The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-04-18
WITHOUT ANY COURTIkG.


in which the summer heat burnt
and the summer sun shone before the
green leaves had draped the trees, and
geraniums which have come to
be SO blessedly %popularin New York,
lent their summer freshness.
"What shall I do doctor" he said to
the white-headed old physician. "You
say nothing ais me, bnt I can tell you
what my feelings are better than you
can. / know I shall be down with
something soon. Irode in a car with
half a dozen dirty children, the other
day-going to the small pox hospital,
I haven't douht-very red and nasty
looking, all of them; and while I was
buying something in a store down in
Broadway the other day, q horrid old
woman begged of me because her hus-
band was sick with typhoid fever. No
doubt I've caught both diseases and its
the complication that puzzles you.
couldn't relish my coffee this morning;
left my milk toast untouched. Hateful
life, that of a bachelor at n hotel. Oh
dear me-"
"Why don't you marry, then?" said
the doctor.
.'They need so much courting," said
Mr.. Patterson. You spend six months
or SO, ut least, dangling at q woman's
apron strings. Qou must go to the
theatre and opera if she is gay, and to
church meeting ifshe is pious. At fifty
q man likes his slippers and blessing
gown and chair of an evening. If it
was just stepping over to the clergy
man sand getting married, put q ring OF
her finger and saying andnodding yes
two or three times, why l wouldn't
mind it you know"
HAh, we'll, counting is the fun Of it
in my opinion" said the old doctor,
but every one to his taste. And my
advice to you is to get into the
try
nTo another hotel md more mercen-
airy waiters!" said Nh. Patterson.
"Well,n said the doctor, ego to q nice
! private house, I know one-a motherly
| widow lady who cooks a dinner fit for q
king. River before the house, voc d
behind it, orchard to the left, kitchen
garden to the right; no fever, noague;
no mosquitoes. Heavenly / am going
/! up there tomorrow and I'll see if she'll
take you"
every WE'LL" said Mr.. Patterson, ~
think I'd try it."
"And you must drink plenty of milk,
and eat plenty of nice homemade
bread"
eyes, I WILL" said Patterson, over
joyed at least at hearing something that
sounded like a prescription. "And you
would advise MILK"
"Quart Of it every day." said the doc
tor.
It'll take note Of it" said Patterson,
"and if I should be very i'll she'll nurse
me?"
"splandidly," said the doctor, and
went his way.
Mr.. Patterson thought the matter
over, and thought better of it every day,
and when the little note informing him
that the widow would be willing to
take him in and do for him." reached
him, he had his trunk and portmanteau
already packed, and was all ready to
start that afternoon. AS for the widow,
the doctor had prepared her for her
boarder's popularity thus:
INlCe tellON sCCEul, plcL1y VI IIOley
thinks himself i'll, but. isn't; ought to
be married; told him so, but he hates
the idea of counting; marry off some
day no doubt; Will you have me?'
Yes Call in s clergyman. Over.
Very peculiar old bachelor; but then
old bachelors are peculiar generally"
The widow was what Yankees call an
amazing smart woman. She had mar
ried ut sixteen and had never failed to
have washing over when other people
were hanging out theirs. Her bread
always rose, her cake was always good,
and her butter was always sweet. At
forty-tive she had married off all her
daughters, and was well TODD, buxom
and happy.
Her son and his wife boarded with
her, and she added to her plentiful say
ings by taking q summer boarder OF
two. ii they happened to offer.
Fifty and n bachelor" said Mrs
Muntle, looking in the glass. "Well.
it seems q pity: but when elderly gen.
tlemen marry, it is some hitytity CIR
that lead them a terrible life, and It'll
for the best"
Then she looked in the glass again
for the widow was but a woman after all
Mr.. Patterson came to the widow
and obeyed the doctoris prescription
carefully. He ate bread and milk
robbed the orchards like a school-boy
and declared over the strawberry short
cake after q fashion that would hay,
made his reputation ct the bar. Then
too, Mrs, Muntle did not smile at his
aches and pains, and insist that he mus
be perpetually well because he had
fresh complexion and dinfples in hi
checks. She had sayory herb teas ant
potions, which she produced when Ii
complained of feeling miserable, an,
she had that blessing of hypochondaries
a homeopathic box in the house.
! There were remedies in that box TO
!, everything; and it was pleasant to fine
, that when there was a crawling sensa
ton in your flesh, or a kind of uneas,
!. feeling in your legs, there were dali.
little globules to be had just suited TO
symptoms; that to find yourself yer.
angry about othingindicated pulsatilla
. and that even for tnrequited love Their
{ was q medicine.
For two months and more Mr.. Patter
son boarded with Mrs. Muntle, an
, happier months he had never live,
through. Then he went back to til
t city for a few weeks, returning in urgen
, need of more pellets from the medicin
chest, and stayed until the last pin
! cbrysantheum was blooming on it
withered branches. He had grown s
fond of his little room, with its whit
] curtains and fresh grass bleached liner
i of the country good things, and Of TIL
cozy nursing of the buxom Mrs. Mmtl
q that he could scracely bear the though
of parting with them altogether.