Tt $1.00 a Year, In Advance;
"TOR OOP, FUR COUNTRY. AND I OR TRUTH."
Single Copy, 5 Cent.
VOL. XIV.
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 13, 1903.
NO. 31.
It
THE LOWEK RANCH.
. BY HAITI E HORNER LOUTHAN. .
OfS. ASON GRANT sat. in his
light spring wagon, wait
X T
o B o
ing to go with his wife and
her friends to the Lower
Ranch.- She was really
going, although she had
fcowed that she never would. But they
were not ready yet, and ho bowed his
head on his hands and allowed his
mind to wander over the almost twenty
years of their married life.
P No one would ever accuse Jason
Grant of sentimentality; yet in this
retrospection his thoughts dwelt with
singular persistence upon a certain
morning in a haying season long ago,
when pretty Mary Moore had come to
help" his mother cdok for the hay hands,
lie recalled the jealous pang with
' Avhich he saw the young minister drive
Mary to the door for Jason Grant,
lard-working, close-handed, grasping,
was never given to sentiment. But
twenty years made a difference; and
he had been at that time what most
"of the other farmer boys were even
though every one thought him wrapped
up in land-getting 'and money -making.
How well he remembered that day!
lie had made numerous trips, neces-
sary.and unnecessary, from hay field
to house, just for a word with Mary
Moore, or for a glimpse of her" plump
form and blooming face. The picture
that rose oftenest before him was that
o;3Mary, framed by the doorway, smil-
i 7 ,inA,i liirti nc ln 4-ti.n.l Til.
rj ui'u" uijlu 110 m- iuiuim iiuiiv Willi
the hammer for which he had made
one of those unnecessary trips. . That
smile had made his heart beat like a
hammer of another sort foolish fel
low! . Ah, me! he could see it all in detail
the yellow farmhouse with green shut
ters, the "leanto" for tools, the bench,
fhe grindstone, the scythe, the garden
Hake, the wood-pile with the axe in the
old stump, the well-sweep, beyond the
stretch of orchard fence, the barn,
swallow-circled, and the fast-multiply-Ing
stacks of emerald hay.
Jason, the only son, had inherited
the Grant homestead; and Mary Moore
had been wise, from the worldly point
of view, in accepting his hand, grasp
ing though it Avas, rather than that of
the young minister, which had been
offered her on that very morning's
drive.
It was- more the spirit of innate co
quetry that prompted her to inform the
reticent young farmer of the honor
proffered her by the minister; though
Jason Grant, during the sober second
thought following the arduous insist
ence of his own proposal, came to the
conclusion that the information had
been vouched him in order to bring
him to the point.
His father had forsome time' had
his business eye upon a rich bottom
land ranch, an entire section, six hun
dred and forty goodly acres, wooded,
watered and gently sloping, and lying
in the inevitable path "of the nrnch
ta J Iced -of branch road from seat to seat
of the adjoining counties. When old
be had upon a small payment, and by
assuming the heavy, though long-time
mortgage held by eastern parties; and
iltanehmnn Grant came to his last 111
'"Fness, shortly before his son's wedding.
I he confided to the prospective bride
A groom that the coveted ranch could
that the acquirement of it was worth
oven the postponement of the wed
ding. But love is love; his blundering pro
posal was made, and the marriage
celebrated shortly after the old father
had been laid to rest. It was not un
til the wedding day that the young
ranchman told his bride of the pro
posed purchase of the Lower Ranch,
that it would require all his ready
money for the first payment, and that
' they would have to defer their intend
ed weddng tour to the State capital,
o Instead, she might accompany him to
Jv.tbe county-seat, where he must go to
' lix up the transfer of the mortgage.
f So Mrs. Jason Grant how proud
she was of the new name informed
her friends and the minister who had
the grace to "hide his disappointment
and officiate at the wedding that for
the present "my husband and me"
.would journey to the county-seat and
stop at the best hotel till "my hus
band's" business was settled, that of
17
buying six hundred and forty acres of
the richest bottom-land in the country;
that later they would build a fine
house on their new ranch, and move
there; and that they would go on their
wedding trip in the fall.
Needless to say, that wedding tour
was never taken. So this was the first
of a long series of credits to Mary
Grant in her account with the Lower
lianch. That fall her health was not
the best; by spring, baby Ruben came,
and the multiplication of household
cares tied her to the home ranch. But
Mary was young and strong, and like
any other loving woman, centred her
heart in her husband, home and baby,
sang about her work, and laughed
down any mention of a wedding tour.
There were so many other things she
wanted more; a baby -carriage, some
new clothes, and an ingrain carpet
for the. best room. But her mother-in-
law said she had raised one son and
six daughters without a baby carriage;
that the wedding clothes covdd be
made over, and that rag-carpets ought
to be good enough for farmers' wives.
