Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 October 1887 — Page 2

TILE IKDIAXAPOL.IS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, OCTOBEK 23, 1887 TWELVE PAG-J5S.

Printed 6y Special ArranammU.CottjtiohUd, lggT.

J! BY SOPHIE 8WETT, Acthob or "A Eosk op Jericho" asd Othib Stokies. "I expect, sow, folks is eayin' consid'able agaicst 'Lisba for heavin' toe onto tha town. ain't they' Mis"Liakira?" Old Israel Holliday leaned over the atone wall of the poor-farm, a browned and weatber-beaten figure, bis back bowed by years and burdens. bat his blue eyes pathetically childish and hope fat. i The poor-farm was a pleasant place on this mellow September morning; a great, square, hospitable bouse, silvered and mossed by time. with a background of yellowing maple leaves, and, beyond those, deep-blue misty hills, melt log into the tender, pale blue of , the sky; and long the wall golden rod and asters had flung 'a banner of the royal colors that might have graced a palace. But to the thrifty New England soul of Mis' .'Liakim Saunders there was degradation in the very atmosphere. tine was a little, anxious, energetic woman. with very blaek eyes, and a long neck on which . time seemed to have recorded his triumphs in hieroglyphics, while he had left her small, apple like cheeks quite smooth. Her hair, combed oft her high forehead in a "widow's peak, " was still black, but it was rusty like her black dress, and vaguely conveyed the same impression of pre anting a respectable appearance only by dint of strnggle. "It's a burnin' shame," she said, but in a tone which detracted somewhat from the force of the words. "Some lays the blame on to Adeline, .'. bat I think a man's responsible for his actions, let his wife be what she will. Reminds me of eur first parents. But you hadn't ought to have signed off to "Lisha, Cap'n Holliday." " ''Lisha's well xneanin'" said the old man hastily. "lie's real well meanin', 'Lisha is, but lie wa'c't never one that could get ahead, and now with all that family Adeline she's well raeanin. too. but the neural cy has flew to her disposition; they say it's apt to, and I be hearty. She said I'd ate up more'n the valoo of what I give 'em; and maybe I had, and she didn't like to see me settin' round read in' stories. She thought I'd a been better off if I hadn't read so many when I was young. It came hard leavin' the old place. 1 lotted on layin' my bones there alongside of Marthy, but she's been and had the graveyard all tore up 'cause it made her lonesome." The old : man's - knotted hands trembled as : he - wiped his forehead. "But it'll be different when I get Ben homer' he added, brightening. "It seemed, fust off, as if I couldn't bear to have him find toe in the poor-house, but Ben ain't one to blame and despise folks. Seems as if 'twas mostly women folks that lays up and keeps talkin. I hadn't ought to 'a' signed off to 'Lisba, I s'poee, but I wa'nt fit to take ears of myself; I'd been through such a terrible sight. There ain't nobody in Bloomfield that seems to realize or believe what I'd been through when I come home " "Yes, yes. I know," said Mis' 'Liakim, soothingly. -" The old man, who was sometimes "just like ether folks," as his neighbors said, was now wandering off into that queer delusion which had possessed him ever since he fell from the mast of his own vessel, the Martha Jane, striking upon his head, and beine taken up for dead. His brother 'Lisha's wife, Adeline, said the nonsensical fancy came from his reading so many stories. For her part she wondered "how folks with their heads so chuck full of lies could ever tell who they were or where they belonged." Poor Cap'n Isr'el thought himself the deposed and banished king of some savage islands in the Pacifio ocean, of which he claimed the discovery, and whose location he described with great exactness to whomsoever would listen, most often to an assemblage of jeering boys in the village store, with whom he was pathetically gentle and patient. The thrilling feature f Cap'n Isr'el'e exterience was the fact that Ben, bis boy Ben, was held a prisoner by the savages in the hope of a ransom; and that ransom it was the great business of the old man's life to secure. Bits of colored glass, pennies, if they were bright ones, buttons and beads, an old Jewsharp, and a broken harmonica, composed his collections. Mischievous boys brought additions continually, and the ransom might have been expected to reach unlimited proportions, but there was a mysterious law of selection ' and rejection, and Cap'n Isr'el spent almost all his waking hours seeking, seeking. "Folks don't understand, but I know them savages," he would say. Mis' 'Liakim had answered gently when he poke of his experiences, but she immediately added, briskly:. "I euess I'd better be going along, for 'Lecty's trimmin' old Mis' Fowler's bonnet, and there'll he dinner to get." That's the way with 'em all; want to get away as soon as I begin to tell them about the cur'us things that happened to me!" said the old tnan, dejeetedly. "You'd think they'd feel an Interest, seein' Kobison Crusoe wan't nothin' to It, and seein' Ben's there yet, in the power of them savage creaturs; folks used to think a sight of Ben, and him and your 'Lecty " Mis' 'Liakim compressed her thin lips tightly; the girls in ber Sunday-school class said that when Mis' 'Liakim didn't like anything she puckered." "That makes me think of what 'Leety gave me yesterday; you hain't seen what I've got for a long spell, have you? I declare I'm lookin far a chance to send it, now. Them savages 11 he tickled to death; do fear but they'll give Ben up for that lot of fol-de-rols! And 'Lecty's blueheads are the gem of the whole! 'For Ben's sake.' she says, when she give 'em to sue, and her lip kind of trembled." Mis' 'Liakim puckered again, more rigidly than before, while Cap'n Isr'el shuffled feebly off lo quest of his treasure. 'Lecty's blue Venetian beads that her seafaring uncle had brought home to her when she was a little girl, and which she had treasured too carefully to wear except upon gala days. Could she have been so silly as to sacrifice those to the whim of a crazy old man? "She's clear Saunders," said Mis' 'Liakim, tuckering at a robin who discoursed liquid plaintveness from a maple bough. Cap'n Isr'el came back bringing his collection, with the pleased esgerness of a child in his face. "Here be I. town's poor," said he, "but I don't suppose Queen Victoria on her throne has got anything of so much real valoo as these are to xne." . "We ought to lay up our treasures in heaven where neither moth or rust do corrupt or thieves break through and steal," said Mis' 'Liakim.with a touch of irritability in her tone which she lonld not restrain. 