Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1876 — JUDGE REED’S DAUGHTER. [ARTICLE]

JUDGE REED’S DAUGHTER.

A. Reporter’s story. The L. W. A. Railroad was to be opened, and I had been detailed to write it up When 1 left the city l took with me, besides the conventional traveling-bag, my fishing-rod and book of Hies, for I had determined to have at least one day’s trouting in the comparative wilderness which lies about the northern terminus of the new road. The “ opening” passed off in the ortho, dox manner, with a good deal of talking about the undeveloped resources of the country, a speech by the oldest inhabitant, who had settled at Sliebano when there “ wau’t a house nigher-’n thirty mile,” and a regular country spread in the school house. A slightly metaphorical report had been dispatched for the office, and I felt free for one day’s sport. The same evening 1 wet my line in the river whidh brings the logs down to the saw-mills. The landlord at the “Eagle,” the only hotel in the place, told me I “couldn’t eaten no fish,” and however wrong he may have been in grammatical construction he was right in regard to the fact be endeavored to convey. After a half-hour's work, and before the daylight had quite faded out, I became disgusted, and began to reel up. Then for the first time I noticed a man sitting on the bank behind me. He was a youngish sort of a chap, and rather good-looking, but his dress, which was' . similar..to that of the loggers. ,ia that -region, led me to believe he was one of that class. “Driving on the river?” I inquired. “No.” “ Working in the mills? 1 ’ “No.” “What are you doing?” “Nothing.” “Rather a poor way of getting one’s living,” I muttered, but the young fellow did not seem to notice me, and I thought that was the last I would have to do with him. The total depravity of inanimate tilings upset the surmise, for one of the joints of my rod stuck, and denied all my efforts to pull it apart. He perceived my trouble, and coming to where I was standing, volunteered his assistance. With our united efforts the' joint separated, but we worked on it long enough for me to see that his hands were small, though browned by sun burn, showing that they had no acquaintance with manual labor. After putting my rod up we started down the one street the village afforded together. On the wav he became quite talkative, and surprised me by his familiarity with current topics and the good language he employed in expressing his ideas! By the time we had reached the “Eagle” I had learned that he had sold some land up north and the capital so obtained brought him income enough to support him in such an out-of-the-way place as Shebano. “What did you sell out for?” I inquired, “don’t you know timber land is constantly increasing in value?” “I know it,” said he, “but I couldn’t keep it. If you don’t mind being bothered a bit, I’ll tell you how it came about.”

We sat down on the piazza in front of the house, tilted our chairs back and lighted our pipes. “ You see,” said he, “my claim was up the river shout twenty miles. It lay along a ridge right in the thick of the pine woods; in front of it was the river, sparkling in the sunshine, and back of it the hills began. I had lived tljere most of my life, and I knew every bush and every stonie within a day’s walk of the shanty. About a year ago old Judge Reed—he came from your section; do you know him?” “Judge Reed, who used to be on the circuit?” “ I reckon.” “ Did he have a pretty daughter?’! _ “ That’s him." There wasn’t much in the words, but there was a great deal in the intonation of the voice that uttered them; a halfpleased, half-pained expression. I waited for him to go on with his story, but he putted away on his pipe in silence until I woke him out of his reverie. “Well,” he continued, “old Judge Reed came up this way from Chicago. •HTrtfpgrOT'WouforifßttrWffiF doctors told fttnr to take to the pine woods. His daughter came with him, aud stuck to him like a Trojan. He was mighty weak when they got as far out as my shanty; so we made him as comfortable as we could at my place. He did intend going away into the woods and then to camp out. He had everything fixed for it, tents and all that. I saw it was no use trying to move him any further, so I turned the house over to him' and his daughter, Stuck up a tent and shantied out. They had a man along with them, but he was no use; always complaining there were no conveniences, saa as for the ’skeeters, they went for him

