Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 2, Number 39, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 30 December 1880 — Page 3

Jjtajpncc tSSMtIg |tm NAPPANEE, j : INDIANA PATIENT MERCY JONEB. “Let us venerate the bones Os patient Mercy Jones, Who lies underneath these stones.” Thia is her story as once told to me By him who still loved her, as all men might Darius, her husband, his age seventy years, A man of few words, but, for her, many tears. Darius and Mercy wore bom In Vermont; Both children were christened at baptismal font In the very, same place, on the very same day—- * (Not much acquainted Just then, I dare say). The minister sprinkled the babies, and said, 44 Who knows put this couple some time may be wed, > t . And I be the parson to Join them together, For weal or for woe, through all sorts of weather!” . Well, they were married, and jiappier folk Never put both their heads In the same lpving yoke. \ They were poor, they worked/hard, but nothing could try / The patience of Mercy, her bright eye. T . £he was clothed with Content as a beautiful robe; She had griefs—who has not on this changeable globe?— But at such times she seemed like the sister of Job. She was patient with dogmas, where light v never dawns. Bhe was putiont with people who trod on her lawns; She was patient with folks who said blue skies were gray, And dentists and oxen that pulled the wrong way; She was patient with phrases no husband should utter, She was patient with cream that declined to be butter; She was patient with buyers with nothing to pay, She was patient with talkers with nothing to say; She was patient with millers whose trade was to cozen, And grocers who -counted out ten to the dozen; She was patient with bunglers and fault-find-ing churls. And tall, awkward lads who came courting her girls; She was patient with crockery no art could mend, And chimneys that smoked every day the wrong end; She was patient with reapers who never would sow, And long-winded callers who never would go; She was patient with relatives when, uninvited. They came, and devoured, then oomplained they were slighted; She was patient with crows that got into the corn. And other dark deeds out of wantonness born; She was patient with lightning that burned up the hay, She was patient with poultry unwilling to lay; She was patient with rogues who drank cider too strong, She was patient with sermons that lasted too long; She was patient with boots that tracked up her clean floors, . She was patient with peddlers and other smooth bores; She was patient with children who disobeyed rules. And, to crown all the rest, she was patient with fools.

The neighboring husbands all envied the lot Os Darius, and wickedly got up a plot To bring o’er his sunshine an unpleasant spot.. 44 You think your wife’s temper is proof against fate, But we know of something her smiles will abate. ' When she gets out of wood, and tor more is Inclined, Just send home the crookedeat lot you can find; Let us pick it out, let us go and choose it, And we’ll bet you a farm, when she oomes for to use it, Her temper will crack like Nathan Dow’s cornet, And she’ll be as mad as an elderly hornet.” Darius was piqued, and bo said, with a rum, 44 i’ll pay for the wood if you'll send It hum; But depend on it neighbors, no danger will come./i \, Home came the gnarled roots, and a orookeder load Never entered the gate of a Christian abode. A ram’s horn was stralghter than any stick in it; It seemed to be wriggling about every minute; It would not stand up, and it would not lie down; It twisted the vision of one-half the town. To look at such fuel was really a sin, Few the chance was strabismus would surely i - set in. Darius said nothing to Mercy about It: It won crooked wood—even she could not doubt it: But never a harsh word escaped her sweet lips. Any more than If the old snags were smooth chips. She boiled with them, baked with them, washed with them through . The long winter months, and none ever knew But the wood was as straight as Mehitable Drew, Who was straight as a die, or a gun, or an arrow, And who made it her business all male hearts to harrow. When the. pile was burned up, and they needed more wood, 44 Bure, now,” mused Darius,. 