Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-07-24
WITHOUT ANY COURTING.


anmmer sun shone before the green leaves
had draped the streets, and the squares of
Grass and wisteria vines and plotted gera-
nniums which have come to be so blessed
Iv noprlar in New York, lent its sum-
mers freshness.
"What shall do, doctor?" he said to
the white-headed old physician. "4ou
cay nothing ais me, but | can tell what
nv feelings are better than you can. l
know shall be down with something
soon. rode in car with dozen dirty
children. the other day-gOing to the
small. pox hospital, l haven't doubt
very red and nasty looking all of 'em and
while was buying something in store
tbe other dav, a horrible old woman beg
ced of me because her husband was sick
with typhoid. No doubt I've caught both
diseases, and it's the complication that
puzzles you. Couldn't relish my coffee
this morning; left my milk-toast untouch-
cd Hateful life, that of bachelor at a
hotel. Oh, dear men'
"Why don't you marry, then?" said the
doctor. =,
"They need so much courting," said
Mr.. Patterson. "You spend six months
or so, at least, dangling at a woman's
apron strings. You must go to theater
and opera if she is gay, and to church
meeting if she is pious At fifty a man
likes his slippers and dressing gown and
easv-chair of an evening. If it was just
stepping over to the clergyman's ana get
ting married, put a ring on her finger and
saving or nodding yes two or three times,
why wouldn't mind it, you know"
"Ah, well, counting is the fun of it all,
in NV opinion," said the old doctor; "but
every one to his taste. And my advice to
you is, to go into the country
ITO another hotel and more mercenary
waiters?o said Mr.. Patterson.
mo" said the doctor, Ego to nice pri-
yate home / know One--a motherly
widow lady who cooks dinner fit for a
king. River before the house, woods be-
hind it, orchard to the left, kitchen to the
right; no fever and ague no mosquitoes.
Heavenly! am going up there to-mor-
row, and FL see if she'll take you"
every WELL" said Mr.. Patterson, " !
think III try it,"
"And you must drink plenty of milk,
and eat plenty of nice homemade bread, y
said the doctor
"Yes, WILL" said Patterson, overjoyed
at last at hearing something that sounded
like prescription. "And you would adj
wise milk %
Quart of it every day." said the doc
tor.
"I'll take note of it," said Patterson.
Sand if should be very i'll she'll nurse
me 90
Mr.. Patterson thought the matter over,
and thought better of it every day, and
when the little note, informing him that
the widow would be willing TO take him
in and do for him." reached him, he had
his portmanteau already packed, and was
ready to start that afternoon. As for the
widow, the doctor had prepared her for
her boarder's peculiarities thus:
mice fellow; solid; plenty of money;
thinks himself ill, but isn't; ought to be
married; told him so, but he hates the
idea of counting; marry off some day no
doubt; Will you have me?' Yes Call
in clergyman. Over. Very peculiar old
bachelor; but then old bachelors are
peculiar generally"
The widow was what Yankees call an
amazingly smart woman. She had mar
ried at sixteen, and had never failed to
have washing over when when other peo-
pie were hanging out theirs. Her bread
always rose, her cake was always good,
and her butter was always sweet At
forty-five she had married off all her
daughters, and was well-to-do, buxom and
happy.
Her son and his wife boarded with her,
and she added to her plentiful savings by
taking summer boarder or two If they
happened to offer.
Fifty and bachelor" said Mrs. Mum
tie, looking in the glass. "Well, 1t seems
apity; but then when elderly gentlemen
marry, it is generally some hitytity girl,
that leads them terrible life, and likely
it's for the best"
Then she looked at the glass again, for
the widow was but woman after all.
Mr.. Patterson came TO the widows, and
obeyed the doctors prescription faithful
ly. He ate bread and drank milk, robbed
The orchards like schoOl-bOy, and de-
Claimed over the strawberry short-cake
after fashion that would have made his
reputation at the bar. Then, too, Mrs.
Muntle did not smile at his aches and
pains, and insist that he must be perpetu-
ally we'll because he had a fresh complex
ion and dimples in his cheeks. She had
savOry herb teas and potiOns, which she
produced when he complained of feeling
miserable, and she had that blessing to hy-
pochondriacs, homeopathic box and
book, in the house.
There were remedies in that box for
everything; and it was pleasant to find
that when there was a crawling sensation
in your flesh, or kind Of uneasy feeling
in your legs, there was dear little globules
to be had just suited for the symptoms;
that to find yourself very angry about
nothing indicated pulsatilla, and that
even for unrequited love there was a
medicine.
For two months and more Mr.. Pstter-
son boarded with Mrs. Muntle, and hap
pier months he had never lived through.
Then he went back to the city for a few
weeks, returned in urgent need of some
more pellets from the medicine chest,
and stayed until the last chrysanthemum
was blooming on its withered branches.
He had grown SO fond of his little room,
with its white curtains and fresh, grass
bleached linen, of the country good
things, and of the coy nursing Of buxom
Mrs. Muntel, that he could scarcely, bear
the thought of parting with them alto
gether
After all, why could not he buy house,
and try to get Mrs. Muntle to keep 1t for