When Mary appealed to her hus
band, he said gravely that he feared
she'd have to wait awhile,' as the semi
annual payment on the Lower Ranch
was about due, and he hardly knew
how he was to meet it without sacri
ficing some hogs on the then low mar
ket. Then Mary, in a burst of gener
osity, said he must do nothing of the
sort. He should have her butter and
egg income, which was no little. So
she continued to carry her heavy baby,
made over her meagre wedding outfit,
and spent the evenings tearing and
sewing "carpet-rags.
That fall the old mother died, and
the funeral expenses consumed much
of the money saved toward the winter
payment on the Lower Ranch. New
winter clothes were not to be thought
of; the butter and egg income con
tinued to flow into the Lower Ranch
fund, and by spring Mary was asking
a quarter at a time for thread and
other necessities. Still she was proud
of her husband as a land owner, and
kept saying that she would go with
him some day to see the Lower Ranch.
But it was ten miles distant, a long
ride for "her and baby in the heavy
wagon, and she was always so busy.
, That season the crops were almost
a failure through drought, and the
hogs had to go, market or no market.
In the spring another baby added to
Mary's cares and she made Ruben's
infant clothes do for the tiny girl.
How could she ask for new things
when barns must be painted, hired
hands paid, and that semi-annual pay
ment always staring them in the face?
A hired girl had been the dream of
her honeymoon days, and the necessity
for house help grew as the passing
years increasDd the work, and slipped
babe after babe into her reluctant
arms. But she was told, impatiently,
I fear, that she could see that three
hired men couldn't put in and culti
vate and gather all the crops of the
homestead and Lower Ranch and the
rented land; he must have more help.
When once the Lower Ranch was paid
for, she could have a hired girl and
welcome.
It was the fifth year when the mort
gage was due that a diplomatic trip
had to be made to the county-seat.
The last payment was overdue, with
only part of the interest paid. But
the agent was wise. He had learned
upon inquiry that Jason Grant was
hone At, hard-working and ambitious;
that he always paid, as he demanded
to be paid to the last penny. So there
was no trouble about the extension of
the mortgage; and the ranchman re
turned home radiant. His wife was
not as sympathetic as he had expected.
Every year of the extension of that
mortgage meant another year .without
help in the house.
The second five years proved harder
than the first five. Mary's superb
health yielded more and more to the
strain. The rosy face and arms grew
brown and leathery from exposure at
the wash tub, in the garden and in the
barnyard. She took less pride in her
self and children now, went less fre
quently to church, though the minister,
still unmarried, called to protest. She
grew more and more silent, unfriendly
and self-contained, as she "trod her
eternal circle" of cooking, dish-washing,
sweeping and mending, washing,
milking cows and rocking babies.
During these years of meeting pay
ments, she seldom expressed a want
of a need shoes or school books for
the children, a bottle of medicine, or
small donations for the parsonage
but she was confronted by the Lower
Ranch and its next payment.
At length the mortgage was lifted,
the last payment met; but the sign of
pardonable relief was quenched by the
announcement that the "fine house"
would now be built for renting pur
poses. The projected Branch Road
from county seat to county seat was
enjoying its biennial boom, the Lower
Ranch was on its surveyed route, and
as all the adjoining ranches were mak
ing improvements, it was just pure
business to keep up with the neighbors
and be ready for what might happen.
The "fine house" was begun and
finished, and Ranchman Grant urged
his wife to go with him and see it.
Mary smiled one of her grim little
smiles, and said she was too busy and
too tired; the children might go Ru
ben, Mandy and Jason. She really
never had been to the Lower Ranch,
near as it was. The longing of earlier
years to visit had changed, first into
indifference, and by-and-by into a posi
tive aversion, quite unaccountable to
her husband. v "
The years that followed were full
of prosperity for Jason Grant. He
"bought more land to raise more corn
to feed more hogs" his eternal circle,
itis possessions increased fields,
barns, stock, family. He wrould have
hired a girl for his -wife, he told her
one day about here; but country help
was high-priced, and besides, Mandy
and Mag were quite old enough to
take responsibilities. To this Mary did
not respond! She, was growing to be
almost as silent as he.
More years, more prosperity, more
improvements on all the. ranches and
now of the. state of affairs at the old
ranch house, just a glimpse.
Ranchman Grant sits inside the fly
screen of the west kitchen door. Mrs.
Grant. has "done" the supper dishes
and strained the milk and set the yeast
and picked the chickens and put the
baby to sleep and heard Mag's and
Willie's Sunday-school lessons, and
now she draws her mending basket
near the lamp, and approaches her
husband on the matter of their share
of the minister's salary. The Joneses
give ten dollars besides most keeping
the minister and his sister in meat.
