Dumor. The Adeventures of Haekh Derry . From.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2063, 26 September 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Dumor. The Adeventures of Haekh Derry . From.

By Mark Twun.

(Continued.) "Wliy, hictr yon tjlkl'ti-ivr the king. " We shan't rob ora of nothing At all bat jem this mont.y. Th* ppople tint buy* the property is tha nuff ror* ; b'tjau«a fit iooa'fl it's lonnd out m wo di'lu't o*n it — which won't be long after we'vo slid — tbe tale won* fee valid, and it'll all go baok to the *eUie. Thws yw orpham '11 git their hon^e buok a^in' Bad that's enough for thtm ; thaj're ymiog and spry, and k'n easy earn a lmn." They ain't agoing to Boffsr. Why, jeat think— there's thou 3 n's and thous'n's that ain't ni^b so well off. Bloea you they ain't got noth'n t<s oomplain of." " Wfll, the king lie talked him blind ; ho at la?t ho aavc in, and said all right, bat said he brlievd h wan blumod fooKbhueio to utay, and that doctor hanging over thfTi. Bat tho kin;? Bays : "Cum the dootor I What do we k'yer for him > Hain't we got all tho fools in town on our bide ? &nd bunt that a big enough majority in any town ?" So th^y got raaiy to §o dowmUir* again. Tho dnke nays : " I doa't think wo put thai mon#y in a good plaoa " That sheared me np. I'd bejjun to think I warn't going to get a hint of no kind te help me. The king sayi : "Why?" " Beosnes Mary Jane '11 bo in th»> morning from this nnt ; and first yon know the nipgrr than docs up the rooms Trill pet »n order to box Iheso dads up and put 'em awny ; and do yon r* ckon a nigger oan run across money and not barrow avcae it?'' " Your hold's lersl agin, duke," «ayB the king ; and ho coma a fumbling under the curtain two or three foot from where I vu. I stuok tight to tho wall, and kept mlghly still, though quivsry j and I wondcrpd whd.i them fellows irould say to me if thoy eatph«d rat : and I tried to think what I'd better do if they did catch rue. But tho king he got the bag before I could think more than about a half a thought, and he nevi»r inapioionod I was around. Th«y took and shoved the bag through a rip in thn straw tick that was under the featner bed, and orammod it in a foot or two amongst the straw and raid it wai all right, now, b*oause a nicger only makes up tho feather bed, and don't turn orer tho straw tick only about twioe a yoar, and bo it warn't in no danger of getting fctol<i, now. But I knowed bolter. I bad it out of there before they was half-way down stairn. I groped along up to my cubby, and hid it there till I could get a chanoe to do better. I judged I better hide it outside of tho house soruewhercs, bpeaußa if they missed it they would give the lioubo a Rood ransacking. I knovred that very well. Then I turned in, with my plothea all on ; but I couldn't a gone to sleep, if I'd a wanted to, I was in such a sweat to get through with the business. By-and-by I neared the king and tho data come up ; ao I rolled off of ray pallet and laid with my ohm at tho top of my ladder and waited to see if anything was going to happen. But nothing did. So I held on till all the late sounds had quit and the early onefl hadn't begun, yet ; and then I slipped down the ladder. I crept to their doors and listened; they was snoring, po I tip-toed along, and go-t down-stairs all right. There warn't a sound anywheres. I peeped through a craok of the dining-room door, and see the men that was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs. The door was open into tho parlour, whero the oorpse was laying, and there was a candle in both rooms. I passed along, and the parlour door was open ; but I see there warn't nobody in there but the remainders of Peter ; so I shoved on by ; but the front door was looked, and the key wasn't there. Just thtn I heard somebody coming down 'the stairs, back behind me. I ran in the parlour, and took a swift look around, and the only place I sea to hide the bag in wa« the coffin. The lid was shored along aboot a foot, ehowiug the dead man's face down in there, with a wet cloth over It, and hii shroud on. I taohed the money-bag in under the lid, just down beyond where his hando was crossed, whioh made me creep, they waa bo old, and then I run baok across the room and in behind tho door. Tno person coming waa Mary Jane. She went to the ooilin, very soft, and kneeled down and looked in , then p ! jb pnt up her handkerchief