The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-06-23
" JUST LIKE A MAN."
BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.

lney 40 peat Ill signed Mrs.
Peek, as she wiped her face earnestly
with spotted cotton h andkerchief, and
set her spectacles aloit on top OF her cap
border. "Isummered an wintered one
on 'em nigh on to fifty years, and the
was things he done't don't see into up
to this day. Beside, had sons, and
darters' husbands as we'll, and they're
all of piece; tarred with the same
stick, as Lias used to say"
"Well, spoke up Miss Patty Brinkly,
q vivacious maiden lady, stopping to
thread her needle, with both elbows on
the quilt-frame and her thread and
needle stabbing at each other nearly
half a yard away from her strainIng
eyes. Z" hain't never had no such ex-
perience, thanks be to praise Pa used
to say if had ha' married anybody I'd
have killed 'em or ran away from EN-,
and L dono but what should.
"They had something to be thankful
for, then, as well as thee, Patty" dryly
remarked Aunt Marcia Blum, the only
lady of the Friends" persuasion, as she
called it, CT whom Oakley boosted.
Well, they're queer anyhow" re-
sumed the Widow Peck. "Ther's no
counting for 'em; they'll up and do
things you wouldn't no more expect of
'em than anything; and as for bein'
protectors for women. folks and all that.
which folks tell about In books, my landl
Lias Peck would ha' died more'n forty
times eff L hadn't ha' had dry things for
to put onto him when he came in soakin'
wet out of the crick, or after pourin'
rain. AS twas, he died o rheumatic t
he took along o hoatln' saw logs down
to the mill in a spring freshet and never
coming home to dinner, but working all
day IN them damp clothes. l gave him
pokeberry rum, an hemlock sweat,
and two hull bottles OF Gumption's
Ginger Bitters, besides q rubin of HIM
powerful with campfire, before 1 sent
for the doctor; but it stuck to his stom-
tick and he went off like a snuff. But
that amt here nor there as | was q
sayin, for nigh onto fifty years I'd put
his flannel shirts into the front left-hand
corner of the bottom drawer in the
I'm 'hog'ny bureau in the bedroom, and
every Sunday mornin' regular, when he
was cleanin up for the meetin' he'd
hollor out 'Lurancy where's them fan
mel shirts o mlue?' Now that's SO I"
concluded the disconsolate widow, WHIP
ing her eyes, and adding in stage aside
=" But I'd give considerable to hear
him holler that again +"
And they hain't got no memory"
put In Miss Patty, who had at last
coaxed needle and thread to an amicable
understanding, and was quilting away
with zeal and discretion, as every good
quilter knows how. 81 never see the
time when they wouldn't forget things.
I've tailored round quite number o.
years, and I've had an eye on 'em, as
you say. There was Silas Buck. used
TO tailor for his folks consider BILE; the
was him and three boys and the hired
man. Well, I'd get out o linen thread,
say, and you can't no more make over
hauls with SEWN cotton than you can
with spider webs, and Mis- Buck she'd
say, Silas. says she, 'Patty's all out o
linen thread. When We go down to the
store after them rake-tails wish't you'd
fetch up hank o. black and hank o
brown. Now don't we forget it = And
Silas he'd laugh, he was Just as clever as
basket o chips, and bed say, 'Ill fetch
1t mother but he wouldn't md set
an set waitin' fort, and fnlly put on
my bunnit and walk mile down to the
Corners for to fetch it myself; then he'd
say. Cousin Patty'-you see we called
cousins because his fathers second wife
was sister my Amt Sophrony's husband
Cousin Patty, bain't you cot them
overhauls done yet?' and I'd sorter
bluster md say, Cousin Silas, / amt
no more able to make bricks without
straw n the Isr'elites was for Pharo', and
you didn't fetch me no thread Yesterday
and then he'd haw, haw. right out, he
was real clever, but land so shiftless.
That's just case in pint, so to speak.
We know; inst one time. mt Won can toll
by little what great deal means, and,
as Mis- Peek saws, they're all alike"
"Thee doesn't think women folks are
perfec', does thee. Patty ?" queried Aunt
Marcia, in her calm voice.
"Well, dono as they be; dono as
said they he, but you can gently tell
where most Of 'em II fetch up and Won
are kinder fit and prepared for what
they will do. and specially for what they
won't do. Sometimes they'll disapp'int
all your calculation. but then You can
fall back on Scripter. and sect they was
made to be the weaker sect; though, il
faint really lawful to say so. own L