Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-03-14

doubts IS Is whether OF no he ought ID
marry EN- after what Aunt Rebeccs
had said, an it seemed for q minute O.
Ell tina wouldn't be any weddin' at all.
but grandmother begun to cry, an
take on, an Aunt Rebecca Jest turned
round an looked at her. sGe on saws
she to the minister.
"Mother said eff thar was ANYBODY
looked fit to be a martyr, Aunt Rebecca
did then. Marryin' to please your re,
latlons an dyin' to please the Lord is
two things.
"Wa'al,I never thought much of Uncle
Enos after | heerd that story, though,
as l said before, / guess he was a pretty
good sort of a man. The principal
thing that was bad about him, I guess.
was, he was bound to hev Aunt Rebecca
an he didn't let anything, not even
proper self-respect, stand in his a
AUNT Rebecca alters did her duty by
him, and was a good wife an a good
honsskeeper. They never had any
children. but I don't s'pose she was
ever really happy or contented, an I
don't see how she could hev respected
Uncle Enos, s%cursly, for my part, but
you'd never hev known but what she
did.
$50 I looked at her pretty sharp as
we sot thar in her little bedroom that
opened out of the settin'-room; thar.
was jest room for one cheer beside the
bed, an sot on the bed. 1t seemed
rather awful, with him a-layin' dead in
the best room, but l couldn't help WON
derin' eff she wouldn't marry Abner
Lyons now. He'd never got married,
but lived all by himself jest at the rise
of the hill from where Aunt Rebecca
lived. He'd never had q housekeeper,
but jest shifted for himself, an folks
said his house was as neat as wax, an
he could cook an wash dishes as handy
as a woman. He used to hev his wash
in out on the line by seven o'clock of .
Monday mornin' anyhow; that l know,
for I've seen it myself; an the clothes
looked white as snow. shouldn't hey
been ashamed of 'em myself.
"Aunt Rebecca looked very calm, an
| don't think she'd ben cryins. But then
that want nothin' to go by; 'twa'n't
her way. l don't believe she'd a cried
ef it had been A5ner Lyons. Though 1
don't know, maybe, if she'd married
the man she wanted, she'd cried easier.
For all Aunt Rebecca was SO kind an
sym%pathizin' to other folks, she'd al
ways seemed like a stone bout her own
troubles. | don't s'pose eff the barn an
house had both burned down, an left
her without a roof over her head, she'd
"a seemed any different. l kin see her
now. jest as she looked, settin' thar
tellin' me the story that. would hev
Illustrated any other woman most to
death. But her voice was jest as low
an even, an never shook. Her hail
was gray, but it was kinder crinkly, an
her forehead was as white an smooth as
a young girls.
"AuntR ebecca's troubles always staid
in her heart, | s'pose, an never pricked
through. Except for her gray hair, she
never looked as eff she'd had one.
"She never took on any more wher
she went to the funeral, for they buried
him at last, poor man. He had mos
as hard a time gittin' buried as he die
gittin' married. Icouldn't help peekin
round to see eff Abner Lyons was thar
an he was, on the other side of the aisl'
from me. An he was ..lookin' straigh
!, at Uncle Enos's coffin, that stood up il
front under the pulpit, with the cur
ousest expression that l eve did see.
! ''He didn't look glad RELY. Icouldn'
, say he did, but all 1 could think of wa
a man who'd been runnin' an runnin
!, to git to a place, an at length had go
!, in sight of it.
"May be twas dreadful for him to e
to a mans funeral an look that way
but natur' is natur', an I always fol
somehow that eff Uncle Enos chose to d
as he did WANT anythin' more thai
he ought to hev expected when he wa
t dead.
"But I did feel awful ashamed an
wicked thinkin' of such things, with tn
: poor man layin' dead before me. An
= when l went up to look at him layin
thar so helpless 1 cried. like a baby
! Poor Uncle Enos! il amt for us to b
down on folks after everything's al
over.
, "Well, Aunt Rebecca married Abne
Lyons bout two years after Uncle Emo
died, an they lived together jest fv
years an seven months; then she wa
7 took sudden with cholera merbus iron
eat,n' currants, an died. He lived
year an q half or SO longer, an thel
he died in a kind of consumption.
"'Twa'n't long they had to be happ,
together, an sometimes | used to thinl
, they want SO happy after all; forthar'
no mistake about it, Abner Lyons wa
awful fussy. l s'pose his Twin alon'
so long made him so; but / don't be
, lieve Aunt Rebecca aver made a loaf 0
bread, after she was married, withou
his havin' something to say about it
an ef thar's anything that's aggervat
in TO q woman, it. havin' a MAJ
: fussin' around in her kitchen. r.
. "But eff Aunt Rebecca didn't fin
anything just as she thought it wa
goin' to be, she never let on she wa
disappointed.
Il declare. Almiry, thar's the hous
in sight, an the shower has gone roun'
to the northeast, an we amt had
| speck of rain to lay the dust.
"Well, my story's gone round to tn
northeast, too. Amt you tired GU
, hearin' me talk, A1miry5'
"No indeed, Mis- Green" replied al
mira, slapping the reins; 81 liked t
hear you, only it's kind of come to me
as I've been listening, that l lad hear
!, it before. The last time | took you +