'No danger of these being stole!" said Cap'n sr'el, cheerfully. "I take care of 'em. Job Indgett and them" with a nod toward the house "have tried to get 'em, but I am too smart for 'em. I don't bear 'em any ill-will. Job Is old and kind of failin', you know, but when ben comes home " "Another time Cap'n Isr'eL I really must go now." Mis 'Liakim turned away suddenly. And the old man was left untying his blue and white ehecked bundle upon the wall, piteous disappointment in his face. "I really aint got patience in this world of solemn realities to spend time npon a crazy man's foolishness," she said to herself. The robin cocked bis head and cazed with his bright eyes from the old man with his bundle of buttons and beads to the severe retreating figure and still discoursing plaintivenens might have seemed to an imaginative mind like a preacher aho cried "all its vanity." But Mis' 'Liakim had not an imaginative mind lend she was far from suspecting that ber "solemn realities" were but vanitv. Could it be called anything lees than a solemn j-eality that 'Lecty was still thinking of good-for-nothing lien Holliday, and for that reason refused to marry Nahum Brtgcs, the most "fore-banded" young man in the town, whose farm was the pride of the county and whose

mill products carried his name to all the great

centers of trade? Little Mis 'Liakim s heart thrilled when she saw "Nahum Bngjrs' in great black letters on boxes and barrels, as if be were already her son-in-law. And Nahum was a church member; he would probably be a deacon. an his father and grandfather had been before him. "'Lecty will be marryin' in the Lord, too: it seems as if 'twas too much of a bles6in'," Mis' Liakim had said to herself. But this blessing 'Leotv was unaccountably disposed to reject She offered the most frivol ous objections: she said Nahum wore blue-yam stockings, and called things interesting, as if he were speaking in meeting; and that he was stingy. The Briegs family had been charged with this latter failing from time immemorial. but Mis' 'Liakim said she bad lived too long to expect perfection in human nature, and 'twas much better for a young man to be prudent and economical than to be a careless spendthrift like some febe had seen in Uloomfield. And that re mark generally had the effect of "shutting 'Lecty up," as ails' Liakim averred. It was four years since Ben left Bloomfield to seek his fortune, and nothing had been heard from him. He was a careless, generous fellow. a little inclined to be "wild." His mother was Martha Jane Kittredge, old Parson Kittredge's daughter, but she bad died when he was a baby. I he Ilollidays were thriftless, visionary people. Mis' Liakim and many others had prophesied that Ben would come to no good. He had sailed with his father on that voyage, which had proved so disastrous to poor Cap'n Isr'el, but, according to the sailor's report, had left the ship at JNew York, having no liking for a sailors me. Mis' Liakim could almost find it in her heart to wish that L'ao'n Isr'el's savage kingdom where he was held a prisoner was not a myth. "I should be willin' to have 'em let him go as soon as 'Lecty and Nahum were safely married," she said, to pacify her conscieuce. "Ain't you comin' in to rest you a spell?" called Miss Nancy Briggs, affably, from the vine-shaded porch where she was peeling apples. It was universally considered a high compli ment to 'Lecty that Miss Nancy approved of her nephew s choice, for she valiantly guarded him, rolling fearfully an artificial eye, wbicn made gruesome her otherwise not uncomely countenance, at any ineligible damsel who might be enepeeted of having designs upon Nahum and his possessions. "Nahum might reasonably have expected property with his wife," she bad remarked, candidly, to Mis' 'Liakim, "but says I to him. get a savin' disposition and faculty, and you've got property, and the kind that won't be flung in your face, too. There s a terrible rosk in marryin' nowadays, and Nahum feels it, but I want to see somebody here that won't waste and destroy, for I feel that my time to give up is comin' soon. Instead of appreciating the marks of favor which Miss Nancy bestowed upon her, 'Lecty declared that she made ber nervous because she was always reckoning what things cost, and. also, because she could not quite outgrow the be lief religiously held by Bloomfield children that her "false eye could see what you were thinking of." Mis' 'Laikim yearned for sympathy, but she feared that if she accepted Miss Naney's invitation she should unbosom her woes too freely to ber; it was lust as well that Miss Nancy should forget that there were ever any symptoms of "company keeping between Lecty and Ben Holliday, But she leaned upon the gate, and remarked that it was sad, though perhaps no more than might be expected, to see Holliday in the poorhouse, and told of her escape from inspecting the rubbish which Cap n isr el called his son s ran som. "I expect that young man needs a ransom from sin and Satan more'n from savages," said Miss Nancy, shaking her bead. "And yet he sold Parson Kittredge's grandson; be may turn out well after all." "I don't s'pose hell ever come back here, any way, do you!" asked Mis 'Liakim, anxiously. "Well, it's just like Ilollidays to turn up unexpected," said Miss Nancy, with cheerful indifference. "He may be dead, said Mis' 'Liakim, as anxiously as if Miss Nancy could help her to wring an answer from I ate. ("I hope I don't wish he was," she said to herself with a pang of conscience. ) "I expect there's some wouldn't want him to come back," said Miss Nancy. '"Lisba and Adeline," she added, in answer to 31 is' 'Liakim'a startled look. "I only hope he ain't took to evil courses. There was his Uncle Jeremiah, he was a temple drunkard, you remember." "Yes. I remember, said Mis' 'Liakim. with alacrity. "It's always broke out in the family here and there." "Well, we that ain't got such things to contend with had ought to be thankful," said Miss Nancy. "I m nxin' Nahum out for Uineral Court. lie a takkt' a great interest in politics. T declare I shouldn't be surprised if he should get to Con gress yit You can't beat Nahum out of any thing he sets his mind tn gettin'. He's he! pin' sort the pnnkins now; he says Lysander is terri ble ant to be wasteful if he don't watch him." "Well. I must be goin'. 