and I sco fih*> l^gun to ory, though I oouldn't hear her, and her baok was lo me. I slid out, and ag I passed the dining-room I though; I'd raftko sun. th^m watohew hadn't econ me ; so I looked through tho orack and everjthirg waa all right. They hadn't stirrod. I slipped up to bed, feolir.g ruther bluo on account* of tne thing playing out that way after I Lad took no much trouble and run so much risk about it. Sayfi I, if it oould ptny whfn it i*, all right ; because when we got down the river ft hundred mile or two, I c-nld write back to U\tv Jane, and she oould dig him up af, r ain and get it; but that ain't 'ha thing that's going to happen ; the thing that's goinf; to happen ie, the monoy'll be found when they oome to ebrew on the lid. Then tho king'll get it again, and it'll be n long day before he gives anybody another ohancfl to pmouoh it from him. Of course I 7oanted to slide down and get it out of there, but I do^n't try it. Every minute it was getting eat her, flow, and pretty soon some of them watchers would bagin toctir, and Iraiqht gpt oatohed — catohed with six thousand dollars in my hands that nobody hadn't hired me to take care of. I don't wish to be mixed np in no suoh bußinees a" that, I says to myself. When I got downstairs in the morning the parlor was chut up, and the watchers wan gone. There wam't nobmly around but the family and the widow Bartloy and our trib9. I watched their faces to sen if anything bad been happening, but I oouldn't tell. Towards the middle of the day the undertaker come, with his man, and they sot the coflin in the middle of the room on a couple of chairs, and then set all onr chaira in rows, and borrowed more from the neighbors till the hall and the parlor and the dining-room was fall. I see tho coffin lid was tho way it was before, but I dafn't go to look in under it, wUh folks around. Then the people begttn to flock in, and the beats and. the girls took seats in the front row at the head of the coffin, and for a half an hour the people tiled around Mow, in single rank, and looked down dt the dead man's faoo a minnte, and dropped a tear, and it was all very still and solemn, only the girls and the beats holding handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their heads bent, and sobbing a little. There warn't no other sound but the scraping of the feet on the floor, and blowing noaes— because people alwaya blows them more at a funeral than they do at other places except ohuroh. When the place was paoked full, the undertaker he slid around in his blaok gloves with his softy soothering ways, patting on the lust touches, and getting people and things all Bhipshape and comfortabfe, and making no more sound than a cat. He nerer spoke ; he moved people around, he squeezed in late ones, he opened up passage-ways, and done it all with node and signs with hit) hands. Then he took his place over against the wall. He was the softest, glidingest, stealthiest man I ever see ; and there warn't no more smile to him than there is to a ham. They had borrowed a melodeum— a siok one ; and when tvery thing was ready, a young woman Ret down and worked it, and it was prstiy ekreeky and colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one that had a good thing, according to my notion. Then the Reverend Hobson opened up, ilow and solemn, and began to talk; and straight oil the most outrageous row busted out in the cellar « body ever beard ; it waa only one dog, bat

ho made a most powerful racket, »nrt he keyt it up, right atony ; f.he parson he hadtoslanfl tucru, u?cr the cu'liii, Mid wait — you coirldn't lit n' yi>ui^t!f Dii.ik. Ir w*s ri^ht f*nsn siwkw<u<i, Mini noboJy didn't popm to know what to d». But meity noon thej. a" 3 thatloogle; 3 "i uiiilorULrr make u. cign to the pmnohor an much as to nay, ' Don't you worry— just dppßiid on me.'' Then lie atooprd down and b^gun to glido along the wall, just his ahouldars bhnwing ofur tho people's headi. So he glided along and tbe pow wow and racket getting moi«> and more ontrapeous nli the time ; and at last, when ho had gone around two sides of of the room, he disappears down cellar. Then, in about two seconds we heard & whack, and the dog he finished np with a most amazing howl or two, and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun his solemn talk where he left off. In a minute or two hers comes this undertaker's back and Bhon'ders