44 1 ahall catch it good; She has kept her remarks all condensed for the spring. And my ears for the trick now deserve well to sing. She never did, scold me, but now she will pout. And say with tueh wood she Is nearly worn out.” But Mercy, unruffled, was calm, like the stream That reflects book at evening the sun's perfect beam: And she looked at Darius, and lovingly smiled. As she mode this request, with a temper unrtted: 44 We are wanting n)ore fuel I am sorry to I burn a great deal too muoh every day, And I mean to use less than I nave In the past; But get, if you can, dear, a load like the last; I never hod wood that I liked half so weilDo see who has nice crooked fuel to sell: There’s nothing that's better than wood full of knots, It fays so complete round the kettles and pots. And washing and cooking are really like play When the sticks nestle close In so charming a way." V, FinMii to Horptr'i Maymlnf, A “YALLER DOCJ.” •• Bay, father, I wish’t you’d get us a dog.” Mr. Tucker looked up from the raketail he was wedging in, quite astonished. "For the land’s sake, Hepsy! I thought you despised dogs above all things.” "Well, soldo; but ye know Scripter ■ays there’s a time for all things, and I

expect now’s our time for a dog. We shall be clean eet up with Blisset’s chickens es there aint somebody to akeer ’em off; they’re a-raisin’ of ’em for the Aotel folks, and I can’t spend my days a-flappin’ my apem at chickens.” “Where’s SaryP” “OSary! my sakes! her head’s too full of algebry and jography and sech things to mind chickens; she could Agger "cm off on a slate, I expect, but they’d eat up the lettuce right under her nose.” “Well! well! What sort of a dog do ye wantP” "I want a yaller dog; they do look so awful spry. I mistrust black creturs of all sorts and kinds, and a white dog's just like a sheep, j could put up with a two-colored one, but I Bort of hanker after a yaller dog.” “Well, Fll see; mabbeStrong’s folks can tell where they got their’n. I’ll see the squire.” “So do, pa; asking breath aint no loss.” With which astute remark,- Mrs. Tucker went in to her churn, and pa got up from the log he sat on with the creak and jerk of rheumatic people when they “ Change the place, but keep tho pain." as good Dr. Watts says: Ephraim Tucker was a man of his word; if he was slow he was sure, too, and Hepsy was delighted, but not surprised, when ho ssme in just before supper, leading by a string a half-grown dog of a dirty yellow color, alittle picked out with black about the muzzle and paws. The dog’s head was long and as sharpnosed as a fox's; his ears were clipped to alert brevity, and his mouth opened back to the roots of those ears, suggesting that the shears had also been used to enlarge the opening begun by nature. It was like a pair of shears opening and shutting when Rover snapped at a fly, with no further result than to display the red gums, strong voun<r teeth, and lolling tongue, that had ample room and shelter between the blackened edges of that astonishing slit in his head. Os course his name was Rover. “He come from Pete Steel’s folks, over to Ratlam; they hed more'n they wanted, Pete said. I come acrost him down street a-sellin’ pea-brush, and this here pup a-yaupin’ along behind him, so thinks me, that’s jest tho dog for Hepsy. He’s real young, and you cal/ kind of eddicate him up, ye know, train him up on chickens, so to speak; bend the twig jest as the tree's inclined to grow, as the copy-book ses.” “My land! I guess I sha’n’t never let him go the way he’s inclined to! not on less it's my way,” answered Hepsy, who was accustomed, indeed, to nave ,her way to an extent she hardly understood heiself. However, she was kind-hearted under ail her snap and sparkle, and Rover being a little touched with the wisdom his foxy aspect betokened, soon found her weak side. Like many another woman —and most men, for that matter—she could be coaxed into anything. •••• A few whines and wags and affectionate rubs of that sharp yellow head against her gown beguiled her out of many a dainty morsel his doggish soul longed for, and as for chickens, he / soon sent terror into all their timid Spirits; not only did he keep the Tucker premises, but alack! he hunted them into the enemy’s country, and laid abotit him so sharply there that more than one squawking' and kicking fowl strewed his path. These outcries, of course, brought out the Blissets in force, and Rover had to run for dear life into the swamp, where amid tangles of clethra, bilberry and alder-bushes, woven in and out with cat-brier and clematis, he was safe from human enemies, till darkness shut down, when he sneaked home the back way, and ate his supper with the eagerness of a dog, and heard many questions as to his absence, which fortunately for him he could not answer. Meanwhile, the Blissets grew furious. Rover had not been a month in his new home before a crested Poland hen had her leg broken by those sharp while teeth, a black Spanish rooster’s back was permanently twisted, and a big. Brahma lost the use of one wing, while at least a dozen of the short andyellowlegged barn-door breed—best of all for eating, nameless though they be—were choked or plucked or trampled on till their usefulness was quite extinct. Then came one luckless day when Rover, in a fit of terror at the gun old Blisset, lying in wait for him, exploded so near his ears that one of them was singed, made his way straight for the Tucker kitchen instead of the swamp, his tail curled tight in between -his legs, his ears limp, and yowls of the most pitiful and piercing description proceeded from the great month that was adorned with chicken feathers like a moustache. 