that Blnce I had stayed at home and taken care of the old folks the farm should be mine, and to me it was willed. I had been married then three years. .- -1 Well, father died— mother had cone three years before— and left the farm to me, with a mortgage on It for two thonaand dollars, I'd never thought of It before. I said to Mollie my wife • '"Mollte, look here, Here father* had this farm In Us first strength of soil with all its magnificent timber, and his six boys as they grew np, equal to so many men to help him ; and he worked hard, worked early and late, and yet look at It ! A mortgage of two thomand dollars. What can I do ? " • And I went to that, jug— lt had a bottom to It then — and toofc a good stiff drink of old Melford rum from it. ' I noticed a curious look on the face o! my wife just then, and I asked her what she thought of It, for I supposed she waa thinking of what I'd been talking about. And bo she waa, for she said • ' » Charles I've thought of this a great deal, and I've thought of a way m wbioh I believe I can clear this mortgage off before five years are ended." • Says I : ! ' " Moliie, tell me how you'll do it?" •She thought for a while, and then aaid, with a fanny twinkling In her bine eyes — says Bhe : 1 " Charlie, you mast promise me fchli, and promiae me solemnly and naoredly ' Promiae me that you will never brine I home for the purpose of drinking for a beverage, at any time, any more aplrlta than you can bring m that; old jag—the jag your father has naed ever since I knew him, and which yoa have usftl since he has done with it." 1 Well, I knew father uaed onoe m a while, especially In haying time, and In winter when we were at work In the woods, to get an old gallon jug filled ; io> I thought that she meant that I should never buy more than two q a arts at a time. I thought It over, and after a little while told her that I would agree to It. r ♦"Now mind," said she, "y on are never to bring home any more spirits than you oan bring m that Identical j ax?* And I gave her the promise. •And before I went to bed that nfehfc I took the laHt pall at that jag. As I was turning out for a sort of nightotn Mollie looked up, an da ay sane : "Charlie have you got a drop left ?" ■ ' There was jast about a drop left. We'd have to get it filled on the morrow. Then Bhe said, if I had no objee. tlon», ahe would drink that last drop with me. I shall never forget how she !f ld i\u th ?i '?■' ? r °P |M *°»ever" I tipped the old jug bottom op, and eofc about a great spoonful, and Mollle ufd that waa enough. She took the tornbier and poured a few droops of hot water into it, and a bit of sugar, and then ehe tinkled her glass against mine, iu*t aa she'd seen us boys do, when we'd been drinking to good luck, and laytfne': " Hero b to the old brown jog ]" .« Sakea i alive ! I thought to myself that poor Mollie had been drinking more of the rum than wae good for her. and I tell you it kind of out me to the heart. I forgot all about how many times *ihVd seen me when my tongue wbb thicker than it ought to be, and my legs not so steady as good legs ought to be ; but I ™rl n0 £ in K Bt l ? ra ? k the bailment?S? ° ld r brown Jag "-and let It go. 'Well, I went oat after that, and -did my ohores, and then went to bed • and and the last thing I saii before leaving the kitchen— this very room where we now sit — was : « " We'l! have the old brown jag filled tomorrow." J c « And then I went off to bed. And I have remembered ever since that I went to bed that night, as I had done hundreds I of times before, with a buzzing m my I head that a healthy man ought 'not to have; I did think of it then, nor had I i ever thought of it before, but I'vi thooiht of It a good many times since, and have 1 thought of it with wonder and awe ■ Well, I got up the next morning and did my work at the barn, tben^ame In and ate my breakfast, but not with aoch an appetite as a farmer ought to nave and I could not think then that my *nn e ! tite had begun to fail. Howevi? I ata breakfast, and then went out anSiiltched up the old marej for, to toll the plain truth, I was feeling m the .need of a glass of spirits, and I hadn't a drop m the house. I was In a hurry to get to the village. I hitched up and came m for the jng. 1 wont for It m the old cupboard and took it out, and— ' Did you ever break through the thin ice on a snapping cold day, and find yourself In an Inat«nt, over your head m freezing water ? Because that is the way I felt at that moment. The jug was there but the bottom waa gone. Mollie had taken a sharp chiael and a hammer, and with a skill that might have done oredlt to a master workman, ahe had dipped the bottom clean out of the jug without even cracking the edges of the aides. I looked at the jug, and then ehe burst ont. , She spoke, O, I had never heard anything like \l ! i N °' oou r h ?l e * h6ard aQ y tWng like it Bince; She said : , 1 r> Oharlea, that'a where the morfccaize on this farm oame from ! It was brojght home within that jug— two quarts at a lime J And there's whera your; white, clean akin, «»nd your clear, pretty eyes are going; And m tbat jug, my huaband, your appetite is going also, O, let It be aa it ia, dear heart 1 And remember yonr promise I' 1 . * % And then ehe threw her arms around my neok and burat Into tears, She oould Bpeak no more. 'And there was no need. My eyes were opened as though by magic. In a tlogta minute the whole scene paaaed before me. I saw all the mortgages on all the farms m oar neighborhood ; and I thought where the money had gone. The very last mortgage father had ever made was to a bill held against him by the man who had filled thia jag for years ! Yep, T saw as it paasod bbfore me— a fettering pfpfora' of mm ! rum 1 rum !— debt } debt ] debt I and m the end, death ] Arid I returned my Mollie'a klas, and said I ; r ' " Mollie, my cvy j, 1.l keep the promiao ! I will, ao help me heaven 1" ' And I have kept it. In leea than five yeare. as Mollio had said, the mortgage was cleared off ; ray appetite oftine baok to me ; and now we've got a few ihouaahc dollars at interest. There hangs the old jast aa we hung it on that" day; and from that time there hasn't been a 'drop of Bpirits brought Into the houge" far & beverage which that bottomless iv» wouldn't hold. . 6 "'Dear old jag 1 We mean to keep It and hand it dowu to our cbliarea lor 1h« lesson it oan give them— a leeaon of life-. " of a hfe happy, peaceful, proßpewuß and blesaed !'. . " And aa \\q ceaaod epeaklng, his wife. with her arm drawn tenderly around thQ neok of her youugeat boy, murmured ft forfepfc am?n,