Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1883-09-28
HIRAM'S VISIT.

Going to git married, be you,
IIiram?"
Hiram Honeydew cOlored at the alb
rupt question, but he answered, truth
fully:
II don't see what else l kin do,
Aunt Peggy. Sister Susan is bent on
a-marryin' the school-teachPr an
a-goin' off to the Black Hills or som'eres
away out of all creation. An here's
all the fall work a-comin' on-that
medder hay to stack, an corn to cut,
pumkins to gether an all them wind
falls an Siberian crabs to make up in
cider fur the apple-butter, an no helm
sf.tss.t6 ~ - love or money. An, II
and cook ffSes 'Fsi9},lec.aa,t tead tbe f,r,6
soon as thrashin' was over vo,,.,@a
PROMISED to stay till then, Aunt Pe0ov
an then | thought I'd go round
,om'eres nigh about Glover Creek
where some of our kinfolks live, an
stay a week or so, an git "a some
,cdy that can housekeep an the like
20 the milkn' an churnin tend to
putin Up fruit, maxim apple-butter,
take kecr of the chickens an ducks,
an do the cookin' an cleanin' Sister
Susan was a powerful good housekeep-
er, an she couldn't be beat a-cookin',
either. If | could find a good sort of
woman that nd cook ekal to Susan,
wouldn't mind a-marryin' her"
"Humph SO you expect to git
wife an a good one, too, in week or
two, hey? You're gump, Hiram
Honeydew, an nothin' else. Besides,
you'd ought to git wife you could
keer fur as well as good housekeep-
er. Housekeepin an cookin' amt
"verytbing, | tell you. There's sech
thing as atfeckshin between man and
wife"
But Hiram secuted at this idea.
zone woman is the same as another
to me-" he returned, loftily. 81 want
housekeeper, an that's why I'm
a-goin to marry at all.
oval then, Hiram, if you're bound
an determined to go an hunt up
wife that a-way,mebbe kin help you
little. | knowed the folks about
Glover Creek like a book when yer
Cncle Eli was alive, an we lived on
the old Honeydew farm. An thar
was Mahala Nutter. She married Job
Perky. an they bought farm on
Clover Hill, t'other side the creek
There want nobody could beat Mdhala
a housekeepin' them days, an most
likely her darter, Marthy Jane, hes
tuck after her. They are sort o kin
folks o yourn, too. Mahaly was yer
Uncle Ellis own cousin An eff you
like. I'll write 'em few lines, an tell
em you're a-comin, an sort o perpare
'em, fur nobody likes to hey compny
unexpected" ="
And so it was settled, much to
Hiram's relief, and he whetted his
- the and went out to NOW a feed OF
green clover for his horses with a
lighter heart than he had had for
week.
For he had made up his mind that if
Martha Jane Perky was as good a
housekeeper as Aunt Peggy said, ne
would bring her home with him as
Mrs. Honeydew in weeks time, II
she was willing.
And no doubt she would be, for
Hiram was quite good-looking man.
with pleasant brown eyes, curly brown
hair, and a thick, brown moustache.
Moreover he was "well-to-dO,' and
almost any of the girls in his own
neighborhood would have jumped at
the chance of presiding over his broad
acres and picturesque cottage farm
house, half buried in sugar-maples and
tall Lollard poplar-trees.
But to Hiram, as to most others,
distance lent enehantment to the view,
and he was "bound and determined, a.
Aunt Peggy had said, to seek his fate