The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-09-23
BILL SUMMERS WIDOW.
BY ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIwAY.


Bill Simmer was not slim, as his name indi
Gated nor was he half so good-for-nOthing by ma
ture as he had the universal credit of being. In
fact, he was jolly good fellow He had lived till
well along in the thirties without any serious dis
turbance from Cupd's arrows, and, under the
watchful care OF his good Aunt Prudence, had al
ways been so comfortably provided for in the way
of dickeys and dinners that he had never thought
seriously of needing a wife to fill his domestic
offices for him. As he was not in love, he con-
ceived of no particular reason why he should bur-
den himself with the cares of family when not
in need of a servant.
Aunt Prudence Simmer, unlike her nephew,
was simmer, even, by nature than by name.
Early in her life, and while the gentle dews of a
sweet romance hung tenderly over her maiden
heart, her brothers wife, Bill SINNERS mother
and likewise the mother of a host of other Slim
mers had paid the debt of overwrought nature and
fallen asleep by life's rugged wayside.
Aunt Prudence heroically took up the burden
where her sister-in-law had laid it down. She
nursed the young SINNERS through measles,
mumps whooping-cough, scarlatina and chicken
pox, and cleansed them of divers skin and scalp
diseases of even more aggravating nature which
at some time other they had all caught at
school. And, finally, when the older SINNERS
grew up and married, and Josiah Simmer the
discouraged progenitor of the flock, breathed his
last out of pure laZness, and buried out of her
sight, and she had only herself and Bill Simmer
to provide for the good spinster sold her cooking
stove and coal-scuttle, and packed her dishes,
sewing machine and feather beds into boxes, with
her patchwork quilts and hand-wOven table linen,
and embarked from the clumsy dock hard by her
seaside home away down in Maine for her new
destination, Portland, Oregon.
Here, like Dorcas of old, Aunt Prudence busted
herself making coats. Her business prospered and
grew, and she, having eye to profits, invested
in real estate which in time advanced in value
till it became handsome property
Bill Simmer attended school when he had to,
and played poker whenever he could steal away
from Aunt Prudence and he grew older and
bigger, and finally TO manhood, followed the ex-
ample of other men on the street, and sucked with
enterprising regularity at the crooked end of a
long pipe-stem, and in many other ways proved
his masculine superiority over his weak-minded
aunt, until one day-the doctor said it was grie
that did it, though her neghbors said it was over
wOrk-she died suddenly of heart disease, leaving
her ungrateful nephew in excellent circumstances
Bill Simmer felt many compunctions of con
science as he gazed upon the furrowed face o
Aunt Prudence, so white and shrunken i'm IL
coffin and actually shed a tear or two when n,
caressed, for the last time her scanned and bat
tered hands, as they lay folded across her hollow
bosom tied with lute-strng ribbon and he wa
t1oroughly wretched after the funeral. The litt
shop, with its tiny back kitchen and wee bed
rooms, reminded him of Aunt Prudence but tn
remembrance would not cook his dinners, Ol
his buttons or pay his board. So, to drown hi
sorrow, Bill Simmer redoubled his former vigi
lance at the gaming table Aunt Prudence cou
not question him to where he spent hi
evenings, nor could she look at him, of yore
with her sad, reproachful eyes, and warn him @
the consequences Of his folly.
And So Bill Simmer went on from bad t
worse until he had squandered the whole Of hi
aunt's hard-earned property; and then, Of course
he found himself adrift in the world, penniless
He had no trade profession. 1t would hav
been well for him if ne had been able to WELD tn
tailor's goose that at last found its way to tn
pawnbroker's, where it yet lies, unredeemed an
for sale.
But Bill Simmer did not propose to go to wor
for living, even if he had known how. So afte
he had disposed of the last remnant of his legacy
he bethought himself for the first time of the ex
pedient which many other men have tried befor
and succeeded in-he would marry. And, a
young girls with dover were hard to find, h
would look after the relict Of some departed shade
who had left patrimony and a woman, whicl
combined would make up for him what he ha,
lost in Aunt Prudence
And Bill Simmer reformed / have told yO
that he was not slim by nature On the contrary
his proportions were ample, his physique wa
good, and, aside from preponderance of fiesl
about the lower face and neck giving him a de
cided Hancock jaw, he rather handsome