Puck — January 23, 1889 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“SURRUP,” How tr Caused a Boom ror tHe Soutn Pecram Herald, He ELDER was toiling home through the cold No- vember mists. A sort of gray slush filled the air, like the ghost of the gray mud, escaping toward heaven, The trees were just visible through it, looming up, dim, dark and unde- fined. Up among their tops, the damp, heavy wind set lazy fog-wreaths wavering about. Down below, the clayey mud stuck to the Elder's feet, and made the walking hard for the old man, “What ye got in the jug, Eller?” demanded Lemuel Swan, the sexton of the church, as he dawned out of the mist upon the Elder's gaze. “Sho! that you, Lemu’l?" asked the Elder, a trifle disturbed: “1 didn’t know you at tust —no, I did n't, Whut’s in the jug? Oh— surrup — surrup — maple surrup. I heern they brung some extry good daoun ter the corner store, an’ I thought I'd kinder try what ’t wuz like. My old woman, she’s a powerful hand fer surrup on buck- wheat cakes.” “Surtup ’s good,” said Lemuel, with a sententiousness pregnant with meaning. ‘*So’s other things.” And he moved on his way, and the mist closed in behind him, ‘The Elder trudged on his way, for more thana mile. ‘Then, ina place where the mist was thick under a double row of clm-trees, he paused, removed the cork from the jug, lifted the vessel to his lips, and took what was probably the longest drink of straight maple syrup on record. Half an hour later the Elder was going cautiously down his cellar steps, with the jug upon his shoulder, when his wife poked her head out of the kitchen window : “Why, Father,” she exclaimed; “what you got in that jug?” ‘The Elder craned his head around the jug to look up at her. “‘Surrup, Mother,” he said, somewhat teebly: “maple surrup. | kind 0’ thought: you was out, an’ buckwheat bein’ in, I sort 0” cal'lated U lay in ahead —” “Wiy, Father,” said Mrs. Berry, with surprise and gratification her tone, “that wuz right forehanded ’f you. We didn’t have not to say more ’n a pint in the haouse, Put it Fight on the hangin’ shelf, 'n’ L'il sze to ic Umorrer.” : The Elder shuffled down the steps; but at the bottom he started nervously, as he heard his wife’s voice again, “ Father!" Whatsay ?" returned the Elder. You ain't be'n an’ bought a noo jug, have ye? ‘The old un ain't cracked, on’y abanat the nose.” “No, Mother—no, I ain’t. ‘They —they loaned me this un daown ter the store.” And the Elder vanished into the cellar. Now the Elder fully in- tended to pay another visit to the corner store the next day, and to take a jug with him, too —an old jug, cracked about the nosz. But that day Abner Brown fell from the roof of a house that was shingling, and the Elder to serve on the coroner's jury ; and in the excitement created by the catastrophe throughout the town of egram, the Elder was swept into a sea of conversation, in which his mem: ory was completely drowned. Three days later, this neglected duty came back to his mind, and the Elder turned a pale pea-green as his wife observed, in a casual way : “1 wz right sorry not to git t? the Sewin’ Circle tea this a’ternoon, but [did n't jest see my way to, with S'manthy Ann’s child’n both daown with the croup, an’ a batch o pies to make. But, my! f wuz jest sot on goin’— waffles 'n’ pancakes, they be goin’ ter have, an’ if thuz one thing | do admire, it’s waffles the way aunt Mary Ann Barker makes ’em, But I jest «did 2'/ see my way fer to go, nor | could n’t make em no cake, nor nothin’, so I sent over that jug o” surrup you broug day, Father, an? Aunt Mary Ann, she says she "Il bring don’t use, ‘Thinks-says-I, Father ain’t got no buckwheat vit, an’ they ‘il think a sight more “f that surrap then they would of the Noo Orean mi'lasses Sary Jane Hance gin'lly gives ‘em, so 1 sent it along. Aunt Mary Ann, she sent back word by Nash's hired man, that 1 got to take it, that it looked reel clear and fine.” t home the other ack whut they whut time is this tea “Whut_ time,” ye're talkin? about ? “Why, "baout 'n hour ago it begun than! Elnathan Berry! where you goin’ 2” But Elder Elnathan Berry’s coattails lay lat on the breeze as he rushed madly toward Aunt Mary Ann Barker's house, where the Sewit Circle met. He reached-his goal in the gathering twilight the heuse, he heard a turmoil of strange sounds ‘that sent his heart into his bo Tom the East window of the parlor a light shone brightly. “The Elder drew near, caught hold of the sill, and pulled himself up to look in. Aunt Mary’ Ann Barker, supported by Lemuel Swan's grandmother, the oldes: inhabitant of South Pegram, was leading a walk-around in which every gasped the Elder, huskily, “ I guess — say, Father! Elna- and, as he approached member of the Sewing Circle except Mrs. Elnathan Berry Most of the ladies flourished muttins or pan cakes in the electrified air, and the widow of the late Deacon Smillie had her false front on the end of the hearth-broom, and had joined. which threatened destreetion ‘The rd the voices of eighteen way to the head Elder kc jubil in the wild Lacch: of her neighbors, mothers in Israel palian going up in of and he turned away in profound and cankering grief. As he turned away, he came face to face with a long, slim man shin and weedy whiskers, who stared hard at | out of the gloom, It was the ed of the South Pegram //erald. “Elder,” he said: “that wuz your surrup, as | understand it. ‘I of the press is great. You ain’t paid your subser! ption to the Herald yit. Mebbe you 'd like to take the organ of enlightenment for two years in advance.” The darkness sank heavier and deeper around the two figures, There was silence while a minute fleeted by. Then the voice of the Fditor said: “Thank you, Elder. : with a sallow © power