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Updated: June 17, 2025
"Hush," says the minister, solemnly; "he sees the shinin' gates uv the Noo Jerusalum." "No, no," cried the aged man; "it is the cyclopeedy the letter Z it's comin'!" And, sure enough! the door opened, and in walked Higgins. He tottered rather than walked, f'r he had growed old 'nd feeble in his wicked perfession. "Here's the Z cyclopeedy, Mr. Hobart," sez Higgins.
It warn't no use cussin' Higgins; Higgins just laffed when Leander allowed that the cyclopeedy was no good 'nd that he wuz bein' robbed.
Lovin' hands smoothed the wrinkled forehead 'nd breshed back the long, scant, white hair, but the eyes of the dyin' man wuz sot upon that piece uv road down which the cyclopeedy man allus come. All to oncet a bright 'nd joyful look come into them eyes, 'nd ol' Leander riz up in bed 'nd sez, "It's come!" "What is it, Father?" asked his daughter Sarey, sobbin' like.
It wuz all Bill's fault; that warrior-name had done it all the cyclopeedy with its lies had pizened Bill's mind to put this trouble on me an' mine! No, no, a thousand times no! These wuz coward feelin's an' they misbecome me; the ache herein this heart uv mine had no business there. The better part uv me called to me an' said: "Pull yourself together, Reuben Ketcham, and be a man!"
Higgins for a set uv them cyclopeedies, 'nd he signed his name to a long printed paper that showed how he agreed to take a cyclopeedy oncet in so often, which wuz to be ez often ez a new one uv the volyumes wuz printed.
But Leander wuzn't to be satisfied with the common things uv airth; he didn't seem to take no pleasure in his grandchildren like most men do; his mind wuz allers sot on somethin' else, for hours 'nd hours, yes, all day long, he'd set out on the front stoop lookin' wistfully up the road for that book-agent to come along with a cyclopeedy.
You see their fust baby had been born; they named him Peasley, Peasley Hobart, after Hattie's folks. So, seein' as how it wuz payin' f'r a book that told about babies, Leander didn't begredge that five dollars so very much after all. "Leander," sez Hattie one forenoon, "that B cyclopeedy ain't no account. There ain't nothin' in it about babies except 'See Maternity'!"
"What obligation?" asked Peasley Hobart, stern like. "Deceased died owin' me f'r a cyclopeedy!" sez Higgins. "That's a lie!" sez Peasley. "We all seen him pay you for the Z!" "But there's another one to come," sez Higgins. "Another?" they all asked. "Yes, the index!" sez he. So there wuz, and I'll be eternally gol durned if he ain't a-suin' the estate in the probate court now f'r the price uv it!
The fust volyume of the cyclopeedy stood on a shelf in the old seckertary in the settin'-room about four months before they had any use f'r it. One night Squire Turner's son come over to visit Leander 'nd Hattie, and they got to talkin' about apples, 'nd the sort uv apples that wuz the best.
Oncet when Hiram wanted to dreen the home pasture, he went to the cyclopeedy to find out about it, but all he diskivered wuz: "Drain See Tile." This wuz in 1859, and the cyclopeedy had only got down to G. The cow wuz sick with lung fever one spell, and Leander laid her dyin' to that cussid cyclopeedy, 'cause when he went to readin' 'bout cows it told him to "See Zoology."
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