7 r Neighbor Blisset pursued him home, saw the welcome he received, and burst in with certain pungent remarks. “ That’s your dog, is it? Well you’d better keep him to hum. Mis’ Tucker, or I’ll let drive through lhat ’ere yaller snout o’ his’n pretty quick next time. I aint a-goin’ to hev all my bens killed by that beast, now I tell ye!” - “ Why didn’t von keep your old hens to hum, then? They begun it. Hain’t we hed to buy a-dog--to keep ’em -off our garding? We shouldn’t ’a had no sass at all es they kep’ at it!” Os course this provoked retort, and a sturdy neighborly quarrel set in then and there, the first, work of' the yellow dog, and destined' to outlast his little term of life. Pa Tucker came home to find Hepsy crying with rage, and Rover, full of his ■upper, dozing before the stove, not even rousing himself at the repeated mention of his name as the story of the hens was told in fulL

“Well, well,” said Ephraim, when the tale was done “Ye must look at both sides of a thing, Hepsy;’tain’t real agreeable, I expect, to nave our faowls killed jest as they’re a-tiirnin’ into money, so to speak. I dono as I altogether blame Blisset for bein’ riled now.” “Well, I dono as he’d oughter have spoke tho wayhe did. I ain't a-goin to be insulted by no livin’ man as I know of. I won’t never Speak to them Blissete no more; they’d ought to have kep’ their old hqps to home, and if you'd got a mito of proper sperrit you'd jest go over and tell ’em so; so there!” “Sho, Hepsy! ’tain’t no use talkin’ about it now; he’s riled and so be you; let things settle a spell, and then we’ll kinder clear up. I guess I’ll get a muzzle for that there dog; he’ll bark jest as good, but he cau’t bite things.” “1 ain’t a-goin’ to hev the poor eretur tormented with no muzzle, Ephraim Tucker! it’s cruelty to dumb beasts.” “Well, well, well, kinder calm down a mite, Hepsy: mabbe somethin' else’ll do jest as well. Come to think on’t, I have hoard or read somewhere or ’nother that a-tyin’ of a dead hen round a dog’s neck will sort o’ sicken ’em of that work. 1 guess I’ll get one o’ Blisset’s faowls and try it on to-mor-ror." But Ephraim encountered a storm at Neighbor Blisset’s, and was at last obliged to pay for all the chickens Rover had killed, or incur a lawsuit. Being a wise man, he paid the demand before it was carried to law, and went home rather crestfallen, with the last of Rover's victims in one hand, the other thrust into his empty pocket. “He’s go in’ to be a amazin’ dear bar gain, I’m afeard, Hepsy. I’ve hed to pay out that five dollars I’d promised ye for a nawTSunnet to make up for them chickens.” \ “Myland!” gaspedHepsy, “Inever’d ha’ dono it in creation!” “Well, it’s done; ’twas fair enough; heaps better’n goin’ to law, now I tell ye!” said Ephraim, with severe decision, for though he was a mild and slow man ordinarily, there was in his character a reserve of obstinacy, or perhaps it should bo called firmness, that Hepsy discovered early in her married life could not be evaded. She did not, either, feel quite as tenderly toward Rover, when she thought of her three-year-old Sunday bonnet that must be worn ail the coming summer. The next morning the dead hen, with much objection on the dog's part, was tied securely about Rover’s neck. He felt the disgrace—or the inconvenience —and with a short, angry yelp, fled into the yard as soon as he was free of restraining hands; yet, when his anxious mistress sought him out an hour afterward, anxious to see if the punishment had been effectual or not, she found he had pawed and rubbed at the string till it was broken, and now the feathers of the hen lay scattered all about him, and its last leg was in the process of crunching between those white teeth. He had discovered that hens were good to eat. At sight of Hepsy he tied and made a straight wake for Blisset’s yard; but that astute and wary man had strung a couple of wires above his picket fence, and Rover fell back, ignominiously instead of bounding over into the midst of the fat fowls whose taste he had found so agreeable.