'Lecty, she's trimm in' a bonnet for old Miss Fowler." . '"Lecty can turn ber hand to anything, can't she? Jest the way I nsed to be! What does she git for trimmin now?" Taking her way homeward, after satisfying Miss Nancy's financial curiosity. Mis' 'Liakim passed the field where Nahum Briggs was occupied with bis pumpkins. Liong and lank, and vet almost awkwardly. high-shouldered, was Nahum, with a dark face over which the skin seemed drawn so tightlv that 'Lecty (in her worst moods) declared that she never looked at him without thinking of a skull; a somewhat stubby beard strikingly lighter in color than his hair, (and also the object upon occasion of 'Lecty's strongly disparag ing comments) partially concealed nis strong chin. Otherwise be possessed the general comeliness of feature which distinguished the Briggs family, and he was. in Mis' 'Liakim's eyes, as well favored a son-in-law as any woman need wish. "I shouldn't wonder a mite if herhould get to be a Congressman. Think of that for 'Lecty! And you can't touch Fidely Plummer with a ten-foot pole because her Lyddy married a Port land store keeper. O, dear. I hope I ain't growin' worldly-minded, bnt when anybody has fit poverty as I have, and been looked down upon by them that didn't have so good a start! Seems as if I couldn't see 'Lecty have such a lot as I've had, and 'Liakim was only one of them that can t seem to bring anything to pass, nine chances out of ten she'd be worse off with Ben Holliday. 'Lecty's got pride; she'd like the sound of bein' the honorable Mis' Nahum Briggs: but there! she's got the Saunders way of stickin' to a notion. It would be just like ber to live an old maid all her days jist because Ben Holliday courted her a spell and then cleared out!" As Mis' 'Liakim entered he own humble dooryard, still struggling, faint-heartedly, to devise some means of overcoming 'Lecty's obduracy. an unaccountable commotion among berpoultry drew her steps towards the barn. It was faintly lighted and as Miss' 'Liakim's eyes were failing; she almost fell over a man's figure reclining upon some straw, and sprang back with a cry, "Don t you be alarmed, ma am. I was lust about to take my leave. You see I've been drinkia' some very strong tea and it never agrees with my nervous system have to sleep it off!" The tramp was wayworn and tattered, but something familiar in his looks struck Mis' Liakim s eye. She sprang to the door to open it wider and get more light. Mistaking her purpose the man pushed her roughly and hurriedly. "You needn't go call in' for help!" he said, angrily. "I don't ask anything but to be let alone, and you needn't begrudge a heap of straw in your barn to a man that has seen better days." "Here! here! wait a minute,"' called Mis' 'Liakim. but the man paid no heed. Well! well! perhaps it's better so," she gasped, sitting down, trembling, upon the mealchest. "At fir3t I really thought 'twas him! I don't know now but what it was, do I? though when he looked right at me " Little Mis' 'Liakim sat and trembled while the hens cackled around her in the sunshine that streamed through the doorway, and the hoarse young rooster mounted the ladder and crowed triumphantly. 'Lecty was singing over her bonnet-making, and the words floated out clear and distinct: "God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform." Mis' 'Liakim arose, suddenly, and walked over to the place where the tramp had lain. An odor of spirituous liquor lingered about the hay. She took up, gingerly, between her thumb and fore-finger, an extremely dirty handkerchief. It was of fine linen, and there were initials on one corner. Mis' 'Liakim forgot to be gingerly as she carried it toward the light. The letters on the tramp's handkerchief, blaek and distinct, were B. II. "Judge not the Lord by feeble sense," 'Lecty was sinking, with long-drawn sweetness, when she was interrupted by her mother's entrance. Mis' 'Liakim had watched and waited, as if in a feverish dream, the tramp's diminishing figure, now losing it at a turn of the road, and in the valley, now catching sight of it again toiling up the steep ascent of "grave-yard hill" and. at last, seeiog it on the open highway dwindle, dwindle to a speck and disappear in a distanceforever, from her eyes. Mis' 'Liakim devoutedly hoped. "I was always one that prophesied he'd come to no good." she said, as she sank into a chair from which 'Lecty had only just time to rescue old Miss Fowler's lavender feather, "but I never did expect to see Marthy Jane Holliday's son as I've seen him this dy!" "Ben! You've seen Ben? Mother?" cried 'Leety. She was a tall, pale girl, not especially pretty,

except for a dazzling clearness of complexion, ana a pair of eyes, of no particular color, that

were like limpid wells. An indescribable fresh ness and purity about her were more striking than beauty, iteddisn hair (not appreciated in Bloomfield) supplied the touch of color that she needed, and, altogether, as Cap n Isr el Holliday was in the habit of saying, "If 'Lectv wan't a beauty she took the shine off them that was." Her long figure was slightly stooped at the shoulders, which gave her an overworked look like her mother, ber face was noticeably serene, and a certain little air of decision, of being equal to any occasion, was as unlike ber mother's nervous energy as possible. It seemed probable that Mis' 'Liakim had some grounds for the great complaint of her life that 'Lecty was "clear Saunders. ' "You conld 'a knocked me down with a feather when I see who it was layin' there on the straw, ragged and dirty, and smellin' of liquor. And he made light of it, and said he'd been drinkin' strong tea that didn't agree with his nerves. If that wa'n'. jest like Ben Holliday for all the world! But he did show some feelln' of shame, for ha begged of me not to call anybody, and he cleared out in a hurry." 'Lecty has risen, dropped old Mrs. Fowler's bonnet and trimmings in a heap upon the floor. The color came and went in her face. "Ben lying in the barn? He must be sick! Mother, do you know what you are saying?" . "I ain't apt not to know," said Mis' 'Liakim, dryly. - That was true, 'Lecty remembered, as she ran out through the woodshed to the barn; her mother was very severe upon offenses against the truth: even in her painful bewilderment 'Lecty recalled, vividly, the time when her mother bad forced her, a five-year-old child, to sit for two long hours upon the high old pump for telling a very small lie. 'Lecty bent over the heap of straw. A very perceptible odor still hung about it. . She hurried into the road. "No use lookin' for him, 'Lecty." called her mother's voice behind her. "I let the poor 'fellow get a long st art before I told you. 'Lecty, I . think a girl ought to be ashamed when a man has never wrote to her or made any sign "If he hadn't taken to evil courses " "I promised you I wouldn't correspond with him. I told him not to write. I've wished that I hadn't." said 'Lecty. Mis' 'Liakim's mother-heart was wrung at sight of the pain in 'Lecty's face. But she only said: "Tou'd ought to be thankful to me, then," and returned to the house, where she went about her preparations for dinner, briskly, and with a great clatter. 