St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-07-26
Widder Plin'.
A Yankee Character Sketch, to the Life.
HARRIET E. BAGG, IN SPRINGFIELD RE
PUBLICAN.

HARRIET E. BAGG, IN SPRINGFIELD RE
PUBLICAN.
When Pliny Fowler departed from
''this here world o. mis'ry an wicked
ness,n as he called it, he left behind
him two treasures, shall we say 2 Ger
tainly one was such, while the other
his own words shall tell the tale: "The
pesky critters reg'lar driver" But
the pride of his heart was magnificent
piece of meadow land averaging three
tons of grass to the acre. He regretted
that he could not take it with him to
that bourne from which no traveller re-
turns, and sorely begrudged it to the
"pesky critter" into whose hands it
would surely fall, there being no one
else to whom he could leave it.
But there was no help for it so one
day, after few weeks of sickness, he
dreamily watched the flies buzzing
about the room for an hour or two, and
then stopped breathing, his wife mean
while doing up the "frOnt room" lace
curtains, which were the pride of her
heart, that they might be ''spic-span
clean fur the funeral, SEEM they'd hev
ter he one" When she went into the
bedroom, to see if he wanted anything,
and found him dead, she started little,
muttering, "Well, | snumb fort, eff he
amt gone ~ Then she went to the
pantry, and took two large old-fashion-
ed cOppers from the tea-cup kept for
''emptins pennies" and renal king to
herself that she'd "ben a savin' on 'em
for week back purpose" she carried
them to the bed and placed them on
| Inns
accomplished to her liking, she straight
ened the limbs, smoothed the bed
clothes, looked carefully under the bed
and the 'bewrer" to see that the cat
was not there, shut the doors quietly,
and went for some of the neighbors to
help clay out the corpse"
After the funeral was over, Widdei
Plin', as she began to be called, lived
TRANQUILITY for time undisturbed ex-
cept by the calls of the village gossips
She vigorously superintended the har-
vesting of the customary grass crop,
and was mnch pleased to see that il
was even larger than usual. Her gar
den sass" thrived under her treatment
and the potato crop WAS by far the best
of any ones in the neighborhood.
"GOod reason fort, tOo,n sneered hel
next door neighbor. ''P'tater bugs
kinder saour on hers you might say
Won't stay nigh her."
Widder Plin' wasn't vixen, if she
did have the credit of it. She had q
'dredful facility fur drivin',n as her hus-
band had been wont to say. He was a
weak, shiftless sort of man, and shift,
lessness was objectionable in her eyes
From the inst she had taken the man.
aging of things into her own hands, and
had tossed him-at least so it seemed
to his eventually added brain, ,-'fron
pillar to pOst,n till he died from sheer
inability to keep up with her Yankee
quickstep. 1t did not make much diff.
ference to her after six weeks or so
Indeed, she seemed to feel it a relief
that she had not "thet weak critter tc
yank round N time ter git the farm
work done same time other folks done
their'n." But she still ''drOve" from
force of habit, and it was well that she
did, for there was a good deal of lan6
to look after and she not only kept il
going, but perceptibly improved it il
Two years. time. Thcn pouple begar
to forget their pity for her depressed
looking husband, and "Widder Plin's
facility" and"Widder Plin's gret med
DER" were the frequent topics of con.
versation for miles around.
Let us not omit one item. Widdel
Plin', and all her neighbors, were 6
tish-eating community. They lived
near a river which supplied them will
shad, the year round. In the fishing
season, scores of barrels of salted shad
were stored in the cellars of the vii.
layers, and came again into daylight
nothing but bones. 1t was rumOreG
that the curious accent of the people
was caused by talking while eating fish
1t was customary to put the piece o
fish in at the right side of the mouth
while from the left side issued stream
of well cleaned bones. Certain it is
that unless one closes the right corner
of the mouth when talking, he cannot
successfully initiate their peculiar pro,
nunciation.
The country store for men, and the
village dressmaker's for women, have
equal attractions. At the store the mel
smoke and drool political opinions an6
at the dressmaker's, the women ascer.
tain who is having new dresses, anG
why they have them, and give theil
opinion as to whether Mrs. So-and-sC
has any business to get bran new
"alpacky" when she has two calicos &
year beside the ''bumbazeenn hel
mOther-in-law left.
Widder Plin' and the village dress
maker we're bosom cronies. Whateve
happened in town was known there, til
finally the men folks began to drop il
now and then for a talk, especiall,
those of the villagers who had an eyt