Hepsy, In full pursuit, taking a little more direct track than Rover, and wholly intent on his capture, did not see the pail of soap-grease whioh Mrs. Blisset had set out in readiness for the weekly visit of the ashman. It was too unsavory to be put beside the gate into the road, ana it had been arranged to leave it just by the fence corner, where it abutted on the Tucker lot, but the fence on Ephraim's ground had given way lately, and through-this gap Hepsy went while Rover made hft forced march out of her gate by the road, and the short cut brought the poor woman over the soap-grease pail. This tripped herup, and streamed, with its ill-smelling contents, all over her best calieo gown. But she did catch Rover, as he fell back from the wires, and dripping, scolding and crying, she carried him to the barn, shut him up in the corn room, and fled to the woodhouse herself, where ■he stripped off shoes, dress and stockings, and stole up stairs for fresh clothing, thankful Sarah was at school and her husband hoeing corn. But she had to buy Mrs. Blisset a gallon of soft soap; and her own gown was hopelessly faded jn the severe process of cleansing it from all that grease. So she consented that a muzzle should be bought for Rover. But he revenged himself on the family in countless ways. He howled all night, till Hepsy was nearly wild between sleeplessness and superstition. “O Ephraim!” she said, over and over, with tears in her eyes, and a voice of deep woe. “Do you hear that creatur'P As sure as you’re bom, there's a-goin’ to be a death amongst ns; It’s a sure-sign.” “Do go to sleep, mother!” growled the weary man, “ ’r else let me. We’re all a-goin’ to die fust or last, but I dono as. we’re a-goln’ to no sooner becos a yaller doe keeps up a yelpin’. , Let him haowL He’s all-fired ugly, cos of that muzzle. ’Taint no sign but that.” Hepsy sighed over ner husband’s unbelief, but felt just as sure aeuhe did bethe grave. „, By day he was exasperating enough to make life a burden, if he did prophesy its extinotion at night Not a cow Csed the premises but he flew at its Is with a fury of barking that drove the animal down or Up imet to a' disturbed canter; and many a meek old creature became fraotlous under this discipline who had never before shown temper, and many another turned into the familiar barn-yard, panting and sweating, with the milk dripping all the

way from her fall adder, and but a small .measure left for the pail, and little patience for the milker. If a horse passed, either driven or ridden. Rover flew at his head with insane zeal; some instinct warned him from its heels. But even l>r. Slater’s old nag lost the’propriety of its twentyfive years’ docility, and broke into a shambling ran that shook the fat dootor terribly, and produced a general cataclysm in his medioine-box, the second time Rover’s furious onset began. Once might have been an accident, but twice was more than Peter could endure—he ran away from it. The were much stirred up by all this excitement, and at last Miss Semantha Beers, an old lady who “took an interest” in everybody’s affairs, betook herself to the Tucker residence in order to deal with “ Mis’ Tucker” concerning the obnoxious animal she harbored. Hepsy saw her coming, and having had several passages of arms with Miss Semantha that had given her anything but kind feeling toward the ancient maiden, she resolved not to let her in this time. Rover was lying on the step, rather tired of the chase, which had been fierce and frequent, so Hepsy called him softly, and said: t “ Stubboy, Rove, stubboy,” under her breath. He rose to tho occasion just as Miss Semantha put her hand on the gate, and with his best bark made for her, when Hepsy flung herself forward and caught him by the hind leg. “Don’t come a-nigh him, Miss S’manthy!” she screamed. “ For the mercy’s sake, don’t ye open that gate! . Git away whilst 1 can hold him! I dono but what he’s mad!” The old lady turned and fled, and Hepsy dragged Rover into the house, shut the door, and coaxed him with a bone into the back shed, where she sat down'on the step and laughed. “ Well said, Rover! good dog! You’re good for somethin’ain't ye? So you e. I’d as lieves have you keep off Semantha Beers as Blisset’s chickens any day. She’s a sight wuss’n they be, and ’twon’t cost nigh so much.” When Ephraim came home at n;ght Hepsy recounted her last adventure with great glee, and pa smiled, though he did not at ali approve. Yet he, too, hated Semantha. " Wei!” said he—the sound of a shot and a yell interrupted him. They hurried to the back aoor to behold Rover kicking in the last agonies, and the village Constable holding a smoking gun. “You see the’was complaint made agin your dog’t he’d got the hyrophoby. Miss Beers, she said you saia so; and it’s law to shoot ’em where they be; sol jest fetched around with this here gun an’ put an eend to him.” “ Get a dollar for’t, don’t yeP” said Ephraim, dryly; but Hepsy threw her apron over her face ana cried, while the Constable sneaked away from sarcasm and tears, both of which made him uneasyy “ Well, you done it yourself!” muttered Ephraim, in the true Adamio spirit. Hepsy was indignant. The apron eame down with a snap. “Don’t you nevor fetch me another yaller dog, Ephraim Tucker!” she said, with angry grief. He never did.— Rose Terry Cooke, in Youth's Companion. i

Vitality—High and Low. The highest vitality is characterized by the vigorous and harmonious working of all the bodily organs. There is connected with it the power to digest and assimilate food ana to transform it into heat and force; to eliminate freely all waste products from the system; to expel—within limits—deleterious substances that may find their way into the circulation through the lungs, stomach or skin; to repair the effects of accidental injury; and to enjoy, without painful reaction, the normal activity of the brain, musoles, senses and natural appetites. To persons of high vitality, there is pleasure in the mere sense of being, and vastly more in the full and well-bal-anced employment of body, mind and heart. There slumbers within them, at all tithes, a great power of achievement. They are equal to emergencies, though so calm may be their life that their nearest friends may not perceive how muoh is in them until those emergencies, which break down others, may call them to the front. A low vitality is the reverse of this. The person is affected by petty, disturbing oauses, and readily yields to almost every deleterious agent. The machinery is constantly getting out of order, if it may ever be said to be in order. The infant is puny, and, in the majority of cases, dies within two years. If he manages to survive, he reaches adult life in a state of chronic invalidism. He oan “ bear nothing;” is dyspeptic, chloritic, nervous, hysterical, neuralgic, peevish and fickle; is easily discouraged; attempts little, accomplishes less; and, if he drags along to da age, often wishes himself dead, and wonders hdw or why he lives. Now these are extremes, between whioh is every variety of grades. The difference is often a matter of heredity. Yet the —best constitution ' may be thrown away by over-feeding, sensual indulgence, passion, anxiety, fret, lackof diversion, improper food, insufficient sleep, foal air, over-work of body or brau, indolence, or an aimless life. On the contrary, the feeble constitution, by care, may be lifted to a high grade of vitality. Parents should know enough of physldogy to begin right with their ohlhjjpn; train them to right habits, and fix In their minds, while still young, right ideas of morals and hygiene.— Youth’s Companion.