'Lecty stood in the barn door, with her eyes fixed on the unchanging greenness of the great spruce tree across the road, more vivid than ever in the shower of red and yellow maple leaves, but seeing nothiocr. "No, it waso't Ben! There is some strange mistake. O Ben, Ben, forgive me for thinking for a moment that it could be so!" Mis' 'Liakim marveled at the serenity of her face when she returned to the house. "'Twon't be long after this before she'll begin to think 'twould be pretty nice to be the Honorable Mis' Nahum Brings!" she said to herself, with a thrill of exultation that quieted an uneasiness which had begun to oppress her. She threw out several cautious little conversational feelers in the course of the day, but 'Lecty was utterly unresponsive. "She'd ought to hear it from . somebody else; it had ought to be all over town. 'Lecty has got pride," mused Mis' 'Liakim. She dropped in, casually, that afternoon upon Mia' Cely Pa't ridge, whose recipe for sweet pickles she wished to borrow. Mis' Cely was generally known as the Bloomfield Journal. "I never once said I knew 'twas him," she said to herself, as she re-entered her own door. But Mis' 'Liakim did not go to prayer-meeting, although it was Friday evening, and she knew very well that when Mis' Deacon Terry had to start the tunes she put everybody out. She put on her bonnet and took it off again, and said she was some afraid of neuralagy, 'twas so damp. Before dark Nahum Briegs drove up to the door in his new buggy. He also wore a new suit of clothes, and unheard of frivolity for Nahum a dahlia in his buttonhole. With great aeitation of mind Mis"Liakim recognized these outward embellishments of NahuTr.'s as indications of a final seige. "I hope he aint come too soon. She had ought to have beard more talk!" she said to her-1 self, anxiously. ' She clenched her hands as 'she listened to the hum of voices that came from the stuffy little parlor, where Lecty received him alone, after the Bloomfield fashion. She hoped to see 'Lecty trip out with him and drive away in the new bnggy. But, instead, he drove away a:one after a very few minutes, lie aid not look at all crushed, however, and shortly afterwards she heard 'Lectly softly singing,. "Blest bribe. te, that binds our hearts in Christian love," and she took it for a good sign. Something had come between ber and 'Lecty which made it very difficult for her to ask any questions. Besides the Saunderses were "subject to spells when you couldn't get a nearness, to 'em. anyhow." Mis 'Liakim could not sleep, tossed between hope and fear, and with an underlying thorn to which she refused to eive a name, &nd which, indeed, was quite muffled when nope seized her. 'Lecty was dutiful and religious, and she had, generally speaking, good common sense; perhaps to Mis' 'Liakim's mind (although she was qtme unconscious of it) the latter quality amounted to as much as the two former, and at the most sne had only put Nahum off. 'Lecty's cheerfulness the next day inclined her to an even more hopeful view. She was clearly not "taking on about Ben Holliday. Larly in the afternoon Miss Nancy liriggs came over, without her knitting, a fact so re markable that Mis Liakim recognized it at once as a portent. "I thought you d ought to be the first to hear the news," she said, looking ostentatiously away from 'Lecty, and transfixing the cat with her artificial eye. "Nahum is goin' to be married to Matildy Tripp, over to Canterbury, that her father owns six farms and is selectman, and her uncle is a minister. It was all settled last night. and Nahum was to home and in bed before half after 10. The Briggees was always great for business, but Nahum beats 'em alL I will own I was disappointed. I bope there ain't them that's more so. Girls hadn't ought to put too much meanin' to a voung man's comin' to see 'em till he speaks right out. I expect Nahum felt as if he'd ought to think something of propputty and standin'. Well. I must be goin'. I want to let folks know just how it is before false reports get a-goin ." "O Lecty!" gasped Mis 'Liakim, as Miss Nancy's broad back lessened on her view. The visitor remounted the steps suddenly. "Dretful to think of what Ben Holliday's come to, aint its Well, I expect Satan is a lurin' us all to our fall. And that poor creetur up at the poor-house has sent off his mess of rubbish to ransom him! Mr. and Mis' 'Babbage that's goin' missionaries way off to Micronesby. or some such heathen place, round by the way of San Francisco, took 'em, or pretended to. Mis' Babbage she was Cvnthy Atwood she's terrible soft hearted, and Mr. Babbage thought twas real affectin.' Looks to me a dretful sight like decevin' to humor him so, and to my mind there's skurce any sin that s greater than a lie. But I expect if poor old Cap'n Isr'el should bear and realize what his son has come to, it would kill him. Seems as if when I look at Nabura I can t be too thankful for my blessin 8." Mis' Liakim shrank and winced visibly, like an insect impaled by innumerable pins. One faint breath of consolation played over her fevered soul, as the crate-latch clicked: Miss Nancy in the family circle would not be an un qualified blessing. "Abe needn't talk about iym'; what was she doin' when she pretended 'twas Nahum's fault about 'Liecty? But I ain't one to judge her! O I ain't one to judge anybody!" communed Mis' 'Liakim with ner vexed spirit. The thorn grew and stung wonderfully in this atmosphere of disappointment, but it did cot prevent her from casting severe reflection upon r.ntr With 'Lecty's school-teaching, and bonnet and dress-making, they scarcely made both ends meet; how would it be if sickness came? In inevitable old age what was before them but the poor-house? This was the continual refrain in Mis' 'Liakim's anxious brain, and on her lips. Lven 'JLecty s serene forehead began to show, between the eye brows, a faint line of oare. Occasionally, when Mis' 'Liakim s head was partially turned away, she was conscious of a long, questioning look from 'Liecty s clear eyes. Sne felt these to be almost unendurable, espe cially after the day when Perais Wing, leaning over the fence, bad called out: "You'd better take your clothes in to-night. Mis' 'Liakim. Did you hesr how Cap' Brewster Hatch's folks, over to Canterbury, lost all theirs one night last week?" She didn t think of the initials until she saw 'Lecty's face grow red and white, in that quick way it bad. It was not long after that 'Lecty came upon her mother down in the field, upon her knees behind a row of melancholy crackling corn stalks. Mis' 'Liakim prayed in meeting. She was thought to have a gift; but this petition was not couched in the conventional phrases. " "O. Lordo don't let the swift judgment of Ananias and" Ssiiliiry come upon me! Thou knowest it was a snare of Satan, their lookin so much alike, and it com so sudden, and Nahum bein' pious, but if a judgment must come, don't let it come on 'Lecty, too! And, O, Lord, keep her, if not me. from comin' on to, the town!" After that 'Leety was very tender towards bee mother, and the latter quite ceased to speak of Nahum Briggs, but her rusty brack hair sud denly showed streaks of gray, and her-toil worn figure grew pitifully thin. And the! neuralgia ine

