New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-07-18
EUHBFR ONE TURNING UP.

1t is no more than reasonable that widow
should be sure that she is widow before she
Joins herself to her Second and discards the
name of her sainted First. For when Number
One comes home, after many years absence, and
finds Number Two at his board and IN his ac-
customed place, feasibility and general domes-
tic discomfort usually follow. An event of
this nature has furnished with Its plot
one of the finest of our minor TRACE
dies, and to suggestion of 1t we owe
the pathetic farce of "POOr PllllcOddy."
We might mention Enoch Arden, but for
resolute determination to say nothing more oil
him in this article, which is suggested by some
thing curious and Of recent occurrence at Fan
River, Mass. Two years and six months ago
somebody was drowned in Crab Pond, near
the aforesaid Fall River. About the same time
another man. Mcdonald by name, disappeared.
When tho peddler's remains were fished out
of the pond, Mrs. Mcdonald inspected them,
and gave it as her firm belief that they were
all that was left in this world of her beloved
consort We MT say that the wish was
father to the thought; but at any rate, Mrs. Nc
Donald took charge of the body and buried it
at her own personal expense. So she fairly
five children.
1t may not be romantic thing to say but
widows with FIVE children often banker Tor
secondary matrimOny. AT any rate, Mrs. Nc
Donald became Mrs. Benson and went to
housekeeping as such. Then came the
startling occurrence which we are about to
describe. On Friday evening of last week,
the children, partly Benson's perhaps, but in
the nature of things principally McDonalds,
were playing before the door, when suddenly
their long lost papa appeared to the little Nc
DIS. Their affectiOnate eyes recognized MN
at q glance. They ran up TO him anu
tenderly hailed him as father. Hearing a
row ESQ to speak, in his front yard, the
wretched Benson peeped through the blinds.
A single glance was sufficient. Twas the old,
original Mcdonald come back to reclaim the
wife of his bosOm-cOme back perfectly dry
and not in the least nibbled by the fishes OF
Crab Pond. What did Benson dol He did
! what any wise man dreading a cracked crown
! wonii1 1--we done under the circumstance5-he
bolted, and is now wandering over the face or
the earth, unless Mrs. Mcdonald has Iouhd
him and consoled him.
Number One fully cOmprehended the situation
he did MT accept it gOOd-naturedly. He did MT
go into the house and sit down and say
Beloved, let's have teaw On the contrary,
he addressed Mrs. McDonald-BensOn acrimOni-
ously. She may possibly have retorted by
demanding the reason of his long absence. In
fact, she determined to stick to Number Two.
So she packed her personal property and
started in quest of the fugitive, leaving Mr..
Mcdonald to take care of the five children.
By this time, perhaps, the poor husband thinks
that it would have been better for him If he
had not come home. Possibly he enyies the
man who was found in Crab Pond, and who
is now slumbering sweetly in the sspulcher.
He has certainly got the worst of the affair.
Benson is happy in the possession of Madame,
and Mcdonald is unhappy in the possession
only of the pledges of a blighted and obsolete
affection. Crab Pond still is near, and still
offers to weary wretchedness an asylum; and
when next they draw drownded man to
it's slvery surface, we suspect that We know
who it will be.