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL. —The Methodists have resolved to establish a missionary station in Western China. Mr. John F. Goucher, a wealthy layman of Baltimore, assumes the expense. —ln 1790 there were 1,260 Baptists of all shades in Pennsylvania, one Baptist to every 844 of the population. Now there are 64,000 Baptists, being one to every sixty-six ofAhe population. —The English Congregational Union will celebrate next year the jubilee of its foundation, and institute a special jubilee fund. Congregationalists from other countries will Be invited to participate. —Dr. Legge, an expert in Chinese matters, calculates that, at the present rate of mission increase, there will be, in 1913, 26,000,000 church members and 100.000,000 professing Christians in the Chinese Empire. —Edward Everett Hale admires the public school system of Massachusetts, but thinks when the pupils, after careful training, spell the word “ scholar” in a hundred different ways, there is some element still lacking. —lt is stated that King Oscar 11., of Sweden, has ordered a collection to be taken in all his churches of Sweden before May next, for the benefit of Zion Swedish Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. The fund will be used to help in providing a place of worship for the Swedes. —The Vicar of Whitfield recently presided over a Nonconformist meeting at Glosson, Eng., and said that he believed the time was coming when the Christian churches must agree as far as they could on the points which were essential, and try to differ as little as possible cm points that Were non-essential. —The Little Sisters of the Poor, Roman Catholic, started at St. Servan, in Brittany, about forty years ago. The community now numbers 2;142 Sisters. Thev have 186 houses throughout the world, of which twenty-two are in tin United States. They support 21,000 destitute aged persons. —The really greatest prizes of English clerical life, from a pecuniary point of view, are the head masterships of the great public schools. Those of Eton and Harrow are worth from $25,000 to $35,000 a year, and those of Westminster, Winchester, Rugby, Charter House, and Merchant Taylors are worth from $12,000 to $20,000 a year, including the spacious abodes attached to them. The heads of college at Oxford and Cambridge do not, for the most part, receive nearly so much. The master of Trinity College, Cambridge, the “ boss” college, has about $15,000 a year, and the Dean of Christ Chnrch, who is also Dean of the Cathedral Church, over SIO,OOO.

A Dangerous House. A citizen of Galveston, whom we shall call DeSmith, is the owner of a small frame cottage on Galveston Aveuue, which has nearly proved Ms ruin. It seems that the cottage, being very low, was not healthy, and it was necessarv to raise it about four feet De Smith saw a man whose business it is to raise houses, and asked him what he would oharge to raise that shanty. The man who raises houses said he would raise the house four feet for forty dollars. This seemed reasonable, so De Smith said: “I am going off for a couple of months, and the house will be vacant, so just you go ahead and raise away.” De Smith traveled off, and came back in a couple of months. He went around to see his house, and there it was raised np on jackscrews. He bunted -np the house-raiser, and said to him; “ What does this meanP Why don’t you finish the jobP” “1 have finished my job. I have raised the house, and now I want yon to come down with the money.” “Why don’t yon put the foundation under itP” “ That’s not in my contract. I only raise houses. If you want a foundation Sut under It, you must go to a mason to uild a brick foundation. Here you have had the use of my Jackscrews for a month, and I want rent for them extra. De Smith had supposed that the forty dollars was to include everything, hence he was disgusted, but there was nothing for him to do but to hunt up a mason, who agreed to put in a brick foundation for thirty dollars more. When the mason came to examlnu it he said; “The wood is rotten. I can’t put any foundation to the house when there is no sonnd wood for it to rest on.” “Well,” said De Smith, “I don’t know what I’ll do with this house if this keeps on, bat go ahead and put in fresh timbers.” “I can’t do that I am a mason. You must go to a carpenter. ” A darpenter has hunted up. He . charged forty dollars more, and when he got through, De Smith discovered he couldn’tget into the house, a> it had no stairs. The carpenter volunteered to build steps in the front and rear for fifteen dollars-more. De Smith had now become desperate, and was contemplating setting fire to it, but the idea that if he did several other houses might catch fire, and he would go to jail as an incendiary, restrained him. When the steps were built it was found that they protruded into the street, and consequently anew fence had to be built ana painted, and to preserve the unities the house had to be painted, whioh involved more exSense than the shanty was worth. De mlth’s friends say that his mind has Sven way under these troubles, and ere is no telling what may happen. Instead of his raising the house, the house raised him.— Ouveoton Newt.