The Turners give ten dollars and never
go to . town without taking a bushel
of turnips to the parsonage. And didn't
he mind, they had set down four dol
lars and one-half last revival time, and
only fifty. cents of it was paid, besides
the half bushel of potatoes and what
butter she had spared?
Emboldened by his silence, she goes
on to remind him that Ruben needs a
new pair of boots, since he and the
team have been promised a week in
Turner's timber. And Mandy ought
to have a new calico dress if she
takes the little ones to Sunday-school.
And she, herself, would like to get
another bottle of that iron tonic just
to carry her over haying season; the
other bottle had sort o' braced her up.
She hated to go to Dr. Dean again,
when he wasn't paid yet for tending on
Willie, and the baby.
Jason Grant is astonished. Doesn't
he let her have half the butter and
egg money, and oughtn't a woman to
keep herself in little things with all
that? Don't all the stores where she
trades carry calico? And Ruben's
boots will last another two mouths at
least; he noticed them only last Sun
day. As to the parson, doesn't he,
Jason Grant, give each of the children
a penny every Sunday for the collec
tion? She doesn't stop to calculate
how much that amounts to in a year;
women are nothing at figures anyhow.
Well, he'll see the parson some of these
days and see about that four dollars.
Maybe he'll take some more potatoes.
He settles back to his paper without
a mention of the medicine. But his
wife persists, though half frightened
at her own temerity. Can she have just
enough to get the tonic? She can't
sell butter and eggs at the drug store.
If she can only be carried over till
cool weather. She isn't feeling right
smart, and baby pulls her down
and "
Her husband breaks in impatiently.
How much does a bottle cost? Thirty
five cents. He counts out the exact
change into her extended hand, mutter
ing that he doesn't see how ho is ever
to improve the Lower Ranch if she
keeps on. Nearly a whole half dollar
for a bottle of patent medicine that
won't do any good either. 'Women are
always sick or think they are. If they'd
only take care of themselves! He is
never sick. Always money! Does she
think his breeches pockets are chuck
full all the time? A man can struggle
along all his days and work like a
slave and never get ahead. And to
see his money, good straight silver,
cash, mind you, worse than thrown
away on such fool things as patent
bitters! It is downright outrageous!
And two new sickles broken and a new
sulky rake 'to buy, and a stock-well to
dig on the Lower Ranch, and won't
that ranch be hers when he is dead?
After several such interviews, Mary
Grant's aversion to the Lower Ranch
grew into a sort of mania. Not only
did she refuse to see it, but she began
to tell her neighbors in a boastful way
that she had never seen the big piece
of land, bought when she was a bride,
now more than eighteen years ago,
and what was more, she never would
go near it. It was the one subject
upon which she was talkative. The
habit grew upon her. She would tell
the same story to every one, even to
chance acquaintances. She went so far
as to repeat her vow to the minister
in the presence of her husband a vow
which the minister never forgot and
which the husband never forgave.
But one day, after a week's absence
at the county-seat. Jason Grant re
turned home too jubilant to remember
petty wrongs. The Branch Road was
to be built, in fact, was being built.
The survey was completed, construc
tion begun, and oh! what a fortune, a
station was located right in the south
west corner of his section. A town,
rejoicing in the name of Grantville,
was to be laid out, and he would be the
Town Company, with th$ price of lots
to be fixed at his discretion. Now she
must go to see their town" on their
ranch.
She heard him through with her little
mirthless smile, but shook her head.
She could not go; she was always too
tired.
And she clung to her resolution. The
road was completed, the town laid out,
lots sold and houses erected by the
magic of all Western booms. Grant
ville fiourshed that summer and fall.
There were the smell of new lumber
and fresh paint and the sound of saw
and hammer. A quarry was opened
within two miles of the town. The
new cemetery, with its two fresh
graves, was laid out in the northeast
corner of Jason Grant's ranch, and
even there was a boom in lots.
But the Town Company's wife never
saw the town. She kept her vow with
the dogged persistence of her class,
though the town was their nearest
market. She remained at home alto
gether on Sundays after the services
were transferred from the country
schoolhouse to the new clmrch in town.
And the neighbors whispered that
Mary Grant wasn't the housekeeper
she used to be. She hadn't entered
butter nor preserves nor patchwork
quilts at the county fair for three
years. Her marigolds and hollyhocks
died from want of attention, and
Mandy took the entire care of the last
baby. Even the minister's sister had
to acknowledge that Mrs. Grant "didn't
seem to take any interest."
Jason Grant sat in his light spring
wagon waiting to go with his wife
and her friends to the Lower Ranch. a
She was really going, although she had
vowed that she never would. But they
were not ready yet, and he bowed his
head on his hands and allowed his
mind to wander over all the years of
their married life.
Presently the minister came out of
the house, and spoke a word to his
sister who had charge of the children.
