The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-01-31
THAT LITTLE WIDOW.


She WAS just the neatest little woman
la the world--always smiling, always
fresh, plump and deep in her forties-
enc OF the kind who smooth their aprons
down while they talk to you. Then the
little cigar shop at the corner, which she
kept, and where she ratified on about
fifty different brands of tobacco, and
talked of the weather to her customers,
and the kindness which any tale of sor.
row told by Migrants called forth from
her-the many times her fat little hand
went into the drawer for change to be
bestowed ON some charitable plea-all
went to make up the best-tempered, the
most motherly and the incest little
woman you would ever chance to meet.
So thought DR.. Ash, who lived next
door, and who often went in for little
snuff, you know, but who invariably
settled his wig more rakisnly before pop
ping into the shop. He used to say tc
her, Myl you must be lonely here,
Widow Thorn!"
80, not at all, sir, thanking you p
9IO W0C@AO AOEAyS
~ wonder you never married sec.
ond time, Widow Thorn u
"Well, it Is wonder, isn't it. doc
tor !? But you see I'm such queer old
bodythat I guess not many could fancy
me. ." "@
Madam, there you must stop!
cannot hear the divine sex, disparaged, -
returned the doctor. He was, as they
soy, of the old school. She laughed.
"Can't woman speak against her
eelf?" she asked.
No! She never speaks against her
self unless she means to hatter herself
by contradictory diaparagement when
some oneis by"
Sir, you are tooplain.
{" Widow Thorn, / was always called
1oiain, and the wigs too big for me. !"
Then she laughed at him: and what
promised TO bea quarrel ended in mer-
ny "Good-by."
Then there was the baker at the cor
ner. He was q widower, and he used to
come in Of an evening for chat and q
cheap cigar.
Said he, 'This lonely state is misera-
,ble, isn't it @
" Do you speak from experience ?"
asked she, a= 4
80 Yes; my Maria's been dead fourteen
years." said he.
CT shouldn't think it would take SO
long a time for you men to forget any
thing" she said.
"Ah, na'am man is q wonderful
being-the most wonderful of Gods
creatures"
Except woman, said she.
You're right, widow! And that's
the reason the Lord meant that every
man should have wife and every
woman husband, just to make them
equal. So ! think you and must have
new partners, 81
"Now, look here, Mr.. Johns You've
had your partner, and I've had mine. and
death has dissolved the partnerships.
Now, we're both bankrupt, and we can't
carry on q joint business; SO we must 60
on pleasantly" she said, and laughingly
babe him 'sGood night p He had to
laugh, too, because she seemed to expect
him to do nothing else.
Then there was the old bachelor over
the way, who was learning the bassoon.
He used to come to his window of sum-
mer evenings, when the widow wasstand-
ing at her door for breath of fresh air.
and he would blow away at 'sThe Last
Link is Broken till it was wonder he
did not rupture something and die. He
did not smoke, nor drink, nor chew. But
q brilliant idea struck him one day, and
over he went.
"Doyou keep paper collars, ma am ?''
he asked, tremblingly.
eyes, SIR" she answered, smoothing
her apron down.
Give me some," he said, vaguely.
"What size?"
"Oh, any sizel Idon't care"
She looked at him.
Don't you know your number9" she
asked.
emo, ma'am! But / don't care
mucA."
"Lud !" she CALCULATED. "Here, sir.
just you take your collar off and let me
measure il. !"
So she did, and she handed him an
other.
"Thatn ft yen, sir" she said.
Then he tried to put it ON, and his