234 Kate Oshorne. [May, 



and never more beautiful. . She let none of her school- girl attainments 

 rust away from her mind ; she had fixed hours for her reading, and fixed 

 times for her music ; and often, when the day's work was done, and he 

 dressed in his clean ' cotton-drilling and nankeen ' — as his invariable 

 custom at evening was — Mr. Quirk would be invited into the parlor to 

 sing duetts with Kate, wherein his mellow, manly voice, lent harmony 

 to her own ; and in this kind of music farmer Osborne took especial 

 delight. Indeed, he himself, not unfrequently chimed in on the base 

 with a tone as deep and rich as the tone of an organ. 



But as clouds will come over the briditest skies, so trouble was soon 

 to cast its shadow over the sunshine of farmer Osborne's happiness. The 

 season had passed on into September, still the weather was warm, and 

 the farmer was sitting again in his porch at ' nooning,' when a kind of 

 semi-genteel citizen of the little village near by, rode up to the gate, and 

 hitching his little pony of a horse, came in and was seated, at Col. 

 Osborne's polite bidding. After a little chat, he pulled ofiF his greasy 

 seal-skin cap, and taking from its ample crown a bundle of greasy-look- 

 ing papers, selected one from the mass, and handed it to the Col., saying 

 that, 'being a constable, it became his duty to serve this summons on 

 John W. Osborne, as defendant, at the suit of Robert Pelton, asplaintiif, 

 pending before Esquire Ambrose.' How immensely formal constables 

 always arc — and this formality of manner astounded the farmer who sat 

 holding the thin slip of paper, and looking at it without seeing it. He 

 hated law ; not in the abstract, but he hated the trouble, the anxiety, 

 the perplexity, the cost of a law suit : who does not ! Well, Bob Pelton 

 did not ; to him it was a kind of necessary excitement ; he was therefore; 

 much at law — he was litigious in his disposition, though a coward in his 

 nature ; litigious persons always are — they are brave only when clad in 

 a coat of legal mail ; and with such, this is generally ' black-mail ! ' 

 Thus holding the copy of the summons, the farmer could only stammer 

 out — 'eh, what — Bob Pelton sued me? what for? what's this all 

 about? ' In vain did he scan the thin slip of paper for information ; it 

 only said, ' in trespass, damages, $99 ; ' And indeed the Col. had a great 

 mind to go at once to his bureau drawer, get the money, and pay off 

 the harassing claim without knowing for what it was. At length, 

 rallying his thoughts, he asked the constable what this meant. " Well, 

 of course, I know nothing about it," said the officer — what 'know 

 nothings' constables are ! " But I believe it is something about a horse 

 of his that was killed, as he says, in your wheat field some three months 

 ago." "Yes," said the farmer, "the breachy brute, in trying to jump 

 in, run a sharp stake into his body, and fell dead in the fence-corner, I 



