f ' 12 GOODW'IN'S'W'EEKi.y
told ro pcw
' By Eden Phillpotts
Mll ' J LITTLE girl came rushing Into
'r t I tho gate of tho vicarage at
1 " Postbrldgo, Dartmoor, and it
M chancod that she met the minister
B - t himself as ho bent in his garden and
M scattered lime around upsprlnging
H seeds.
H "These slugs would try the patience
1 or a saint," he said, hearing footsteps,
H and not looking up "They have eaten
M off nearly all my young larkspurs. How
H can one fight them?"
M Then a small, breathless voice broke
H in ui)onvhim.
H 'Please, sir, mother sent me, an'
1 j I've runned a'most all tho way. from
H our cottage wi'out stopping once. 'Tis
M old Mr. Mundy, please. He'm dying
M so he told mother when her fetched
H him his milk this morning an' he
B says ho'vo got something very special
H to tell anybody as'll care to cornel an'
H listen to it. But nobody don't want to
M hear his secrets in the village; so
H mother said 'twas your job, please,
M an' sent me for your honor."
H "My job yes, so it is, little maid.
H T'll come at once. An' they'd better
H send for the doctor. It isn't his rveg-
H ular visiting day until Thursday, but
H probably it's his job, too."
mt "Mother axed the old man that; an'
M, he said as he didn't want no doctor,
fl nor his trade (medicine) neither. He
M I say he'm nearly a hundred years old,
i an' ho won't be messed about with at
H J his time of life, but just die easy an'
l '' comfortable."
1 In twenty minutes the clergyman
1 " had walked a mile and crossed a strip
ML ' of the wilderness that stretched round
H about the little hamlet on Dartmoor
H where ho labored. A single cottage
H separated from the rest by wide tracts
H of fure and heather stood hero, and
I, near it lay a neglected garden. But
H "Gaffer" Mundy had long ceased to
Hj fight tho moor or care for his plot of
H I land. His patch of the reclaimed
H i earth returned fast to primitive sav-
H j agery. Brake fern sprouted in the po-
H J tato bed; rush, heather and brier
Hvi choked the currant bushes; fearless
H ' rabbits nibbled every green thing.
H ''Come In, whoever you may be,"
H said an ancient voice, so the visitor
H. obeyed and entered, to find the suf-
H ferer, fully dressed, sitting by a fire
H of peat. Noah Mundy was once very
H tall, but now his height had vanished
H and he had been long bent under his
H burden of years. A bald, yellow skull
H rose above his countenance, and in-
H finite age marked his face. As the
Hj earth through centuries of cooling has
I, wrinkled into mountains and flattened
Hi into ocean beds between them, so
Hj , these aged features, stamped and torn
Hjr i with the fret and fever of long life,
H sjj had become as a book whereon time
Ha I had writen many things for those who
Hfi ' rea'd them. Very weak was the man,
Hj and very thin. He was toothless and
l ' almost hairless; tho scanty beard that
Hi fell 'from his chin was white, while
HI ' his mustache had long been dyed with
Hi t snuff to a lively yellow. His eyes re-
imalned alive, though one was filmed
over with an opaline haze. But from
the other he saw clearly enough for
II
till his needs. Ho made it a boast
that he could not write, and he could
not road. There was no book in his
house.
" 'Tis you, eh? I could have wished
for a man out of your trade, but It
won't matter. I've got a thing worth
tolling; but mark this, I don't care a
buton what you think of it, an' I don't
want none of your bunkum an' lies
after I have told it. Sit down in that
thicky chair an' smoke your pipe an'
keep cool. Ban't no use getting ex
cited now, for what I be going to tell
'o happened more'n sixty years ago
afore you was born or thought about?"
"My smoke won't trouble you?"
"Bah? I've smoked and chewed an'
snuffed for more'n half a century. I'm
baccy through and through soaked in
it, as you might say. An' as for smoke,
if what you tell to church bo true, I
shall have smoke, an' fire too, afore
long. But hell's only a joke to fright
en females. I don't set no store by if."
'Better leave that, Mr. Mundy. If
you really believe your end is near,
let us be serious. Yes, I'll smoke my
pipe. And you must feel very, very
sure, that what you tell mo is abso
lutely sacred, unless you wish it other
wise." "Nought sacred about it, I reckon
all t'other way. An' as for telling, you
can go an' shout it from top of Bell
ever Tor you'm minded to. I don't
care a farden curse who knows it now.
