PADUTCH-LIFE-L Archives

From: "Vee L. Housman" <>
Subject: 45-In The Churchyard
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 19:21:04 -0400

IN THE CHURCHYARD

Last Sunday night Polly and I walked over to the Rabbit
Mountain churchyard. I hadn't been there for ten years, and I can
tell you the things I saw depressed me so much that I don't think I'll
want to return soon.

You must have known old Billy Blotner--Sam Blotner's
grandfather? I'm sure you did. Well, everyone knows what a good
old guy he was. Nobody who knew him ever went hungry while
Billy was around. He had a nice farm and yet in the end he had to
sell out at a foreclosure just because he never refused anyone
anything as long as he had something for himself. Many people
took advantage of his big heart and finally loused things up so bad
for him that he had nothing left of his own. Then he mortgaged his
farm to Sam Kiesling. Sam was one of those greedy pigs who
always lies in waiting with a few hundred dollars with which to
force a poor old fellow like Bill into a corner. It only took one year
till he owned Bill's farm and put Bill on the Township for welfare
and support.

I visited old Bill after this happened. He gave away
everything except his heart--and that I think he would have given
away had it not been too big for an ordinary man. All the
neighborhood children knew him and came to visit often. If anyone
gave him a nice apple, Bill kept it for the children. When the
children came to see him he followed them with his cane and
hobbled through the fields helping them to pick flowers. Half the
time he didn't wear a hat and the wind used to wrap and twist his
white hair.

In the end he died. I was at his funeral. There was about a
half dozen at the church. Even his friends didn't come. The
preacher gave a short sermon. His text was something about the
troubles of the children of Israel, but he had no good words for
poor old Billy, and no one stayed long except a few barefooted
children who had been sitting in the corner of the church. I was
one of the grave diggers and was told to dig his grave on the
furthest edge of the churchyard. Last Sunday I revisited his grave,
but I could hardly find it. It was overgrown with weeds and in bad
shape. At the head of the grave was a small board carved with his
name and age. I don't know who put up the board, but it looked
like boy's handiwork--and I think it was too.

I left the place with a heavy heart, but it didn't last long.
When I got to the front of the churchyard I saw standing a huge
shaft of beautiful marble. When I got nearer I saw that it marked
Sam Kiesling's grave. Sam loused up Billy's farm, but he didn't
enjoy it for too long. Sam was a rogue who had accumulated a lot
of money before he died. He didn't do any gainful work of his own,
but whenever he had a chance he sat on a poor man like a
bloodsucker until he had every cent. When he died three preachers
first pushed him into heaven as far as they could with their hands
after which they followed up with poles. I suppose they got him
up, and if they didn't at least they earned their hundred dollars
apiece.

Sam now has a monument which has cost over a thousand
dollars, ninety-nine percent blood money, I think. It's all engraved
with elegant praises, and as you read it you'd think that the foot
feathers of an angel had already grown before he even died.

Now, which one of these two men do you think will first enter
heaven? I have an old Spanish dollar, given to me by my
grandmother and minted in her birth year. I'll bet that old Billy will
be up there and finished shaking hands before Sam Kiesling has a
chance to find out what went wrong.

* * *

Note: This collection of Boonastiel stories was written by H. A.
Harter in the original Penna-Dutch dialect and were published in the
Keystone Gazette, Bellefonte, PA, between 1894 and 1904. They
were translated and transcribed by Bob James of Alaska and they
are being posted to this PADUTCH-LIFE mailing list with his
permission.

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• 45-In The Churchyard by "Vee L. Housman" <>