JOHN CUTTS'S SECRET.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 180, 20 July 1871, Page 7

JOHN CUTTS'S SECRET.

" Is Mr. Cutte in ? " asked a gentleman, who having knocked at a door, was saluted by a woman from an upper window with, " Well, what's a wantiu' naow ? " " Yes, he's in or about somewhere, I suppose," she replied ; " but I'm Mr. Cutts when any business is to be done He's Mr. Cutts eatin' and drinkin," and sleepin' sometimes." " Well, my good woman," said the gentleman, "I think he will be Mr. Cutts for my business too. I wish to see him." "What do you want of him?" asked the shrew, thrusting her head still further out of the window. "To do something for me. But I must see him myself," was the reply. " Is it raal business, for pay, or only a favour you want ; I can let your hoss have a peck of oats, or I can direct you to the shortest road to the Four Corners, or I can — I can — why I can do anything for you that he could, and a good deal more. I take the money and write the receipt, and pay the men, and I take off the produce. I'm as good "a judge of stock as he is, and I can't be beat on horseflesh." " But," said the gentleman, drawing down his face solemnly, "you can't take his place now. Find him for me at once." The shrew was baffled. " Look a here, Mister, maybe you don't know the circumstances of the ease. This here farm is mine, and it was my fat':ei'B's afore me, and Cutts he haint no more claim to it than the hen down there has. And besides I'm seven years older than he is, a foot higher, and weighs 201bs more. What's your business on my place, if I may ask ? " "To see and talk with your bushand," replied the gentleman, getting out of his chair and hitching his horse to a post, as if he meant to stay until he did see him. "Be you a doctor? 'Cause there aint a living thing the matter with Cutts. He's the wellest man in the town, aud so be I," said this '' woman for the times." " No, my good woman, I'm not a doctor. Do your think your husband will be in soon ? Send that boy to find him," said the stranger. The boy looked up in his mother's face, but be knew his own iutereat too well to start without orders. "Then you're a minister, I suppose, by your black coat. I may as well tell you and save your time, that we don't go to meeting, and douc waut to. It ain't no use for you to leave no tracts nor nothing, for I've got a big dairy, and hain't got no time to idle away readirg', and I keep him about so oarly and late that when he's done work he's glad to go to bed and rest." " I'm no minister, madam ; I wish I was though, for your sake," said the gentleman. " Send for your husband ', I canuot wait much longer. I must see him at once." The boy started to his feet again and looked in his mother's eye, but it gave, 110 marching orders. " Look here, Mister " — now appearing at the door and looking detinatly at him — " you're a schoolmaster huntin' up a district school, and you think he's a committee-man, but he ain't this year." " Ma'am Cutts," as the neighbours called her, dropped her hands at her sides and heaved a groau. She had found a..inan she couldn't manage. "See here, now, Mister," said she, " I can read a boy right through, and I knew what you was the blessed minute I clapped my eyes on you. I can tell you by your everlastin' arguin' that you're a lawyer. We hain't got no quarrels, don't want no deeds drawed or wills made ; so, if you're a huntin' a job of my husband, you may as well unhitch your horse and drive on. We know enough to make a little money, and I know enough to hang on to it." "My good woman, you entirely misunderstand my errand. I can tell no person bnt himself what it is, and must tell him in confidence alone. If he chooses he may break it to you the best way he can." • " Oh, my goodness sakes alive ! Brother Lif 's blowed up in the Mississippi boat, I bet! Oh, la me, the poor fellow ! He left a little something, didn't her ','1 never heard of him, nobody's blowed up, that I know of," replied the gentleman. „ " Oh, now I know. Your're the man what wants to go to Congress, ah ! and have come here huntin' after votes. He shall not vote for you! I hate politicians, especially them that goes against women, and thinks they were made to drudge and nothin'else. Igo in for free and equal rights for white folks — men and women — for Scripture says : ' There isn't neither men nor women, but. all's in politics.' I believe | the day is com in' when such as you and | me will have to bow the knee to woman, afore you cau get the big places and high places that's a 'eatin' us up, with taxes. You can't see my husband. We are goin' to the poles on the way to the mail, and I'll promise you that he votes right" " I'm no candidate, and I don't know whom your are talking about. Ah ! there comes the man I want." And the stranger went towards Mr Cutts, who had just leaped a pair of bars which led from the potato p*tch in the lane. Mrs Cutts flew into the house for her subonnet to follow themj but by the

