LEMUEL JENKINS. 355 



This Lemuel Jenkins was a cold, sullen man, with 

 a disposition to find fault with everything from the 

 weather up, while Uncle Si was just the opposite. 

 He always looked the world in the face with a smile 

 and had a good word for everyone, from the little tot 

 tugging at his mother's apron strings up to the min- 

 ister. He and Lem had been boys together, attended 

 the same school and joined in all of their amusements 

 until both of them were men grown. I might also 

 add that Lemuel Jenkins was the son of Uncle Si's 

 oldest sister, Helen. She was married when Cyrus 

 was in dresses and her boy was but two or three years 

 younger than his uncle. When Helen was married to 

 Lemuel Jenkins some said he was old enough to be 

 her father, and at that she was his second wife. He 

 had a two-hundred-acre farm three miles from the vil- 

 lage. It was one of the best in the county, and it did 

 not lose any of its good qualities under her care, as, ac- 

 cording to the old proverb, in this case the "gray 

 mare was the better horse." 



Helen began life by looking out for Number One, 

 and it grew on her; but Uncle Si always remarked, 

 when he referred to the subject, "he never laid it up 

 against her." Lemuel was her only child. He was 

 named after his father, and he, in turn, gave his son 

 the same name. It was said that there was always a 

 Lemuel in the Jenkins family for time out of mind, 

 and I believe it. The above was learned after a dili- 

 gent inquiry from the older people in the neighbor- 

 hood, while the balance of the story came to me from 

 Uncle Si the day after Lemuel Jenkins was buried. 

 He seemed to be in a reminiscent mood when the 

 mourners drove away. After looking in the fire for 



