The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-10-27
CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE,

she wanted to try it, why, l was willing.
So | went down stairs"
''Did you go into the ecstacies of ewly
engaged lovers-kiss each other shyly
and then fervently, and that good sort
of things?'
Nov you never mind. went down
stairs and met General Wells, and said
to him, General if you are willing, I'm
going to marry Belle All right, says
he, you can have her or any other
daughter I've got, or as many of them as
you want Il only want one of Them"
says I. You had better think it over about
Belle, says he. This is only an infatu-
alton between you, and will die out, and
you don't want to make any mistake at
this stage l told HIM No, it wasn't
any infatuation; 1t meant business from
the start He says, Go ahead, Belle is
Eighty and perhaps tickle, but she is a
lovely girl at heart, and perhaps it will
turn out WELL l went back to Belle and
told her. She asked me to tell my wife.
l said / would, and she said she would
call on her the next day. After supper
at home that day says to my wife, ap-
ruptly, DO you remember that Miss
Wells you introduced me TOP She said
she did. WELL says l, I'm going to
marry her."
"Well," asked in breathless int crest,
s'what did she say -
"She said that she had expected that 1
would marry again, and, while she would
not attempt to deny..that the news was a
blow to her, she was glad that it was to
be woman she liked as we'll as she did
Belle Wells. told her Belle was CON-
ing to morrow. The next afternoon
Belle came while was at the store, and
the women had long and satisfactory
talk
'Do you know what passed between
them 90
enc, any further than that they were
both satisfied with it"
"Did you see Belle often afterward"
"Yes, nearly every day. took her
and my wife to the theatre together, to
| church, and to every place, and | called
on her at frequent intervals, but we kept
postponing the wedding all the time. 1t
was in the fall we were engaged, but it
wasn't until April that we married.
was figuring for some business advance
ment, and was building some houses.
When everything came off as hoped we
were married. l furnished two houses
adjoining each other just alike, and we
occupied them
"Did your first wife go to the wed.
dingo'
"Certainly''
and to the reception"
eyes. She saw the house was in order
for Bellies coming"
care the two women good friends?"
Like sisters"
(which do you love the bcst?"
both alike. When my business en-
deavors bore fruit l gave my first wife a
house before l gave Belle one. give
them both alike. I've fixed them SC
they'll have s25, 900 apiece if l should
die.
GLOW many children have you got %
''Six by each wife"
Glove them all alike %
"Thats easy to do"
''Couldn't you have kept away from
Belle after you fell in love with her ?"
eyes, l might nave done so. but
didn't. Circumstances worked other
ways. What do you suppose would have
happened if we hadn' married"
We'll, l suppose you would have sin
ned, and you would have been the young
iadv's seducer."
"That's exactly what would have hap
pened, suppose. But we took advant-
age of form of our religion to prevent
that. What do you think of the altern-
ative9 ~
"Well, they are both so infamous that
l can't regard them as anything differ
ent."
ooh, well, you are prejudiced. I'm
happy-in my family. Come around and
dine tonight; you will see all the chill
dren and my first wife. Bellies in the
East now"
l went. | never saw twelve more
splendid children. Handsome, inSelE-
gent, and, even to the baby, better
behaved than any I ever saw before.
Six of them addressed the lady of the
house as aunt, six of them called her
mama; the husband called her darling
l can not add to the interest of this story
further than to refer to Territorial Gov
ernor Hubbard, of Utah, for its accuracy.
The Governor had been told it just as l
was, and, while he did net repeat it to
me, he told me how l might possibly
hear it in the first person. 1 have writ
ten it down as nearly in the narrator
words as can remember. PILGRIM.