Part 20 (1/2)

”Well, your Honor,” resu his own oratorical bent, the while the co, ”thisuntil he injured his hand here in soo, and since then it has been difficult for hi

However, he is getting so old now that he can't even earn ht hined a place in the county infir hio with hiht, Mr White,” replied the judge, surveying the two figures in mid-aisle, ”I so order”

”But, your Honor,” he went on, ”there's an exception I want made in this case Mr Moore has a few friends that he likes to visit in the summer, and who like to have hi out in the suht, Mr White,” said the judge, ”he shall have that privilege

Nohat else?”

Satisfied in these particulars, the aged citizen led his charge away, and then ith him to the infirmary, where he presented the order of the Court and then left his went very ith his huht to be well disposed of, when one day he caain It appeared that only recently he had been changed about in his quarters at the infirhtly dereatly disturbed his very necessary sleep

”I want to know if you won't have them put me by myself, Mr White,” he concluded ”I need my sleep But they say they can't do it without an order”

Once e before the Court, then sitting, as it happened, and breaking in upon the general proceedings as before, began:

”Your Honor, this o, has been corateful for it, as he will tell you, and as I can, but he's an old s, needs his rest Now, of late they've been quartering hiood deal in his sleep, and it wears upon him I've come here with him to ask you to allow him to have a room by himself, where he will be alone and rest undisturbed”

”Very well, Mr White,” said the Court, ”it shall be as you request”

Without replying, the old gentle went peacefully now for a nurown so feeble with age that he feared he was soon to die, ca

”What is it?” asked the latter

By way of replying, the supplicant described an old oak tree which grew in the yard of the Baptist Church some miles from Danville, and said:

”I want you to promise that when I am dead, wherever I happen to be at the tiave no particular reason save that he had always liked the tree and the view it coed to be assured that Mr White would coet his body and carry it to the old oak

The latter, always a respecter of the peculiarities and crotchets of his friends, promised After a few years went by, suddenly one day he learned that Uncle Bobby was not only dead but buried, a thing which astonished hi supposed to know that he was to have had any special form of burial, the old patriarch at once recalled his promise

”Where is his body?” he asked

”Why, they buried it under the old white oak over at Mt horeb Church,”

was the answer

”What!” he exclai save his lost privilege of mercy, ”who told them to bury him there?”

”Why, _he_ did,” said the friend ”It was his last wish, I believe”

”The confounded villain,” he shouted, ah ”He led me to believe that I was the only one he told I alone was to have looked after his burial, and now look at hi himself buried without a word The scoundrel! Would you believe that an old friend like Uncle Bobby would do anything like that? However,” he added after a tiot so old and feeble here of late that he must have lost hislike that to ones be bygones

_De Maupassant, Junior_