The Tale of Oliver T. Horsephat -- Part 2

And now part 2 of my new short story...

The Tale of Oliver T. Horsephat -- Part 2

As a well-respected citizen, Oliver T. Horsephat's civic engagement was well-know throughout Sugar Beet County.  He lived contently in his simple home on Sweet Street in the county seat of Maple Leaf.   His claim to fame was inheriting The Horsephat Candy Company from his parents.

Maple Leaf, nestled in a shallow valley, was established in the 1864 when the Horsephats had migrated there to farm sugar beets.  Eventually, they had become the most respected sugar beet families in the area.   In fact, they were the only sugar beet growers.  In 1877, the family started the candy company, producing a wide range of sugary sweets, and gained a stellar reputation.

All was not easy with the Horsephats rise to fame.   They excelled in their share of misfortune.    While inspecting a bumper crop, Oliver's great uncle Horace was avalanched under the vegetable when the straps broke on a wagon filled with them.   It took two hours for the workmen to unearth him.    On his grave stone, his epitaph read "Gone to the great sugar beet farm in the sky." 

Later, one February night, his great aunt Miranda meet her death in the kitchen from drowning.  Being a cheap-skate, she had turned on one lone light. In the dimness, she misjudged her step, fell, and hit her head on a door frame.   While trying to get up, she passed out, ending up face down in a pot of sugar beet juice.   No one found her until it was too late.  They buried her next to great uncle Horace.   "Here lies Miranda who penny-pinched her way right into the sugar pot."  

These were only two examples of the strange and unusual deaths in the Horsephat family.   A curse hovered over the family that didn't allow one Horsephat to live beyond the age of 47.