Then he came to the side of the spring
wagon and touched the arm of the
dreaming man. If the minister had
been a woman, he might have said
something bitter, tince he had never
forgotten Mary's vow. As it was, he
climbed to the wagon-seat in silence,
took the reins from Jason Grant's hand
and gave the sign for the procession to
start. Waverley Magazine.
How to Test Eggs.
"There are many ways to test eggs,"
said a local grocer the other day, "but
the one I have found best is as fol
lows: Immerse the egg in water; if
fresh it will sink and lie horizontally
on the bottom of the vessel: when from
three to five days old it will rest at a
slight angle the large end uppermost:
if eight days old it will assume an
angle of about seventy degrees, , and
after four weeks it will stand upright
on its small end. If bad, it will float."
New. York Times
THE PAPER.CLAD MAN.
German Inventor Offers a Novel Reform
in Dregg.
Philosophy must needs pause In gen
tle contemplation of this latest news
from Germany. The Taper-Clad Man
is on the way, and he who is of an ear
nest and receptive nature and well
grounded in philosophy will await .the
issue with a serene mind, believing
that all things are for good, and that
humanity is. as Mr. Carnegie has ob
served, tending toward higher ground.
It seems that some German geniua
has discovered a way of making papec
clothes. No more shall man be slavef
to the cocoon of the silk worm, or the
wool which grows upon the sheep's
back. In pulp he shall have found tt
friend in need, and one to be depended
upon in fine weather or foul. No more
shall he be clothed in purple or fine
linen, but in the product of the paper
mills shall he meet the demands of
decency and comfort. It is very inter
esting news. There is so much oppor
tunity in paper.
The mind's eye can see the man of
the future entering a shop and asking;
for a new suit of paper clothes. In
a trice his measure will be taken. The
wheels will turn; the mucilage, paste,
pins, string, or whatever Is to hold the
various parts of his garment together,
will be cunningly applied, and. present
ly he will sally forth arrayed in chaste
white or black, or in gay colors, re
sembling those of the Sunday "comics."
In the happy days to come a man
need never wear the same raiment
twice, for the paper clothing must, of
course, be inexpensive. In the sum
mer time he will find need of fabrics
so like gassamer that a dozen suits
will scarcely fill one side of his port
folio, and a bathing suit will weigh
the fractional portion of an ounce. In
winter clothing light but impervious
to the weather will be supplied. Many
of us know by experience how much'
warmth there is in an old newspaper
worn between the upper and the nether,
coat. In fact, it seems as if the Ger
man inventor had struck the long-felt
want. If he has, the phrase, "Made in
Germany," must no more he used as a
term of opprobrium and reproach.
American Sharpshooters.
The score of 1570 made by the Amer
ican team in the Palma Trophy match
at Bislcy, England, is announced as
the "best on record" since 1S7S, but
while that is technically correct in a
restricted sense it is misleading. In
1S78 there was no competition, but an
American team shot a "walk-over" at
Cceedrnore and .scored 1GG0 points.
Compared with the achievements of
long-range marksmen prior to 1878,
the shooting of the last three years is
nothing to brag about. Improved
small-calibre rifles and smokeless pow
der are supposed to give the long
range marksmen of to-day great ad
vantages over the riflemen of a quar
ter of a century ago, yet the winning;
score at Bisley was ninety-seven points
less than the score for the same num
ber of shots made by the Americans
at Creedmore in 1S7S. It will take
practice to produce worthy successors
to the old Creedmore sharpshooters.
Philadelphia North American.
Traveled 4000 Miles to a Dentist. '
It is told in all seriousness that the
Rev. W. W. Waddell, who had part of
a tooth extracted in Brooklyn, traveled
4000 miles to have the job done. He
has been living in Brazil for a Ions
time, and when his jaw swelled to an
enormous size ho thought he had can
cer, and came to New York for treat
ment or to die as it might happen.
When his old physician looked at him
he growled: "You have an ulcerated
tooth; that's all." A dentist attended
to the matter with a pair of forceps,
and now Mr. Waddell will travel 4000
miles back to Brazil to tell the doctors
what he thinks of them. Pittsburg
Dispatch.
Save Your Eyn.
Looking into the fire is very injurious
to the eye, particularly a coal fire.
The stimulus of light and heat united
soon destroys the eyes. Looking at
molten iron will soon destroy the sight.
Reading in the twilight is injurious to
the eyes, as they are obliged to make
great exertion. Reading or sewing;
with a side light injures the eyes, as
both eyes should be exposed to an
equal force of light. Those who wish
to preserve their sight should preserve
their general health by correct habits
of living, and give their eyes jnst work
enough, with a due degree of light.
The fellow who owes you money.
J usually feels insulted if you ask him
Cor It. . a