The Pike County Journal. Zebulon, Pike County, Georgia, Jan. 24, 1896 Ineffably Happy Uncle Bob Peters on a High Horse Runs Down a Pension Now He Laughs By Day and Beholds Beautiful Visions By Night Happiness is said to be the ripples on the water that delight the eye as they dance and scintillate in the sunlight. Joy is described as that great moving undercurrent, profound and mighty, undisturbed by exterior conditions. If this distinction was correct, then it was the “reverent,” old fashioned joy with a big J that filled the heart of “Old Bob” Peters when he drew his first pension last Saturday on account of indigent pensioners. Uncle Bob lives down in the mountains. His goods and chattels are a steer and a cart. He never makes crops enough to subsist on and through the fall [and] winter he manages to scrape up a dime here and there by hauling a cart of lightwood to Zebulon. He has lived mighty hard for 30 years, and so slight have been the variations that a “aching void” in the region of the stomach was his normal condition. He belonged strictly to that latter class to whom Burns’ referred when he wrote: “Some ha’ meat that canna’ eat, Some can eat that ha’ no meat.” So on Saturday when Uncle Bob got his $60 check cashed he gave Judge Blasingame $40 of the amount and said: “Now, jes’ you keep that twel I calls for it.” He then put $20 in his pocket and started out for Harper’s store. He stepped in at the door and bursted out in a laugh - the first big laugh he had had in years, perhaps. He was first beginning to realize how rich he was. “Gi’me some of the bes’ coffee you got,” he said. “Quarter’s worth? Uncle Bob?” “Quarter’s worth the nation! Fix up two big dollars worth!” As the coffee was being put in the scales the old man broke out in another laugh. After the coffee was put up he wanted some meat. “Gi’me the biggest side you got,” and the laughing broke out afresh. “Now hand out 20 yards of the finest caliker you got, and come on down wi’ six yards o’ jeans. Money is no object with me. Got moore’n I’ve ever had since the War. Not but $20 per capity in the New Nited State of Georgia and me got $60.” Then the laugh that burst from the old man’s lips was contagious. Everybody commenced to laugh. Here the old man thought of his steer and he made for him. He untied the animal from a hitching post and put the line in the wagon. Stepping up in front, he gazed square into the steer’s face, and then as gaze met gaze, Uncle Bob could contain himself no longer and another inordinate laugh burst forth. He then drove up to the store and loaded his goods and proceeded the straightest way home. The last seen of him as he was going away he was laughing and shaking violently. The Journal is glad Uncle Bob got his pension. It is a bigger thing to him than anybody on earth. He deserves it and we hope he and his wife will live long to enjoy this annual pension. (Transcribed 11/17/02 Lynn Cunningham) Note: Company H, 44th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army Of Northern Virginia, C.S.A., Pike County, Georgia, Pike County Vols.: Peters, Robert - Private March 4, 1862. Wounded at Richmond, Va. in 1862. (Born in Jones County, Ga. September 7, 1822.)