gliding along the vail again ; and so he glided, and glided, around three sides of the room, and than rose up, and shaded his mouth with his hands, and stretched his neok out towards the preacher, over the people's heads, and say?, in a kind of a coarse whisper, " He hud a rail" Then he drooped down and glided along the wall again to his place. Yon oould sco ii was a gr<*at satisfaction to the people, because naturally they wanted to know. A little thing like that don't cost nothing, and it's jnst the little things that makes a man to be looked up to and liked. Thera wara't no more popnlar man in tows tha« what that un dor taker was. Well, tho funeral •ermoi was rerj good, but pison lone *oi tiresome ; a*4 then the king be shoved in and g ot off somt of his maal rubbsa;e, and atlait the j«» waa through, and the nnd«rtaker began to tnnk up on th« coffin with his lorew-drirer. I was in a «w6at then, and watched him pretty keen. Bnt he never meddled at all ; ja»t ilid the lid alone, as soft as mn*b, and screwed it down tight And fast. So there I was t I didn't know whether the money w&t in there, or not. So, says I, i'pose somebody has hogged that bag on the ely ? — now how do I know whether to write to Mary Jane or not ? S'poee she dug him up and didn't find nothing — what would she think of me ? Blame it, I says, I might f^et hnntid up and jailed ; I'd better lay low and keep dark, and not write at all ; tbc thing* awful mixed, now ; trying to better it, I've worsened it a hundred times, and I wish to goodnMS I'd just let it alone, dad fetch the Whole basineii I They baried him, and we come baok home, and I went to watching faoeu again— foonldn't help it, and I oouldn't rest cany. Bat nothing come of it ; the faces didn't tell me nothing. The king he visited around, in the oveniaß, and sweetened everybody up, and made himself ever so friendly ; and he give out the idea that his congregation over in England would be in a sweat about him, so he must hurry aii.i »ottle up the o°tate right away, and leave for home. lie was veiy sorry he was to pushed, and so waa everybody ; they wished h9 oould stay longer, but they eaid they could see it oouldo't be done. And he said of coarfKs him and William would take the girls home with them ; ard that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would bo well fixed, and amongst their own relations ; and it pleased the girls, too — tiokled tnem so they clean forgot they ever' had * trouble in the world ; and told him to eel] out as quick as he wanted to, they would be ready. Thorn poor thing* was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them getting fooled and lied to co, but I didn't see no safe way for me to chip in and ohange the gonoral tune. Well, blamed if the king didn't bill the house and tho niggers and all the property for auction straight off — sale two days after the funeral ; but anybody could buy private beforehand if they wanted to. So the next day after the funeral, aloug about noontime, the girls' joy got the first jolt ; a couple of nigger traders come along, and the king sold them the niggers reasonable, for three day drafts as they called it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their mother down the river to Orleans. I thought them poor girls -and them niggers would break their hearts for grief ; they oried around each other, and took on so it most made me down siok to see it. The girls said they hadn't ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold away from the town. I oan'^ ever get it out of my memory, tho sight of them poor miserable girls and niggers banging aronnd each other's neoks and orying ; and I reckon I couldn't a stood it all but would a had to bunt out and tell on oar gang if I hadn't knowed tho sale warn't no account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two. The tiling made a big stir in the town, too, and a good mauy come out flat-footed and said it was pc&ndaloui to separate tho mother and the children that way. It injured tho frauds pome ; but the old fool ho bulled ri«ht along, bpito of all the duke could Bay or do, and I tell you tho duke was powerful anrary. Next day was auotion day. About broudday in the rooming, the king urd the duke com<» up in the garret and woke me up, awl I soe by their look that there was trouble. The kinß says : " Was you in my room night before l,Vt ? " " No, your tnejnnty " — which \ras the way I always oallpd him when nobody but our gan» warn't around. " Was you in there yistcrday er last nfcht ? " "No, your majo3ty." " Honoi bright, now— no lies." " Honor bright, youv inßJ^*iy, I'm telling yon thfl truth. I hain't been t»DP.»r your room since Mi« 3 Miry Juno took you and the duke and flhowtd it to you." The duko says : " Have you seen anybody else go in thm> ? " I ' No, your graoe, sot as I remember, I believe." " Stop and think." I Rtudied a while, and see my chance, then I says : "Well, I tee the niggers go in there several times." Both of them give a little jump, and looked like they hadn t ever t;pected it, and then like they h id. Then the dake says : "What, all of them?" " No— leastways not all at once. That is, I don't think I ever see them all come out at onca but just one time." " Hello— when was that ?" "It was the day we had the funeral. In the morning. It warn't early, because I overslept. I waa just starting down the ladder, and I see them." " Well, go on, go on— what did they do ? How'd they aot ? " " They didn't do nothing. And they didn't act anyway, much, as fur as I eeo. They tip-tood away ; bo I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'poiing yon wis np; found yon warn't up, and 10 they was hoping to slide ont of the way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you up." " Great guns, this is ago I " s<\ys the king; and both of them looked pretty sick and | tolerable silly. Thoj stood there a thinking and scratching their heads a minute, and then the duke he bust into a kind of a little raspy ohnoklo, and nays : "It does beat all how neat tho niggers played their hand. They let on to be torry they was going oat of this region ! and I believed they wot sorry. And so did you, and so did everybody. " Don't ever tall me any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent. Why, the way thty played that thing, it could fool anybody. In my opinion there's a fortune in 'em. If I had oapital and a theatre, I wouldn't want a better lay out than that— and hero we've gone and sold 'em for a song. Tes, and ain't privileged to Ding i the song, yet. Say, where if that song ?—? — that draft ?" "In the bank for to be oollooted. Where would it be ?" " Well, that't all right then, thauk goodness." Says I, kind of timid-like : - 41 Is something gone wrong?" The king whirls on me and rips out :

"Njne o' your LusiueHHl You keep your head shut, and taiod y'r own affaira— if you not any. Liriß &h you'ro in tin- to^rn, dou'c you.ijrt,'it >/wf, you hear?'' T-wo >■*• eny« io th'j duhe : " Wo gw* to J3.'t (■waller it, and sty nuth'u : cnuru's tbe word for ?t ." As Miry w^ ■» arfag down the ladder, ihj du^p fcp ohijcfe!™ 'iMam Bi'ii snyi : ' Q'iiok saJcc and boi.ul profits 1 It'aagood bajui-e^H — you." T;ie king marta around on him and says; " I was trying to do for the bssi, in sel'in' 'm out bo quick. If tbe profits ha« turned ont to be nono, iaokin' considerable, tnd none to carry, is it my fault nny moron in yourn ?" " Well, they'd be in this houee yet, and we wouldn't if I could a got my advico listened to." Tbe king sasaed back, as much as wai safe for him, and then swapped around and lit into me again. Ha give ma down the bunks for not coming and telling him I aea the niggers come out of his room acting that way — said any fool would a Jtnowrd aometbing waa up. And then valtzsd in and euaied himtelf a while ; and said it all coma of him not laying late and t&kiog his natural rent that morning, and he'd be blamed if he'd erer do it again. So they went off a jawing ; and I felt dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the nigger?, and yet hadn't done the niggers no harm by it. By-and-by it waa getting-up time ; so I come down tho ladder and started for downstairs, bat •■ I eomo to tho girli' room, the doer was •pan, and I tee Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was ©pro and she'd been pecking thing 3 in it — getting ready to go to England. But she had stopped now, with a folded gown in her lap, and had her faoe in her hands, crying. I fait tvwful bad to sco it ; of course anybody would. I went in there, and says : •' Mise Mary Jane, you can't abi&r to see people in troubla and I can't — most always. Tell mo about it." So Hue done it. And it was the niggers—l jnsf. oxpsctod it. Sne said the beautiful trip to England w&g moit abont spoiled for her ; she didn't