time she got to the bars, her mysterious visitor and Cutts were driving rapidly down the road. The strong-minded woman shouted after her husband : " You'd better come back, I tell you ;" but the wind was the wrong way, and carried her words into the potato patch. " Sir," said the gentleman to honest Cutts, " I have a very simple question to ask you, but I shall have to ask you in confidence, and I will give you five dollars if you will promise not to repeat my words until to-morrow." " Well, sir," said Cutts, "I shouldn't like to answer any questions that would make trouble among my neighbours; I have my hands full, I can tell you, to keep clear of scrapes now, but I've done it, and hain't an enemy in the world as I know." " But, sir, you needn't reply to my question unless you are perfectly willing," said the stranger. "Ask your question," said Cutts, " and I will not repeat it." " Well, Mr Cutts, I am laying a fence on the Brisley place, that I have just bought, and I was directed to inquire of you where f could buy ceder posts. A fellow in the store said : ' Cutts can tell you, if his wife will let him, but she won't — she'll insist on telling you herself, and perhaps offer to drive you wherever you go to order them. " I told them I would ask you and you only, and the fellows bet on it. They are to give you ten dollars, and to two or three widows in town a cord of wood each, if I succeed in asking you this question alone, and making sure your wife does not know my business until after breakfast to-morrow morniug." Cutts knew his wife's " standing" too well to feel very sensitive, and taking the bill from the stranger, he smiled, and said: " I'll go with you tolook out ceclav posts, and will keep dark, for the joke's sake ; but I don't know as she'll let me stay in the house to-night ; I don't own it," replied the good uatured Cutts. "Suppose you go to the place and see to setting the posts. I will send a boy to tell her you hud to go off suddenly, on a little bu sines, and will be back in the morning," said the stranger. " I'll do that, replied Cutts, " for I never quarrel with her, buc let her have her own way. I don't want to worry my selfaboufc trifles." Good man," said the stranger, "there are no trifles in this life. The smallest act is important, and that easy good nature of yours will ruin your family. Baffle that spirit to-day, and next Sunday take your boys and go to the house of God, whatever she says, and be a real man — at the head of your own house and family." " It's rather late to begin," Slid Cutts, shaking his head in a way that would have Wctrued others from the trap in which his feet were fast. " You see the purse is hers," he «od,ded, " and that has been a crueler fetter than her will to me. But I will try to begin anew, for her good and the children's." The boy was sent with the message, but he was not sharp enough, Madame Cotts discovered the whereabouts of her lord, tackled up and went after him. All the way home and far into, the night she used her eloquence, both in pleadings and threatenings, to find out the mysterious errand of that hateful town nabob who came into the country to separate happy families. But Cutts yielded himself up to a "dumb spirit" for the night, and no measures could induce him to talk on any subject. About midnight she wore herself out and went to sleep,- but at daybreak she began again. He then ventured to say: " As soon as breakfast is over, I'll break the news to you." " You'll never eat a morsel in my house, I can tell you," cried Kantippe, " till you tell me what the man wanted of you." " Then you'll wait a good while to hear it," said Cutts, " for I hive vowed ['d never tell it till I had first eaten my breakfast," and with these words he went out. ■ , Madame Cutts endured the torture as long < as possible, and then got break' .fast. She called at the door to no one in particular, " Come." But Cutts didn't come. After awhile she went out into the barn, and found him seated on a up-turned bushel measure, calmly peeling and eatibg a raw turnip. Ylt does seem as if this ere man had posessed you. Your breakfast is coolin', do come in." Cutts went in as directed, and ate his breakfast. When that was over, ma'am settled herself back in her chair, with her face full of expectation, and said : "Now begin. What did that ere man want?" "He wanted some cedar posts," re plied Cutts, calmly, without looking np; "and that was all." | If an arrow had struck Madame Cutts she could not have manifested more suprise and shame. "I am the laughing stock of the town," added Cutts, "and from this hour I turn over a new leaf. I'm henceforth the head of my family, and unless this house is made mine, I shall finish off a room in the barn — which is mme — aud you will be welcome to share it with me. If not, I- will live there with my boys, and you will find me a civil neighbour." Madame Cutt's power was broken. Since then the farm has been called " John Cutt's place," and he's the head of the house. (