like a bar for a bee tree. 1 shipped him off for the settlement after he had been with us a couple of days, and the move was pleasing to both of us. The old Judge was pretty bad for a few days, but the pure air and the pine balsam had a good effect upon him, so it wasn’t long before he began to take to the deer meat and the trout I brought in for him in a hearty, consoling sort of a way. “ Before a week was* up he was on his feet, and bhc afternoon I came back from a tramp after trout and found him sitting in front of the shanty smoking ope of my pipes. I knew U was all right then. ‘ Mr. Blake,’ said he, ‘ we’re turned you out of your house for a week, but if you are comfbrtahle under my tent we would like to keep you out for a month longer. Of course 1 was willing to keep them, for I hud got to like the old gentleman; the girl I hadn’t seen much of, for while the Judge was down she never quit him. But when her father came around all right, she was out as chipper and merry as a squirrel. “ She was as bright and pretty as a sunbeam, and had a wonderful knack of making everything good for something. Why, she fixed up the old shanty so that I wouldn’t have known the place if I hadn’t seen how it was done. Every morning she was up bright and early after ferns and flowers and moss; and she had the cutest way of Using them; why, shetd tie up a couple of ferns and some moss so t’would look like a picture. I never knew there were so many pretty things in the woods, and when I’d tell her of something I’d found in my tramps, nothing would do but I must get it tor her,

and if it wasn’t too far away, she’d go With me. There was only one thing that she didn't do right. About half a mile (fora the ahauly, back almost to the hills, was an old hollow log among a lot of spruce trees. I’d been telling her how It used to be a liar’s nest, and that I’d got two cube out of it and then shot the old bar. She wanted to see the place and I took her over one morning. She had her drawing tilings with her, aud said she was going to make a picture of the place. She did draw the trees and the rocks and the hollow tog mighty nice, -but Bhe spoiled it by putting in the old bar Just scrawling into the log front end first. But she didn’t know the ways and nature of the varmints as well as I did. “ She was as tender-hearted as she was pretty. One morning, just before sun up, we started over to the tunway on Kelly’s Sond, hoping to pick up a little fresh cef meat. I fixed her up nice and comfortably behind the blind, and she sat there us quiet as a wood-mouse. Wc hadn’t wailed long before a two-year-old came picking her waj Up the path. Just as I drew down my rifle the girl put her hand on my shoulder and whispered: “Don’t shoot.” Well, we didn’t have any vdnison that day. “But what I liked most washer reading. I was a good deal of a scholar, having had two winters’ schooling and no end of reading, for the city gents who came opt my way hunting and fishing always left a heap of books and papers after them. Her reading was of another kind. Mostly poetry. Bhe read to me very often, and about three days before Bhe went back to the city she read me one of Mr. Longfellow’s pieces about a girl called Evangeline. It is a mighty pretty story, and it riled me up to think of that poor girl go ing all over the wide country looking for her lover, and then not finding him until he was dying in a hospital. We were sitting close together when she finished, and I was so touched up about it that I spoke my mind right out. Then she turned a little toward me, and laying one of her little white hands on my great black paw, said: “ There are a great many who look through tho whole world for the one their heart asks for, and after all never find the right one.” Then she seemed to get frightened and jumped up and ran into the house. v “ I didn’t ses Tier very ofteh after that. The morning they started away I tended to packing all their traps into the wagon, and after shaking hands with the Judge—he was a polite old gentleman, for he asked mo to call and see him if I ever came to the city—l went back into the house to see that they hadn’t forgotten anything. Just as 1 was coming out of the Judge’s room Miss Nellie met me, and taking both my hands in hers said, ‘ David, you’ve been very kind to father and me. The air and the woods here done US both good, but we wouldn’t Have enjoyed it if you had not been here; we thank you very, very much, aud I—.’ I looked down into her face and saw two big tears in her eyes, and the next minute she toppled over into my arms kind ol taint like; then, before I knew what to do, she was out of the door like a bird, and when I reached the road they were driving otf, and the Judge was waving good-by to me. “ 1 stood in the road looking after them, then turned and went into the house. It did not seem like the old place; all the brightness was gone. It was some time before I could go into Nellie’s old room, and when 1 did I found a letter lying on the table for me, and with it a picture of the girl. “ Things didn’t go very well after that. I tried fishing, but I’d get to thinking ot the times when I used to go after the Judge’s breakfast, and the trout would run off with my bait. Hunting was just as bad, for every time I’d draw a bead on a deer something would say “Don’t shoot,” and I’d let the critter go. Still I stood it pretty well until the leaves began to fall, but when that time came I grew restless and hated the sight of the old shanty. I came down here to Shebano and hung around until winter set in. One day an Eastern man came to me and asked if I’d sell my place. We talked the mattei over between ourselves, and the upshot of the whole thing was that we went over to ’Squire Hale’s office. When we came out 1 had the money and he owned the old shanty. My idea was to go to Chicago, and the first thing I did was to get a paper to look out a stopping-place there, tor I hadn’t been in Chicago but once, and that, was when I was a boy. I went blundering through the paper until I found something that settled the whole business. It was down at the tail end of a letter from New York, and said: Judge Beed and Miss Reed, of Chicago, sailed for Europe, In the Egypt, Saturday.

