Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1885 — Shrewd Mrs. Penuckle. [ARTICLE]

Shrewd Mrs. Penuckle.

“I didn’t always barrow the earth for a living,” said Farmer Penuckle, of Orange County. “I was once a wine merchant’s clerk in Brooklyn. I married young, and my wife, who is sitting there now, with the reputation of being as good a farmer’s wife as there is in the county, made just as good a mate for a hard-up clerk then. Like many young couples we had bought furniture on installments, and we were not able to pay all the sums as they fell due. Everything seemed to be going against us, and our little girl was sick, when I came home early one Saturday afternoon and found crape hanging* to my doorbell. My heart was in my mouth and my tears choked me as I met my wife. “ ‘So dear little Minnie is gone!’ I said. “‘Minnie 1 gone!’ said my wife. ‘Oh, no. But the Sheriff’s man will be round in a minute to seize the furniture, and I thought the crape might check him.’ “It checked him. He halted his wagon a dozen yards away, walked on tip-toe to the door, examined the crape, and went softly away, afraid, apparently, that some one might hear him. Minnie recovered; and a few days afterward I scraped together enough money to pay the bill, but I haven’t bought on installments since.”— hew York Sun.