was beginning to keep her away from church as

. well as prayer-meeting. On a late October day, with a crispness and sparkle in it, which hinted only cheerfully of coming frost and cold. Mis' Amos Pingree. the poor mistress, stopped at Mis' 'Liakim s gate. A plump and comfortable woman was Mis' Pingree, who mourned her troubles loudly, and shea tnem as easily as a duck s back shed3 water. "When it's troubles of the Lord's sendin' I ain't got nothm' to say, but the mischeervousness of human cretures is more'n I ean stand," she said. "Now I've got poor old Cap'n Isr'el down with the brain fever, a sufferin', and burnin', and screecnin', night and day, because some fool had to come up to the poor-house with that story about his son. bein' seen around here drunk. I tried to keep him from bearin' it. but he and old Job Mud get t got to quarrelin', and Cap'n Isr'el twitted him with courtin' a lot of girls before he could get one to have him. Think of such childishness in them old creturs! and Job he up and flung it at him about bis son. I wouldn't hardly have thought he'd have took it in at all, bein be was sure he was somewheres among the savages. He appeared like some body that s got a sadden blow. I didn't know at first but 'twas goin to give him back his proper senses. He weut right off down to 'Lisha's to see if 'twas true. Adeline told him right off 'twas. , "If the Lord forgives anybody for bein' mean and graspin' he ought to forgive her, for sense she hain't got. He went wanderin' off into the woods, and when we found bim he was out of his head, a mutterin'. I don't expect he can live through it. and it seems as if the Lord would give him an easy release. But for them that spread that story that I never believed there was a mite of truth ! ' "O don't! don't!" Mis' 'Liakim dropped the geranium she was holding, breaking the pot to fragments, and sank down in the garden path. holding out her hands as if to ward off a blow. 'Lecty came to the rescue. "Mother's been workinc hard, and she hasn't been well lately." she said. "Well, pottin' plants is hard work," admitted Mrs. Pingree. "But land! it ain't keepin' the poor-house!" Not a word about Cap'n Isr'el's illness was spoken between Lecty and her mother, until 'Lecty. going every day to the poor-bouse to in quire, came borne and imparted the cheerful news that he was better, that his sturdy consti tution was going to bear even this strain. Then Mis' 'Liakim dropped her head upon 'Lecty's shoulder and wept. "It's something that I ain't a murderer, 'Lee ty." she said. There came a day when Cap'n Isr'el was so far convalescent that 'Lecty cartied a bit of jelly which she had made, and two pink roses that blossomed on her monthly busu. "Something's happened, mebbe I'd better pre pare you." said good Mis' Pingree. "If ever I doubt that there's a Providence watchia' over poor human creturs! To think of that poor old man's ransom that short-sighted folks has sneered at really fetchin' things to pass! Yes. yes, I'm a comin for it. Don't get so red and white child! Missionary Babbage he's a good man. if the Lord ever made one he thought 'twas real pitiful about Cap t Isr el and he was tellin' of it to the table at a boardin' house in San Francisco. One of the boarders had a friend visitin' him, a youne man, that was ter rible interested so't Mr. Babbage fetched the things, that he hadn t throwed away because be couldn't bear to, and showed 'em to him. Well, the young wnan be started for Bloomfield the next day, and he's upstairs now with bis father!" "I I think I'd better go." murmured 'Lecty, faintly. Her heart was beating so wildly, and it was so long! Ben might have been ehanged but there was a quick step on the stairs, Mis' Pingree turned a benevolent back, and instead of running away 'Lecty found her cheek unaccountably grazing Ben Hollinay's coat buttons. "It's been a hard pull." said Ben. when a little later they were sitting, side by side, on the funeral hair-cloth sofa in the dingy poor-house parlor which might have been the Elysian Fields for all they knew but I was determined not to come back until I had proved that I wasn't a good-for nothing. If I had only known what was happening here? T Ben set bis teeth very hard at the thought of 'Lisha and Adeline. "I'd had a tempting offer to go to Hong Kong, and I was debating it when I heard that missionary tell the story about poor father, never guessing who it was, for be called no names, until I saw those blue beads they would have drawn me borne, 'Lecty. if there had been nothing else! I can make a good home for you, 'Lecty; father is like a child at the thought of going with me. And your mother? Will she have faith in me? I've always stood in awe of her as being too good to overlook any boyish follies." - "He must be told what I did, 'Lecty, and I must appear before the church, and tell 'em how I fell from erace," said Mis' 'Liakim. "I shouldn't think it was necessary since we're going away. As for Ben, I told him. I knew you would want me to, and I want it over with. He forgave you. Of course it doesn't matter now that everybody has seen him." 'Leety held her head a little proudly. "Well, if them that I've wronged so can forgive me, and bear with me, it does make it seem as if mebbe the Lord would, too," said Mis' 'Liakim. Pompktn Pies Have Set In. New York Mail and Express. This is the opening week of the pumpkin pie season, and that fact is announced by a display of enormous pumpkins on the sidewalk in front of a Fulton-street bakery. The pumpkins are from two to three feet in diameter and, weigh from 150 to 200 pounds each. The proprietor informed a reporter that the largest ever brought to the bakery weighed 331 pounds. "It was a bouncer," said he, "and it took four men to carry it in at night. We expect some biz ones this year. All the large ones have a name grown on them in raised letters. The name is cut through the skin . when they are growing, and it heals up, leaving a raised' scar just the shape of the inscription. Some of the names given them are 'Baby Mine, 'Dewdrop.' 