know how the waa ever going to be happy there, knowing tho mother ana tha ohildrsn warn't ever going to see each other no more — and then busted out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says : " Oh, dear, daar, »o think they ain't rver going to s«o each other any more 1" "But they will — aud inside of two weeks — and I know it 1" nays I. Laws it was out before Icould think I— and before I oonld bugo, she her arms around my neck, and told me to say it again, say it agtin, say it again 1 I see I had spoke too sudden, and 9* id too much, and was in a olose plaoe. I ask^d Lor to let me think a minute ; end she e et tLort, very irnpatisnt and excited, and handsome, but looking kind of happy and eased-up, I'K-i a person that's had a tooth pulled out. So I went to studying it out. I says to rojM', I reckon a body timt upa and tells tho trutn } whan ho ie in ft tight plaoe, is takiug considerable many reaks, though I ain't had no expßrimc3, and c&n'c say for certain ; but it looks so to mo, an > way ; and yet here's a oaso where I'm bkat if it don't look to me like the truth ia better, and actually safer, than a lie I rnuft lay it by in my mind, and think it over tome time or other, it's so kind of I strange and nnregular. I nerer see nothing like it. Well, I says to myself at lust, I'm agoing to ohanoa it ; I'll up aud tell the troth this time, though it does seem most like sotting down on a bag of powder and touching it ofl just to see where you'll go to. Then I soyn : " Miss Mary Jano, is thero any place out of town a little ways, whero you oould go and stay three or four days ? 14 Yes— Mr. Lothrop'*. Why ?" "Never mind why, yet. If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see each other again — inside of two weeks— here in thia hou9o— and prove how I know it— will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days ?' "Four days!" the says; "I'll atay a year I" " All right," I says, " I don't want nothing more out of you than just your word— l druther have it than another mana kisa-the-Bible," She smiled, and reddened np very sweet, and 1 says, " If you don't mind it, I'll shut the door— and boll it," Then I come baok and tat down again, and says: " Don't you holler. Jußt let still, and take it like ft man. I got to tell the truth, and you want to brace np, Miia Mary, beoauie it'a a bad hind, and going to tho hard to take, bat thero ain't no help for it. These uncles of yourn ain't no unclee at all — they're a couple of frauds— ragular dead-beats. There, now we're ovtu tbe wont of it— you can stand the rest middling easy." Hi jolted her up lika everything, of oourse ; but I wae over the flhoe.l water now' so I went right along, her eyes a blazing highor and higher nil toe tii-iie,* and told her every blame thing, from whore we first struck that young fool going op to the sterttnboat, olenr through tr>wiei>! she flung herself onto the king's breii^t p.t tbe front door, and he ki33ed her sixteen or feventeen tirars — and ihen up she jump*, *ilb her foco afire like sunset, and say? : " TbG brnte 1 Come — don't \rasto a minute — not "- srcon/I— we'll have them tarred and fc.uhsrod, and flung in the river 1" S->yi>l: 4 Cat'nlj. Cut do you mean, before you go to Mr Lothrop's, or " "Oh," nbe bays, "what em I thinking abou!; I" fho xayn, and eet right down again. " Don't mind what I aaid— please don't — you won't, now, w<ll you ?" Laying her silky hand ou mine in that kind of a way that I said I would die firet. " I never thought, I was so stirred up.' she says; "now go on, and I won't do bo any more. You tell me what to do, and whatever you say, I'll do it." " Well," I says, " it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not— l drnthor not tell you why— and if you was to blow on them this town would get me out of their claws, and Fd be all right, but there'd be anGther person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble. Well, we got to cave him, hain't we? Of oourse. Well then, we won't blow on thorn." Saying them words put a good idea in my head. I ace bow maybe I oould get me and Jim rid of the frauds ; got them jailed here and then leave. But I didn't want to run the raft iv day-time, without anybody aboard to answer queptions but me ; so I didn't wnnt the plan to hc^in working till pretty late tonight. I says : II Mm Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do— and' you won't have to