Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1859 — The Ruling Passion. [ARTICLE]

The Ruling Passion.

A person haVKSrg occasion to visit an old! couple at Durham, of .extremely pen Cur ions habits, found them holding counsel together upon a matter which apparently weighed heavily upon the minds of both; and thinking it was respecting the probable dissolution of the wife, who was lying dangerously ill, proceeded to offer them all the consolation in his power; but was cut short by being informed that that was not exactly the subject they were discussing, but one which affected them still more deeply, the cost of her funeral; and, to his astonishment, they continued their ghastly calculations until! every item in the catalogue, from coffin to nightcap had been gone through, with much grumbling at the rapacity of “the undertakers,” when a thought suddenly struck the husband, and he exclaimed, “Wall, Janet, lass.yc may not die afer all, ye ken.” “Deed, and I hope not, Robert,” replied his helpmate, in a low feeble voice, “for I am quite sure we caima afford it.— Sunderland Herald.