The Story of an Axe.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 116, 30 January 1872, Page 7

The Story of an Axe.

The London Fan tells the following story, written in a capital \cin of American humour : " Wal, T reckon about the idlest chap T ever knowed was a chao they called Long George, down to Red 'Pin.';. Hi had a bit of ground allotted him. thai was soni3 tintbored. I was running a post at that time, .„ „.>., V.„+..-..„,, +!,« ~,1,. .~ 1 fU .~— i oflico, and so I passed his location every now and thon ; and noticing that ho always sot on a log doing nothing, I hailed him, and a3ked him why he didn't begin to clear li'vi patch. Wal, he said, he hadn't nary an axo, but that an old mate of his hid got the next lot, and he reckoned he'd loan him hid when he came. Time went on, and he still sot doing nothing ; until some three months after £ asked if his mate had come. He said Pete had arrove about a month ago ; bat as Pete had his own clearing to do, he had made up his mind not to ask for the loan of the ax-i till it was done. Next spring when I come by, I asked if Pete hadn't done his clearing yet; and he said, with a mournful shake of the head, that lie guessed he had for a bit, for he had took ill. So i said, 1 reckoned he could have the axe now ; but he said he didn't want to bother Pete while he wasn't well. That autumn when 1 passed again, I asked how Pete was, and he said he reckoned he was prett}- well about now, for they had buried him about a month ago. ' How about that axe (' said I. He up and said as Pete had left it him, but he wouldn't go sloshing round about a triile like that while the widow was just in the iirst bust of her bereavement. The following summer when I saw him, he was still sitting on the log. 'Been for that axe yet f'. said I. ' Wal, I guess,' said lie, ' the widder's married again, and I ain't been introduced to the new boss yet ; and he mightn't like my going for the axe just now." About the beginning of winter, as I was returning from the mines, I overtook a little party going East, and fell into conversation with 'cm ; and one woman said to me as we were parting : ' Say, stranger, when you go back to the mines next time, will you just stop at Long George's, I forgot to tell him as the axe my old man left him i 3 lying at Jem Brown's store.' So next time I passed I told the crittur. He said he'd go and fetch it in a day or two ; but, bless you, when I passed ngain, there he was on the log. ' Wal,' says I, ' whar's that axe V ' Why, it's at Jem Brown's,' says he. ' Thought you'd been to fetch it,' says T. 'So I did,' says he ; ' but ye see as Jem Brown had had the trouble of keeping it for me, I felt it was only proper to make him some return ; so—wal, we drank that axe between 113 !' I lurfed some, and the next time I passed I brought him a .young oak sapling and planted it. Say.s T, 'Th.it will be just the size for an axe-helve by the time you've got a head for it.' ' Thank ye, stranger,' says he, quite satisfied ; and it's my belief he's a setthv there still, watching the darned thing grow."