Wait till I'm out of it; then do as ydu
please."
He drank a little milk, remained si
lent a moment with his eyes upon the
fire, and presently began to tell his
"But that's to overrun the matter,
life's strange tale.
"Me an' my brother was the only
children our parents ever had; an' my
brother was five years older'n me. My
father, Jonas Mundy, got money
through a will, an' he brought it to
Dartmoor, like a fool, an' rented a bit
of moor from the Duchy of Cornwall,
an' built a farm upon it, an' set to
work to reclaim the land. At first he
prospered, an' Aller Bottom Farm, as
my father called it, was a promising
place, so long as sweat of man poured
out there without ceasing. You can
see the ruins of it yet, for when Jonas
Mundy died an' It failed to me, I left
it an' corned up here; an' the chap as
took It off my hands fte went bank
rupt inside three year. 'Tis all failed
to pieces now, for none tried again.
When I was fifteen an' my brother,
John James, was twenty, us both
failed in love with the same maid.
You stare; but though fifteen in years,
I was twenty-five in understanding, an'
a very oncoming youth where women
were concerned. Nelly Baker had
turned seventeen, an' more than once
I told her that though a boy of fifteen
couldn't wed a maid of her age with
out making folks laugh, even if he
could get a parson to hitch them, yet
a champ of three-an'-twenty might
very properly take a girl of five-an'-twenty
without the deed calling for
any question. An' her loved me truly
enough; for though you only see a
worn-out scarecrow afore you now, yet
seventy year agone I filled the eye of
more maidens than one, and was a
bowerly youth to look upon tall,
straight, tough, wi' hair bo black as a
crow.
"John James he never k'nOwed that
I cared a button for Nolly. I never
showed it to a living soul but' "her by
word or look; an' she kept quiet for
fear or being lauglied at, no doubt. ,
Her" folks were dead on the match
with Jolm Jamed, an' he pressed her
eo h'ard that she'd have took him but
for me. He was a prety fellow' too
the Mundys were very personable as
n family. Quite different, though,
from me. Fail polled, wi' flaxen hair,
an' terrible .strong was John James,
, i
an' the best wrastler-on Dartymoor in
them days.
"Me an' her met by appointment a
week afore she'd got to give him a
final 'yes' or 'no.' I mind it very well
to this hour; an' yet 'tis seventy-odd
jears agone. On Hartland T4pr uq sat
in the heather unseen, an I put my
' arms around her an'.loyed. hajv ai
promised to make her a happy vydman.
Tlen I told her what she'd gbtsto do.
First I. made her 'prick he"r flnger."wl' a
thorn of the furze, an' draw blood, an'
swear afore the Living God .she'd
marry me as soon as I couldrinake
her mistress of a farm. k
"She was for joking about the mat
ter at first, but I soon forced her to
grow serious. She done what.. I told
her, anr since she "believed in the Liv-
i t '
i$Wmt1'- fH JLJL .-,v
VAHHr' 'iflYx
HBrv rfliVJi
,. El shH Endorsed alike by busi-
i"'; BikJ ifist&Mlm iiess men and working
':P';JKBff' JM men by tne men and the
k'JAMTZ- H women, who are helping
OHiHHHjLlHHHHHHHH to build a city here as a
HH safe
jHPH practical and en-
IHHHHhHhBHhHhHHbIbIH terprising commissioner.
He has talcen the initiative in street and sidewalk, park
and boulevard improvements and his department is responsible
for maintaining the streets of the city in their present un- ,
precedented condition of cleanliness and repair.
Mr. Wells is a public servant not a master. He is ap
proachable to all citizens. He plays no favorites. His rare un
derstanding of men and measures, gained through years of
personal contact with the community and its envirous, affords
him a splendid equipment as a City Father.
(Political Advertisement.)
Jl BECCQ1 111
2V-ir BECKER'S' BECCO supplies the liquid part of 'BbjPJIh
PSrV& A deined It completely satisfies the taste of the most itfIlhsL,
Z3Ky!w Ts H-. critical commoisseur. It is a foaming, sparkling pure jt$0
sghMalv jraBjrjr Serve with neals or between meals, Rrarnmiirvtf