'Jumbo' and the like. Tbv are what is known as the 'Mammoth Chili Pumpkin, and are raised at Esopus, on the Hudson. The vines are sometimes sixty feet long, and are planted in rich soil. They are watered every day unless it rains, and the pumpkins grow so fast that they will tear themselves from the vines, nnless the vine is loosened. If one of these vegetables happens to grow under a fence it will lift the fence up, or if it grows on a fence it is very apt to break the fence down. A farmer out atHoboken let one of the pumpkin vines grow over his grape arbor. Two of " the big fellows came out on top and the arbor broke down." "How many pumpkin pies do you make a day?" "Seven hundred now, and a little later, when the season is at its height, we make and sell as high as LOOP a day." Tea as a Beverage. Wliig Too. in The Cook. Use a China or porcelain pot If you do use metal, let it be tin, new, bright, and clean; never use it when the tin is worn out and the iron exposed. If you do, yon are playing chemist and forming a tannate or tea-ate of iron. Uso black tea. Green tea when good is kept at home. What goes abroad is bad, very bad, and horrible. Besides containing the 203 adulterations the Chinese philanthropist puts up for the outside barbarian, it is always pervaded by copper dust from the dirty curing pans of the growers. Infuse your tea. Don't boil it! Place one teaspoon ful of tea in the pot and pour over it one and a half cups of boiling water that is, water really boiling. If your tea is poor, use more. It is cheaper, though, to buy good tea at the outset. Put your pot on the back part of the stove, carefully covered, so that it shall not lose its heat and. the tea its bouquet. Let it remain there five minutes, then drink it. Drink your tea plain. Don't add milk nor suear. Tea brokers and tea tasters never do; epicures never do; the Chinese never do. Milk contains fibrin, albumen, or some other stuff, and the tea a delicate amount of tannin. Mixing the two makes the liquid turbid. This turbidity, if I remember the cyclopaedia aright, is tannate of fibrin, or leather. People who drink milk in tea are therefore drinking boots and shoes in mild disguise. Pumpkins and Cucumbers. VicVs Monthly. Dr. Halsted, of the Iowa Agricultural College, claims, as the result of experiments, that seed of the squash and melon tribes will almost invariably fail to grow if thrust vertically into the soil, as once was a common method, especially wittj, pumpkin seeds, and is yet practiced by many. "It would be better to sow the seeds upon the soil and leave them without a covering of earth than to set them endwise. Flat surface seeds, it was found, would throw their coats without failure provided the earth was kept sufficiently moist In field and garden practice there is the danger of the seeds left upon the surface being destroyed by birds, etc The best way is to plant them flatwise two-thirds of an inch below the surface, or somewhat deeper if the soil is dry. Much depends upon the amount of moisture present Instead of preparing the hill for squashes and sticking the seeds endwise into the mound or hill, it is best to make leveled places, sow the seeds and cover them with an inch or so of soil." An excellent salve for bruises is the following. Take the leaves of catnip and bruise with salt pork in a mortar, or with a rolling pin. If applied to flesh wounds and bruises of any kind, it will at once allay the inflammation.

READING FOR THE SABBATH. Soday-School Lesson for Oct 23, 1887. Thkek Mibacxes Matt, ix, 18-31.

Golden Text According to your faith be it unto you. Matt ix, -'J. Home Rjcadisgs. MoniluT-TTlth. life and lieht. Matt. ix. 1 8 31. Tuesday The blessings of health. Psalms rei, 1-16. veanesaay L.ir.6 eternal, jonn vi, Thursday The light of God, John i, 1-14. Friday The Lord of life. Psalms xc. 1-17. -Saturday Lazarus restored. John xi, 23-4. Sunday The living Lord, John xx, 1-18. The incidents of this lesson, according to har monists, occur upon our Lord's return to Caper naum, from the land of the Gergesenes, soon after the events of Lesson II. Being invited by Matthew to a feast in his bouse, he there held conversation with some Pharisees, and after ward with some of John's disciples (Matt ix. 9-17). While still speaking with them, came Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, praying the healing of his daughter. As Jesus was on nis way to the home of Jairus, he heals the woman with an issue of blood. A messenger meeting him announces the death of the girl, but be pro ceeds and, entering the house, restores her to life. Returning from thence he is followed by the two blind men to whom he gives Bight. For the parallel passages of the first two miracles read Mark v. L'l 43; Luke via. 4U-0U. rneiast is peculiar to Matthew. Each of these three miracles teach the necessi ty and power of faith. They represent three very different types of faith, with very different degrees of intelligence. But all of tbem have the essential idea that Christ was both able and willing to meet their need, and each ope of them trusted him to do it then and there. It was faith in the germ, but it was a living germ that had in it all possibilities of growth, and so Christ honors it for what he conld make out of it And he does the same to-day. HEART TRUTHS. 1. Jesus knows all our sorrows. We cannot inform him. He has felt all our griefs. No sorrowing heart escapes his notice. Men over look forget; Jesus never. He is the all-seeing one. 2. Jesus has all power to relieve our need. No case is beyond His cure. All resources are at His command. His touch, His word, His look of love can heal all diseases. 2. Jesus pities all who are in distress. "Blessed are they that mourn:" has not He said it? His sympathy is certain. His comfort is sure. He is able and willing. lie can and will save. Has He touched you with His hand of power? Notes. There are in China 889 missionaries, of whom 4o8 are women and 431 men. A year or two ago there were started two or three papers in English in India to oppose Christianity and they have ceased already. Raskin: Though you may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great man who was so; and when I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of great genius, the first question I ask about him is, Does be work? The Baptist Examiner thinks that the in fluence of Scotch Presbyterianism and of Boston Unitarianism was seen when on a Sunday the crew of the Thistle went to church, and the crew of the Volunteer worked their beautiful yaeht down the bay and back. Consul-general Card well, of Cairo, Egypt, in a report to the Department of State, calls special attention to the successful labors of American missionaries in the valley of the Nile. Nearly 6.000 native pupils are in attendance at the schools that have been established. A. D. T. Whitney: It is almost always