stay at Mr. Lothrop's bo long, nuthor. How fur is it ? " " A little short of four miles— right out in the country, back here." " Woll, that'll answer. Now you go along out there, and lay low till nine or half past, to-night, and then get them to fetch you homo agaio— tell them you've thought of something. If you get here before eleven, put a candla in this window, and if I don't turn up, wait till eloveu, and then if I don't turn up, it means I'm gone, and out of the way, and safe. Then you oome out and spread the news around, and get these beats jailed." " Good," she irvb, " I'll do it." " And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along with them, you mnet up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, and must stand by me all you can." 11 Stand by you, indeed I will. They shan't touch a hair of your head 1" she Bays, and I sco her nontrils spread and her eyca sn^p when she said it, too. "If I gf t awjvy, I shan't be here," I kijs, " to prove theaa rftpecallionn ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if 1 i/\i? here. I could E>weur ttiey was boats and lunnme™, that's all; though that'd worth poinethin^ Well, there's otherM cau do that hotter than whr.t I can— am! they're people tlv.t an 't yoii gto be doubted an quick as I'd bn I'll tell you how to find Uievn. Gimme a pr ncii and a picoo of pr.per. There — ' lUnj il Nun* luch, Barkwdlt.' Put it away, and don't lobeit. When the oourt wants to find out

something about these two, let them lend np to BnekflvUta and say th«y'r« got the men thus plated the Royal NonooUGh, and a«k for soiuu w*tu*'flS(S— why, you'll nave (hat entiro town down here before jou oin hardly wink, Mi-m Mavy. And they'll coma a-bilirg, too." I ju.l^ed we had got ererytbmg fired aboaß right, now. So I lays : " Jnst lei the auotion go right along, and don't worry. Nobody don't hare to pay lor the thing* they boy till a whole day vter the auction, on aooounta of the short notice, and they ain't going oat of this till thay rot that money—and the war we're fixed it the sale ain'l going to ooont, "and they ain't going to get no monsy. It's ju^S like tho way is was with the nigaers—ft w*rn't no ml°. and the niggers will bo back before long. Why, they oan't collect the money for the ruggers, yet— they're in tht wont kind of a fix, Mies Mary." " Weil," she says, " I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start straight for Mr. Lothrop'a." "'Deerl, that ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane," I eats, " by no mv:m<i ">f means ; go before breakfast." "Why?" II What did you roekon I wanted yon to go at all for, M,ts Mary ? " " Well, I nerer thnugnt—and oome to think, I don't know. Whttt was it?" " Why, it's became you ain't one of theia leather-face people. I don't w*nt no hotter book than what yoor fsoe is. A body «an s«t do mi and road it off like ooarse print. Do you recuon you can go arid fao^ your unoles, when they corns to kis3 yon good morning, and never " " There, th«re, don't! T««, I'll go before breakfast —l'll ba glad to. And leare my sisters with them ? ' " Yee —never mind about tVein. They're go* to fltaud it yet a vrbtte. Tnoy might euapicion something if all of you vtt to go. I don't want you to see tr>nn. nor your siater*, nor nobody in thu town —'f a neighbor wan to aek how i« ycur uncles this morning, your fdC3 would tell something. No, you go right along, Mias Mary Jan?, and I'll fix it with all of them. I'll tell Mias Scmn to give your lore to your unolee, and say jou'va went away for a few hoars for to get a little re=it and change, or to Bee a friml, and you'll ba baok to-night or early in the morning." "Gone to sec a friend it all right, but I won't hare my love given to them." " Well, then, it ahaa'S be." It was w!l enough to tell her no. It was ouly a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's the little things that amoothea people's roadt the most, down here below; it would mike Miry J»oe comfortable, and it would oostuottun?. Then I says: "There's ono more thing —taat bag of rnonny." " Well, thay'va got that; and it make* me feel pretty silly to think how thay got it." " No, you're out, there. Tb*y hatu't got it." " Why, who's got it ? " " I wish I knowed, but I don t, I had it, became I stole it from thpm: and I s-tolo it to give to you; and I kno>v v»aeie 1 hid it, but I'm afraid it ain't their 1 o morr. I m awfully corry, Muw M-try Jii.e, I'm jmt as sorry as I oan be ; but I done th<> b at I oouLi ; I did, honest. I ociaa ni^h getirix caught, and I had to shove it into the tirot jiUce I oome to, and run —and it wam't * good place." 