“The winter pulled through slow enough, I can tell you. Most of my time was spent in waiting for the mail to come in with the weekly papers. Once or twice I, found something about the Reeds, but it didn’t amount to much until, a month back, some meddling fool of a writer sent word from Paris that Nellie was going to be married to a Russian chap with no end of money and a name half a foot long.” “Well," said I. “That’s all.” said he. Of course I tried all I could to cheer him up, for he seemed very disconsolate, and exhausted all my reasoning trying to convince him that it was best as it was; but ’twas like pouring water into a sieve; WoW; WE eur pipes were out by this time, and saying good night to me, my new acquaintance jumped from ’ the piazza and disappeared in the darkness. I went into the bar-room; the landlord was the only one there. After a few commonplace remarks I said: “ Rather a romantic story that is of Mr. Blake’s?” “ Him as was a-settin out on the stoop with you?" “Yes.” t “ His name haint Blake ; I thought you knowed him. He’s Mr. Fellows, of the New York , and he’s up here a writin’ letters to his paper about the lum--ber trade. "- “ Landlord," said 1, “ call me in time for first train in tho morning, and have my bill ready.”— Chicago Inter-Ocean.

The Now York World furnishes some interesting and instructive figures concerning the comparative outlay for. postage in several named cities. Taking an average of twenty-two citjee with the highest postal receipts it finds that the citizens pay an annual per capita of $2.01 for postage. Boston pays the largestsum, amounting to $951,284 gross, or SB.BO per head. New York pays $3.10 and Chicago $8.03. The Brooklyn per capita Is only forty-two cents; but an average of the population and the postal receipts of Brooklyn and New York show that the per capita is $2.84 for the entire population. This is less than that of San Francisco, $2.83; Indianapolis, $2.81, and Pittsburgh, $2.52; but it is greater than Ihe receipts at Albany, *1.91; Rochester, $1.90; Providence, $1.79, and Cincinnati, $1.85. The more Southern cities do not patronize the Post Office to the same extent. Baltimore pays $1.28 per capita: Washington, $1.50; Louisville,. $1.50; Philadelphia, $1.48; St. Louis, $1.43; Kansas City, $1.26, add New Orleans, SI.OO, being the lowest average. The Detroit office receives $2.34 Cleveland $2, and Milwaukee Dcbing the tempest of the 12th of March, from 25,000 to 30,000 trees were blown dbwn in the forest of Campiegne. As, on an average, each one yields five cubic metres of wood, the total represents 150,000 steres, or a value of 8,000,000 francs.