when things are all blocked up and impossible that a happening comes. It has to. A dead-lock cannot last, any more than a vacuum. If you are sure you are looking and ready, that is all you need. God is turning the world round all the time. One of our exchanges says that when Mr. Moody was in London a number of young men were com missioned to follow up the converts to see that they remained true to their professions. They did so. Two of the committee were at the Bibleschool and said they got the names of 45,000 converts made in London. Edinburgh is the great stronghold of Presby terianism in Scotland, and, for that matter, in the world. Of its 181 churches, 124 are Presby terian. Philadelphia leads in this country, hav ing seventv-four churches to 847,000 inhabitants, and New York comes next, with forty-nine churches and 21,391 communicants. Bishop Fallows: There is such a thine as talkiug away all sense of feeling, and the talker, amid bis expressions of abject sorrow for past sins, is in truth gratifying bis vanity by making himself the hero of nis foul story. The outstand ingly wicked man. when reclaimed by God's mercy, ought to walk softly and speak mildly. The Roman Catholic Church has forty-five Indian schools scattered over the country from Florida to Alaska. Dakota has the lion's share, there, being fourteen in that Territory. New Mexico has eleven. Minnesota eeven, Wisconsin five, Alaska two. and Colorado, California, Nevada, Oregon, Kansas and Florida one each. Of these schools thirty-five supply board and clothing as well as instruction. The aggregate attendance is nearly 4,000. Most of the teachers are German and French. Some years ago a Christian man planted a vineyard in California and went largely into the business of making pure wine. His neighbors did so, too. and pretty soon, so runs the story, be saw an increase in drunkenness in bis neighborhood. He was troubled, and the more he thought the more he was convinced that he was doing wrong to make wine. So he pulled up bis vines and burned them, and in their place put vines whose grapes make raisins: and now he is prospering cs never before. The Christian Witness, which is on the ground and knows the circumstances, says: "Rev. W. F. Davis, who has been put in iail for preaching on Boston Common without a permit, preached there again the 2d inst, having just got out of jail on probation. It is said that he will be sent enced now on the two counts upon which he was eonvioted. He does not seem to get much sympathy from anybody, people thinking that be is determined to make a martyr out of him self. Self-made martys are not popular." The Moravian: Some persons nowadays are seeking to effect good by trying to analyze the reasons why God in specific cases does, and in others does hot, answer prayer. They practic ally argue in such a way as to lead to the con clusion that answered prayer comes as a reward of meritorious asking. Such speculation is both erroneous and dangerous. It is ours simply to pray in faith, and to leave the results to the wisdom and goodness of God. Prayer's power and effects cannot be reasoned out. . Dr. Pierson well says: "I have made up my mind that there are some things in the mind of God that I cannot get into mine. Hence I do not attempt to reconcile the two revealed truths that God is unchangeable and that prayer changes him." Burdette: If the stern old Puritan Sabbath. with its subduing, saddening effects wrought out such joyous natures as Beecher's and gave to the world such a beautiful blenaing of tenderness and strength, laughter and tears, heart-deep pathos and sunny humor as Oliver Wendell Holmes, let us have another century of Puritan Sabbath. Up to date the Sunday of the beergarden has failed to bring forth a Holmes or a Beecher. It has evolved a Johann Most and an August Spies, but somehow that sort of a product does not seem to be quite up to the old Puritan mark. If it is up to the mark of to-day, tnen heaven save the mark. When you run up the bunting to-morrow, remember that it was the steady-going old Puritan Sabbath that hatched the Fourth of July. "The day we celebrate," dearly beloved, wasn't born in a Chtoago beer dive ou a Sunday afternoon; not by a jug full. GAIL HAMILTON OX WAGES. What Are Starvation Prices? Livino; Com fortably On Fourteen Cents An Hoar. Written for the Indianapolis Journal Copyright. Hamilton, Mass., Oct, 1S87. This country a to-day more gravely threatened by its own suc cess than by any other menace. The experiment was originally made of a nation founded on self-government. But it was made by sober. self-restrained Englishmen, who inherited a temperament, a character, even, formed by gen erations of self-denial of severe schooling. It succeeded so well, it brought such prosperity, freedom, happiness, to the individual that the nations have flocked to us. - Crowds have thronged in from all quarters of the earth, eager to grasp our good, but utterly uninstructed to adopt the means by which we attained it Law and order, self-restraint, industry, intelligence, rigid adherence to universal principles, settled this country. Will they be able to retain it? Do they exist in proportion large enough to leaven the lump of ignorance, license, slavishness, ty ranny, that the long tyranny of other nations has rolled upon us? Can we hold our own while the beneficient pervasive forces sre slowly working through this heavy mass and lightening it into a nation as intelligent and virtuous as it is large? I have great faith that we can, but we must be up and about it . We sit at our comfortable firesides and read of wide-spreading strikes forty thousand men

rushing out of work, which means, out of wages, on the eve and, alas, in the depth of cruel mid" winters. For the rich and well-to-do this means hindrance, f annoyance, vexation, bpsa of profit To the poor, the ignorant, the bard-working wives and innocent children it means added weight on an already heavy burden; it meant deprivation if not starvation; it means illness, prostration and despair. Is there no way for our brethren to learn the existence of a blank wall but by beating out their brains against it? The discontented, the envious, the aggrieved, even though their grievance be imaginary and their discontent based t error, the poverty-stricken, even though tbeii poverty be the result of their own limitation, constitute a great mass of humanity too roalle able to the hand of the brawling hysteria idler who fatten upon the substance of the toilers an4 strive to disguise their real identity under the high-sounding name of Anarchists. Whatever pf necessity anarchy may plead foi its existence in other countries, in this country it has no excuse for being. Its chief victims are honest and