Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1883-07-27
A COMEDY OF ERRORS.

- ~ " LAAaA1O Il VI 1llt1lO1lhJH
Squire Packenham was very angry.
Being member of the church he didn't
swear. But he slammed the kitchen
door 50 violently when he came in that
Keturah, his wife, comprehended at
once that something was wrong.
Dear me, Abram, said she, mildly,
looking up from the apples she was
slicing for pan-dowdy. "there amt no
occasion to take the door off its hinges.
What's the trouble now?"
ITS Betsey Briggs" answered the
squire, seating himself, with some
vehemence, on a cushioned chair
The airs that creetur gives herself ex-
ceed-everything"
"Airs? ?" said Mrs. Packenham. 81
didn't know as them was Betsey
Briggs weaknesses.
Il dunno what you'll call it," said
the squire. She was out in the gar
den pickin' peas, an jest hollered to
her, as | come by, to see if she'd be
wilin' to entertain the sewin' society
at her house next Thursday. And. if
4 youh believe me, she didn't saw
q word Neither yes nor nov,
wen, nevers's saia Il.
N ham. But = itsf a r,sts ,@.s 'sS,sNe1A-
extenuation, you mustn't foraot
Abram, that Betsey Briggs is near
sighted"
"That don't prevent her hearlnv
does it?" sharply demanded the squire
~ didn't think o that" said meek
Mrs Paekenham, rejecting a goldep
summer apple, which had bruis, on
its mellowest side "But in quite
sure Betsey didn't mear no harm
Betsey never doesr'
81 dunno how tha' may be" said
the squire, morosel-. But do know
| shan't put mysslf out to speak to her
agin, unless she sees fit to apologize
q can't make it out at all, " said Mrs.
Packenh2m, slowly shaking her head
Miss Carter was the next person
who stopped at the Packenham house
She was spare female, whose exact
age, like that of the obelisk. was
wrapped in mystery, and she was
book-agent of the most rabid type. and
deadly execution.
"P'raps you'd like to subscribe to the
'Housekeeper's Weekly Visitor Mis-
Packenham," said she, rounding off her
sentences with prodigious sniff.
oval, nor said Mrs. Packenham
1--WE aren't much O readers here.
"Or maybe your husband would like
to take copy of the Ten Leading
American Patriots 2" suggested Miss
Carter, still struggling with her
catarrhal difficulty.
"Abram don't read nothin but the
newspapers" said Mrs Packenham.
His eyesight amt what it was and
who's your neighbor down under {
the hill?" sharply interrupted Miss
Carter. "JuSt beyond the brook where !
the bridge is SO out of repair ?"
"Her name is Briggs" said Mrs. e
Packenham "Betsey Briggs" Q
"Weu, whoever she is, ,, snorted Miss b
Garter, 'she hasn't no more manners a
than moody cow Not to notice me, e
even, and me standin' there talkin' my h
self hoarse to her. Not even to turn
ler head to look at me- b
Dear, dearr said Mrs. Packenham, y
that's very strange Betsey's dread e
'uI sociable creetur. That don't seem 81
ike her a bit. t
"Well, that don't signify" said Miss c
1arter, seating herself, and opening
Ter leather packet. But Id just like a
'ou 10 look at few recent publications.
We got here" II
"Qh, don't trouble to show 'em to n
neP said Mrs. Packenham. apprehen- Z
lively. q hain't no money to buy nor h
ime to read; and the churnin's behind N
and, this mornin', and I've got soft
Oap to make" re
1T won't take a minute" persua- Sc
lively argued Miss Carter h
And she sat two mortal hours in the 81
luires kitchen, and made Mrs. Pack al
nham subscribe to the 'Housekeeper's +!
Weekly Visitor for a term OF three b
ears, before she departed
"Betsey Briggs managed her the Pl
est way" groaned Mrs. Packenham' pi
5 she looked into the recesses of her al
nptypocket-book. "What will Abram az
""
The clergyman, a slender, dyspeptie h'