Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-04-11
WITHOUT ANY COIRTING.

( ssG 4 = i
5s Peter Patterson was Hat least he
Thought SO, and depressed; he had
headaches, and he hated the dusty
streets, in which the summer heat burnt
and the summer SIM shone before the
] green leaves had draped the trees. and
plotted geraninms which have come to
be 80; blessedly popularin New York,
lent their summer freshness.
What shall / do doetor?" 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. T know I shall be down with
something soon. I rode in a car with
q half dozen dirty cAdren, the other
day going to the small pox hospital
I hayen'ta doubt--yery red and nasty
looking, all of them; and while was
buying something in 8 store down in
Broadway the other day, horrid old
woman begged of me because her hus-
band was sick with typhoid fever. No
doubt I've caught both diseases and its
Che complication that puzzles you.
couldn't relish my coffee this morning
left my milk toast untouched. Hateful
life, that of q bachelor at a hotel. Oh
dear ma" wi.
= "Why don't you marry, Them" said
the doctor.
''1'hey need so much courting," said
Mr.. Patterson. ''You spend six months
or so, at least, dangling at a 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
a 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 a ring On
her finger and saying and nodding yes
two or three times, why I wouldn't
mind it you know"
''Ah, 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 coun-
try
"To another hotel and more mercen-
airy waiters" said Mr.. Patterson.
''Well," said the doctor, Ego to a nice
private house, know one--a mot herly
widow lady who cooks dinner fit for a
king. River before the house, WOO d
behind it, orchard to the left, kitchen
garden to the right; no fever, no ague
no mosquitoes. Heavenly! I am going
take you"
Every well" said Mr.. Patterson, II
think I'd try it.
"And you must drink plenty Of milk,
and eat plenty Of nice homemade
bread"
eyes, WILL" said Patterson, over
joyed ut least at hearing something that
sounded Ikea prescription. "And you
would advise milk ?''
"Quart of it every day. said the doc
tor
It'll take note OF it," said Patterson,
''and il should be very i'll she'll nurse
me?'
"Splendidly," 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 peculiarly thus:
mice fellow social, plenty of money
thinks himself ILL., 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 Cali i'll a 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 at 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-five 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 pleutiful say
ings by taking summer boarder or
two, if they happened to offer.
Fifty and a bachelor" said Mrs.
Muntle, looking in the glass. "Well,
it seems pity but when elderly gen
tlemen marry, it is some hitytity girl
that lead them terrible life, and it's
for the best" '..s p: ..sEs i.
Then she looked in the glass again,
for the widow was but a woman after all.
Mr.. Patterson came to the widows
and obeyed the DOCTORS prescription
carefully. He ate bread and milk,
robbed the orchards like school boy,
and declared over the strawberry short
cake after fashion that would have
made his reputation at the bar Then,
too, Mrs, Muntle did not smile at his
aches and pains, and insist that he must
be perpetually well because he had a
fresh complexion and dimples in his
cheeks. She had sayory herb teas and
potions, which she produced when he
complained of feeling miserable, and
she had that blessing of hypochondaries,
a homeopathic box in the house.
There were remedies in that box for
everything; and it was pleasant to find
that when there was q crawling sensa-
ton in your flesh, or kind of uneasy
feeling in your legs, there were daily
little globules to be had just suited for
symptoms; that to find yourself very
angry about nothing indicated pulsatilla,
and that even for unrequited love there
was a medicine. >&
For two months and more Mr.. Patter-
son boarded with Mrs. Mnntle, and
happier months he had never lived
through. Then he went back to the
city for q few weeks, returning il urgent
need Of more pellets from the medicine
chest, and stayed until the last pink