worthy, though not wide-viaioned or widely cultured men ana women, who be come the dangerous classes, not from evil intent, but from misapprehension of the situation. Is any sufficient attempt made to enlighten them, to demonstrate to their intelligence that seeming inequalities strike a general average, and that it is now as it was in the days of Juliut C;esar, and will be when the last Kaiser of them all shall have laid low his uncrowned head: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves, that we are underlings, . And that even as underlings we may be happier than most kings. A certain army of laborers are reported ta have "struck," and to be living in idleness neat a great city, because they are receiving only 17 cents an hour, while they demand 20, for unskilled labor, to save their wives and childrea from starvation. Of the economical justice of their demands I do not know. I am ignorant of the condition which must decide the question. But 1 am living, have lived all my life, and all the generations of my fathers in this country have lived lu a community where the rate of wages has never been so hi eh as 17 cents an hour for nnk-iUt

ibuui-. in mn cuoiiuuDity toe clergyman, eaucated for four, five, six, seven costly years ia college and study, academy and theological seminary, has served his people year after year for $500 and $600 a year, and even now only hovers among the eights and nines; and while doing this he lives not only without starvation, but in refinement and elegance. Let me repeat and enforce that men intellectually, classically as well educated as the Vanderbilts and the Astors, have, within the memory of thousands still ia life's prime and vigor, existed and worked on a salary of $600 a year have not only existed ia comfort, bnt have maintained a modest elegance; bave sent sons to college; one family that JL know and am connected withi by ties of blood and love : have sent t . I . l 1 , six ions to college; have sent daughters to boarding-school and have furnished tbera with the appliances of education at home. In such a community one family with which I am proud to be connected by ties of blood and love was reared by a father who merrily but uniformly maintained that if be could have cleared a quarter of a dollar a day through life he would have been a rich man was reared to education, to respectability, to independence and to hich. stations in the Republic; and no son or daughter found in any station a nobler pride, a sturdier independence, a haughtier scorn of dependence and debt, a more unbending aristocracy of feel ing and a greater gentleness of' bearing than they had seen from their earliest eonsciousness in their own father at home. In this commun ity men work for a dollar and a dollar and a quarter a day, for 10 and 12 cents an hour, and are as amply fed, as warmly clothed, as com fortably boused, as well endowed with selfrespect and the respect of their neighbors as Leland Stanford or Philip Armour. And tbis has been true through hard times and soft times, through years when provisions when most of the necessities of life have been far more expensive than now. So that when I hear men talk of starving on seventeen cents an Dour, I feel that they belong to a race with which 1 am unacquainted. Rich men I know in plenty, who hold thousands, and even millions, of dollars' worth of bonds, stocks, railroads, nouses; and rich men 1 know in plenty whose wealth is a cottage and a garden, bench or forge, stout hands and sturdy brains and cheerful hearts; capitalists whose bonanza is a pen, a pulpit, a surveyor s chain, an eve- for Az ures, waxing fat on a dollar a day, on fifty collars a month, on a thousand dollars a year, and calling no man master. But poor men starving on a dollar and seventy cents aday bave I not known. and therefore -1 do not presume ignorantly to discuss their circumstances. I am not saying that a dollar a day is enough or that two is not better still, and ten five times better than that But am saying what I know. in saying that there are -wide spaces in this country where a dollar a day is cot starvation, is not barbarism, is not worse than all elsepauperism. I freely admit, nay, I am ready to proclaim, that the more money I command the happier I am, and that tbis ought to be the ease with every human being; that money is a. means of grace and every added penny ought to bring its owner nearer to the kingdom of heaven. But I wish, on the other side, to main tain that it is not the kingdom of heaven whose doors are barred with gold and open but to gold en keys, for 1 have lived there and I know. Gail Hamilton. Nothing better can be applied to a severe cut or bruise than cold turpentine; it will give relief almost instantly. LADIES! We beg to call your attention to the five following reasons why you should buy this Corset in preferencv to all others. None of the five advantages have evei been accomplished in any other Corset We hav thousands of voluntary testimonials from ladies who have worn lER MAJESTY'S is the BEST, because. J V J that will reduce the size and increase the lJt) length of the waist of Flesh r Lapics without injurious tight lacing. 2nd, dll . 5 th The bonei IT IS THE BEST SPINAL SUPPORTER ever made, and it supports equally well the abdomen an.l all other parts of the body. 1 IT IS PP.OOF AGAINST PERSPIRATION )J and kaoistura. Will neither corrode or soil vlj the underwear, stretch or break at the waist, 'he bones never move or come out iu wear. 4th, S IT NEVER CHANGES ITS FORM, always retaining its original shape; it is in valuable to young ladies because it removes and prev 5tli, aud prevents stooping and round shoulders. IF THE PROPER MEASUREMENT IS TAKEN, no Corset-maker can make one to order (at any price) that will lit as well, or wear with as mueh ease and comfort, or give such magnificent form as "Her Majesty's." PRINCESS OF WALES CO., N. YM MPRS. Kept ia stock and recommended by L. A. AYRES & CO., Indianapolis, Iso. See that the TATISI STAMP Is on inside of Corset YielJshtoETeryMoyei6Dt & Wearer. Owtat to th dUjunal ELASTICITY of th cloth (which w u vmwum m vi tut CIOM IWDtCDMi uluunn excludr!?) the Corset maim no breaking is. rug riaitri; w I ki THE FIRST TIME WORN. AIeat7rtuni bj rller after tea daja wear, if not fouud tbemoat PKBFKCT. PITTING, HKAL TH1 T'L.aoil COMt'OKTABLE Curse t.Tr worn. SnM by all Crot-rl dealer. GROTTY BROS.. CHICAGO, ILL. INDIANAPOLIS WATER CO 23 South Pennsylvania St, INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Is prepared to furnish excellent water for drinklnsf. cooking, laundry, bathing and steam boilers at a cost very tr: fling for such a necessity, convenience and luxury. ' -

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