The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-05-28
ur. Cram and the widow Hazel.

~A4AN - NN~Ng0
old househeeper. To think OF his wasting hi
affections on a dog aud a tobacco pipe, whel
the whole field Of domestic bliss lay smiling
and unentered before him? You needn't tel
me it was for any lack Of appropriate girls :
Why, ! could pick out ten without going on
of town, either one Of whom would do credi
to the taste Of any man.
To begin with, there was Virginia Lynde
You couldn't find more beautiful cnrls nor
more graceful figure, if you spent a month
constantly gazing out on Broadway. IheI
as for her qualities every one knew she was
keen and capable. Equal to every einergen
cy from brown bread to q bonnet, and ''qual
flied to grace any position as they say 0
each new presidents wife. if her tenn
per uaS a little quick we all have soma fault
| suppose.
But then, if temper really was everything
with Mr.. Cram, there was Priscilla Patton
She was as mild as a this years lamb; nor
very brilliant Of course, your mild ones arr
not apt to be; and a trife dumpy, III admit
but full Of all manner of domestic virtues O
the herb tea order, and sure to make a faith.
full, cheerful companion, for a week or for {
lifetime.
Priscilla Patton is a good girl, but she
hasn't quite snap enough, said Mr.. Cram, be.
tween his putfs of tobacco.
"NVell, then there was Jenny Jenkins
He certainly couldn't say that OF her, full o.
life and fire as thunder-cloud. As wholesome
and inspiriting, too, in a quiet ~neighborhooc
where nothing was doing more exciting thar
a weekly meeting of a ladies' relief society.
(tor the soldiers, of course that you shoula
think Of questioning that } to which mer
came and scraped lint at evening. She was
energetic and efficient, too,Jenny jenkins was,
and could have built a house if she had beer
put to it, while another was selecting the un-
d~erpinning.
., but you know the Jenkins We're origin
ally rather low! Respectable, very, but not
quite first class, and even in a little town like
Meadows, Mal is considered.
Well, well, If it has come to that Eve nc
more to say. | regard a person with such
views quite ont Of the pale Of sympathy, and
I've hat a mind to leave Mr.. Cram to his fol
~ and his dog.
You may think it was none Of my business
at the start. Perhaps it wasn't and perhaps
it was this is q free country, and II | have
a mind to make it my business | have the
right, l suppose you know. BESIDES my sense
of fitness and propriety is atfronted by the
unnatural separation Of elements that, united,
would so sensibly swell the aggregate of com
fort and happiness. Not that | presume to
say either one Of these estimable and fitting
girls would have been capable of the self-de-
NAL involved III giving up the pursuit Of her
own happiness, which is the third item Of oul
inalienable rights as citizens of the United
States, for the purpose Of cheering the life OF
d solitary man who had gradally been getting
Old and more perversely set in his ways for
forty odd years. However, as he had never
asked them, ] hold he could not know what
depths Of beneyoience and abnegation may
exist III the hearts Of the unseliish. That the
fellow had a latent tenderness III his nature
was manifest just in the loving d~ilninutive,
Dot which he had bestowed for q name on
his dog. A coarse grained laan without a
/ touch o. ~soljlGss would have been sure TO call
the little creature Tige or Bose. So ! say as
/ said at first, it was a great shame for Mr..
Cram to keep that pretty cottage all to HIM
self and his deaf old housekeeper.
Whatever you may think about ii, the Wild
dow Hazel thought as | do, and she good
naturally resolved to take the matter in hand.
Widow Hazel was Mrs. Puffer's sister, but
you would never nave known it. Very evil
IDENTITY Mrs. Puiler has inherited all the heavy
lymphatic family qualities, and Widow Hazel
the sprightly and brilliant ones. She had
never been III Meadows before to stop, although
Mrs. Putfer and the captain had lived there
since I can remcmber-which may be longer
or shorter but what with marrying young
and going south with her husband, with her
nursing him through a long sickness, and af-
ter that having her pittance Of property to
look after, it Happened naturally she had new
er spent any time at Meadows. Nancy Phlin
said she wouldn't have come there if she could
have caught a beau anywhere else; but Nan
cy Phlin is an iIl-natured, gossiping old maid
and | hope You don't let what she says III
iluence you at all.
Thus you see our faces were quite new to
Widow Hazel, and hers to us. And, though
there were twenty faces prettier than hers III
our meeting house, the Sunday she made her
first appearance there, yet everybody knows
that one becomes accustomed to the beauty OF
familiar faces ; just as one can to a chrome
sore throat or a perpetual catarrh, till, though
always aware OF its presence, we do not more
than half appreciate what sufferers we are
but let a new pain seize us, though it may be
much less III degree, aud We cry out at once.
The Widow Iiazel was tall, and therefore
had an opportunity Of showing the quality Of
her clothing to better advantage as she walk
ed slowly up the aisle behind Mrs. Putfer, thar
a short person who couldn't use so many yards
OF r~ustling black silk by half a dozen. Her
cloak, too, was made after a style we never had
seen before n Meadows, SO OF course we al
noticed that. Her bonnet was of black Grape,
but now that is 50 much it isn't nearly 50 som
Der and discons0late a color; then this fashion
Of high pokes with a great rosette on top gives
even Il mourning hat a genteel, iaunty look.
She was fur from being in the deepest black,
her grief having arrived at the stage which
found expression in a full, white border and
and wide white strings of tucked tarlton.-
We had a good opportunity to see ali this, for
Capt. Puliers was a side pew near the pulpit,
50 everybody could see her and she could see
everybody, without turning anything but her
eyes away from tie minister. Widow Hazel
had snowy black hair, with about an inch Of
forehead beueath it, a dark skin and a com
mon looking gray eye. But she had full, red
lips, fine teeth and a dimple, and those can
be made to so a great ways by an adept.
When it came to singing, Of course Widow
Hazel looked at the singers everybody does,
else where would be the use Of their wearing
brighter ribbons and more polished dickeys
than other persons? Then of course she no
ticed the head bass singer; anybody would;
and that was Mr.. Cram, with a forehead just
as much too high as hers was too low.
'sIes, that was Mr.. Cram, one Of our like
lest young men, and its a real pity he hasn't
a good likely wife said Capt. Pufer, going
home from church. The good man, having
found the help just meet for him, comInisser-
ated eberybody who had not the like good
fortune.
Widow Hazel, taking no notice of the close
Of the captains speech, said demurely, II
your young people are SO gray haired, sup
pose you consider the person who came in
with two canes, bent almost double and look
ing about ninety, right in the prime Of life. -
We'll, Cram is getting old, that is a fact
all the more pity he isn't married" persisted
Capt. Putfer.
Jenny Jenkins had the next meeting of the
ladies relief, ladies relief in two ways
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