Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1870-10-07
mis- ELDERKIN'S PITCHER"
One Of Mrs. Stoves Firesidc Stories.

see, boys, Salu Calil LAW SON,
as we were gathering young winter
green on a sunny hillside in June
we see folks don't alters know what
their marcies is when they sees 'em.
Folks is kind o blinded, and when
Il providence comes along, they don't
seem to know how to take it, and
they growl and grumble about what
turns out to be the best things that
ever happened to 'em in their lives.
It's like Mis- Elderkin's pitcher.
what about Mis- Elderkin's
pitchcr?:' said both of us i'll one
breath.
Didn't l never tell yc now:' said
Sam; why | wanter know.
No, we were sure he never had
told us, and Sam, as usual, began
by clearing the ground by thor
ough introduction with statistical
cxpositions.
WAL, We see Mis- Eldcrkin she
lives now over to Shcrburnc, in
about the handsomest house i'll Sher-
burnc,-a high, white house with
green blinds and white pillars in
tront,-and she rides out in her own
kerridge, and Mr.. Elderkin, he's a
deacon in the church and a colonel
in the MALTA, and s'lectman, and
pretty much atop everything there
is goin' in Sherburne, and it all
come out Of that are pitcher.
what pitcher:' we shouted in
chorus.
Lordy massy.' that ares ust
what Pm goin' to tell We about;
but yc see fcllcr's just got to make
a beginnin' to all things.
Mis- Eldcrkin she thinks she's a
great lady nowadays, l s'pose, but |
member when she was Miry Brown
over herein Oldtown, and used to
be waitin' on her to singing-school.
'Miry and l was putty good friends
along in them dayS,-we was putty
considerable kind o. intimate. Fact
is, boys, there was times in them
days when l thought whether or no
l wouldn't take Miry myself said
Sam, his fact growing luminous
with the pleasing idea of his former
masculine attractions and privi-
leges 'Yis,' he continued, there
was time when folks said | could
had Miry eff I'd asked her, and l
putty much think so myself, but |
didn't say nothin'; marriage is alters
kind o. venturesome; an Miry had
such up-and-down kind o ways, l
was sort o fraid ont.
But Lordy massy, boys, you
mustn't never tell Hepsy | said so,
cause she'd be mad enough to bite
a shingle nail in two. Not that she
sets 50 very gret by me neither; but
then womcn's backs is alters up eff
they think anybody else could a had
you, whether they want you them
selves or not.
'Yc see, Miry, she was old Black
Hoss John Browns da'ter, and
lived up there in that are big brown
house by the meetin'-housc that has
the red hollyhock in the front yard.
Miry was about the handsomest gal
that went into the singers seat a
Sunday.
Il tell you she want none O. your
milk-and sugar gals neither,-she
was 'mazin' strong built. She was
the strongest gal in her arms ! ever
see. Why, have seen Miry take
up barrel o flour and lift it right
into the kitchen, and it would just
make the pink come into her cheeks
like two roses, but she never seemed
to mind it grain. She had a good,
strong back of her own, and she
was straight as poplar, with snap
ping black eyes, and tell you
there was a snap to her tongue, too.
Nobody never got ahead O. Miry;
she'd give every fellow as good as
he sent, but for all that she was a
gret favorite.
'Miry was one o your bricry,
scratchy gals, that seem to catch
fellows in thorns. She alters fit and
foutcd 'em, the more they'd be
arter her. There want gal in all.
Oldtown that led such string O.
fellows arter her, cause you see
she'd now and then thrown 'cm a
good word over her shoulder, and
then they'd all fight who should get
it, and she would just laugh to see
them do it.
'Why, there was Tom Sawin, he
was one o her beaux, and jim Moss,
and Ike Bacon; and there was n
Boston boy, Tom Beacon, he come
up from Cambridge to rusticate
with Parson Lathrop, he thought he
must have his say with Miry, but he
got pretty well come up with. You
see he thought cause he was Bos-
ton born that he was kind O. aristo-
cratic, and had right just to pick
and choose 'mong country gals, but
the way he got come up with by
Miry was too funny for anything
do tell us about it, we said, as
Sam made an artful pause, designed
to draw forth solicitation.