11 Oh, stop blaming yourself—it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow it—you ooulln % hHp it; it wasn't your fault. When; did jon LHe it?" I didn't want to Ret her to fhink:r.g about her troubles again; and I cou' \n't, =» em to get my mouth to te 11 lv A>- wha* *vou!<l inafc'i her fco that corpse lay,rig in tl^ cci^i i vitth that big of money un Ins sionwou. So for a minute I didn't say nothing—then I says: " I'd ruther not teil you -rhrrc I put it, Miss Mtry Jane, if you don't (iir -5 lotting me off ; but I'll write it for you on a pi» c<3 «t pap'-r, and you can read it aloi q the r..d<i to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want tu. Dj yon reckon that'll do ? " •' Oh, yea." So I wrote: " I put it in the coffin. It wa* in there when you was crjing there, away in the nigbt. I was behind the door, and I was mighty lorry for you, Mius Mary Jane." It made my eyes water a litti", to remember her crying there all by herec-1! in the night, and them dovils laying there right, under her own roof, Bbamisg her f&d iobbing her; and when I foldrd it up and give it to her, I see the water coone into her cyea, too ; and ihe shook me by the h^nd, hard, and says : II Qond-tye - T'm going to ducvorj tiling ju^t as you've t(>] 1 i.ie; and if I don't »cc jou again I slm' • - ver forget you, and I'll think of you a rrn- / and a many % time, and I'll fray for yt-j, too I" —and she wa? gone. Pray for nip 1 I r«>ohoned if' she knowM me she'd take a j ib tha^ wai more nearer hi r Bize. Bat I b-t «hp donr it, jnst the same — she was just th*t kind. Sue had the grit to pray for Ju^us if she took tbe notion —there warn't no bauVdown to her, I j'idge. Yon may say what you w^-t to, but in my opinion ma had more far 1 i h?t than any girl I evi-r see; in my o]>" ''-u she wa« jicc full of rand. It sounds like fl aery, but it ain't no flattery. And when it Ci ri:ea to bennty —and goodne«i too—she laya ( *er th<»ra all. I hatn't ever seen her uince that fme I see her r.> out of that door; no, I hain't ever rcen her bidoo, bat I reckon I'w <v."iffht of her m»py iind many a million Owes, and of her saying she would pray for me; and if over I'd a tbonsht it would do any good for me to pray for her, blampd if I wouldn't a done it or bast. Well, Miry Jane she lit oat the baok way I reckon ; because nobody see her go. When I struck Susan and the bare-lip, I says: " What's the nema of them people over on t'other side of the river that too all goei to see sometimes ? " They says: 11 There's soveral ; but it's the Prootor'e, mainly." "That's tbp iimho," I Bayg; "I most forgot it. Well M.-'< Miry J no she told me to tell yon sho's gon« ov^r Ihere in ft dreadful hurry —one of them's sick." '• Which one ? " " I don't know, leastways I kinder forget; but I think its " " S»kes alive, I hop? it ain't Hannrr f " " I'm sorry to say it," I pays, " but Uanner'g the very onfl. " M> coodncus—and «ho bo well only Iftit week I Ih ihe tck bad? " "It ain't ro n^mp (or it. They set np with her all niphfc, M j.?>UryJane ciua, and they don't think phe'l! last many honrs." " Only think of that, now I What'Bthe matter with her ? " " Slumps." " Mumps yom granny 1 They don't set ap with peoplo thftf'j (;ot the mump"." •• Tney don't, don't they ? You bettor bet thoy do with time mumps. Tropp raumps in diOcrcnt. It's a new kind, Mmw Mary J»ne said " 41 How's it a new kind ? " " Ufoaufie it's mixed with other thing?." " What ntbet things ? " 14 Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and orysipelait, and conHUtuption, and yaller jandei-H, and brain foyer, and I don't know what all." "My land 1 And they call it tho nvtmpt ? " "Tl.at's vh*it Mfs M^ry Jano said." " Well, what in the nation do they call it the vwwpi for ? " " Why, because it it the mumps. That's | wh«it it starN with." " Well, ther 1 ain't no ppnse it it. A body mi^ht «tumj> his toe, and take pison, and fall down the well, and bruk his neok, and bust hiVbtainß ont, and somrbodv eomo a^ogand opk what killed him, and some numskull np and pay, ' Why, be utumppd bis toe. Would thpr' be any bonne in that ? So. And ther' ain't no House in thii, nulher. Is it kettbinj, ? " (To be contiiturd.)