|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 41
He paused to look round at his audience and see the effect of this
statement, and the schoolmaster took advantage of the pause to ask,
"Were you in the habit of putting money in that teapot for safe-keeping,
Uncle Jabez?"
"Young man, I was not," said Uncle Jabez emphatically, and evidently
annoyed both by the question and by the tone in which it was uttered.
"It was a little notion of Lavina's, and I'd never meddled with it, one
way or the other. But I'd left it be there after she died, because I
liked to look at it. I'd no more 'a' dreamed of puttin' that check in it
than I would of puttin' it into Gracie's work-box. But there it was, and
how it come there it wasn't vouchsafed me to know.
"I think it must have been a matter of three or four months after this,
though I wouldn't like to say too positive, that I fell into my first
and last lawsuit. A man I'd always counted a good neighbor made out he'd
found an old title-deed which give him a right to a smart slice off'n my
best meadow-land. It dated fifty years back, and old Peter Pinnell, that
was the only surveyor in the township at that time, made out he
recollected runnin' the lines; and when McKellop, the feller that
claimed the track, took old Pinnell over the ground, to see if he could
find any landmarks that would help to make the claim good, they found a
big pine-tree jest where they wanted to find it, and cut into it at the
right height to find a 'blaze,' if there was one. The rings was marked
as plain as the lines on a map, and when they'd cut through fifty, there
was the mark, sure enough, and McKellop's lawyer crowed ready to hurt
himself. I was a good deal cut down, I can tell you, for I could see
pretty well that it was goin' to turn the scale; and when supper-time
came, Gracie could hardly coax me to the table. I said no, I didn't feel
to be hungry; for I couldn't get that strip of meadow-land out of my
head. And it wasn't so much the value of the land, either, though I
couldn't well afford to lose it, as it was the idee of McKellop's
crowin' and cacklin' all over the neighborhood about it. But Gracie
looked so anxious and tired that I come to the table, jest to satisfy
her; and I found I was hungry, after all, for I'd been trampin' round
the farm most of the day, lookin' for some landmark or sign that would
prove my claim, that dated seventy years back. I recollect we had soused
pigs' feet for supper that night; and I don't think I ever tasted better
in my life. I eat pretty free of them, as I always did of anything I
liked, and we wound up with some of her canned peaches, that she'd got
out to coax me to eat, and cream on 'em 'most as thick as butter: she
had a skimmer with holes into it that she always skimmed the cream with
for our own use. She'd made as good a pot of coffee as I ever tasted.
And when I'd had all I wanted, I felt a good deal better, and I says to
her,--'I'll fret over it no more, Gracie: if it's his'n, let him take it
'ithout more words.'
"She read me a story out of the paper that made us both laugh right
hearty, and then a chapter, as usual, and then we went to bed. And all
come round jest as it did afore. I thought I was roamin' about the farm,
as I had been pretty nigh all day; but things was changed round,
somehow, and the further I went the more mixed up they got, till, jest
as I'd found the pine-tree, I heard Lavina's voice, the same as I'd done
afore,--first far, and then near,--sayin', 'Father;' and the third time
she said it, when it sounded close to, she went on to say, 'He's done
his cuttin', now do you do yours. You cut through twenty more rings, and
you'll find the blaze that marks _your_ survey. And then thank him
kindly for givin' you the idee. The smartest of folks is too smart for
themselves once in a while.' And with that she laughed her own jolly,
hearty laugh; but that was the last she said; and I laid there wonderin'
and thinkin' for a while, and then dropped off to sleep. But it was all
as clear as a bell in my head in the morning, and I had McKellop and old
Peter at the pine-tree by eight o'clock. I'd sharpened my axe good, I
can tell you, and it didn't take me long to cut through twenty more
rings, and there, sure enough, was the blaze; and if ever you see a
blue-lookin' man, that man was McKellop; for as soon as old Peter see
the blaze he recollected hearin' his father tell about the survey; he
recollected it particular because the old man was a good judge of
apple-jack, and he'd said that _my_ father'd gi'n him some of the
best, that day the survey was made, that he'd ever tasted. And Peter
said he reckoned he could find something about it in his father's books
and among some loose papers he had in a box. And, sure enough, he found
enough to make my claim as clear as a bell and make McKellop's as flat
as a pancake. Now, what do you think of _that_, hey?"
Once more the old man peered into Birchard's face, and the schoolmaster
answered one question with another, after the custom of the country:
"Did you ever know anything about the blazed tree before McKellop found
the blaze?"
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|