The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-05-02
A CONQUERED ENEMY.


"You are to have the Coopers for
neighbors, hear,' said Mrs. Bailey,
as she stopped on her way "down
town" to chat for moment over the
fence with her cousin, Mrs. Sunderland.
"Look out for squalls!''
Mrs. Sunderland paused in her work
of shipping the withered blossoms from
running rose to turn an inquiring
glance toward the speaker.
"What is wrong about the Coopersp
They are honest, sober, Industrious
folks, are they not?"
Gal of thai, with many other virtues
beside," Mrs. Bailey replied, laughing.
Nevertheless, I'd rather have them
live next door to you than to me"
"Don't be so mysterious" Mrs.
Sunderland said, her good -humored
face beginning to wear shade Of anxi-
ETY.. EITHER tell me all there is to tell,
or tell me nothing"
"There is nothing very dreadful to
reveal, and what there is is no secret.
You would have known Mrs. Cooper's
reputation as well as everybody else in
Greenvllle does if you were not new
conner. She is said to be the worst
tempered woman in town, and has new
er lived neighbor month to any fami-
ly without getting up quarrel with
them; therefore, l say, beware of
squalls"
Mrs. Sunderland did not think that
the dangers her cousin had warned her
to prepare for were of very serious
character, but being a woman ''wise in
her generation" she deemed it prudent
to pour oil upon the waves before any
signs Of a storm became visible. A day
or two after her new neighbors arrived,
seeing Mrs. Cooper making some en-
deayor to improve the condition of a
very neglected garden patch, Mrs.
Sunderland stepped to the dividing
fence and begged her neighbours ac-
ceptance of a basket full of vegetables
she had just gathered from her own
thriving garden.
at is so late in the season that I'm
afraid you won't be able to raise much
in your garden this year." she said,
pleasantly; land as have more gar
den-truck than l can make use Of, l
shall be glad to have you help me dis
pose of it.
Mrs Cooper turned upon her face
that certainly was not very progresses
ing, for it was dark, sallow and scowl-
ing, and when she spoke it was with
such a misplacing of her aspirates as at
once betrayed her to have been at no
very distant date subject of Queen
Victoria.
"Hi'm much obliged to you, ma am,
and as you've hoAered the garden-sass,
I'll accept it; but as general thing me
and my man pays our hown way, and
don't care to be beholden to nobody"
The lad Charlie she found it much
easier to make friends with; he was a
freckle-faced, black-eyed youngster of
twelve or thirteen, with head thickly
covered with closely-coiled rings of au-
burn hair. Noticing him one morning
wheeling away lot of weeds and rub
bish from his mothers garden, Mrs.
Sunderland asked him if he would like
to perform the same service for her. of
course for a remuneration. The offer
was eagerly accepted, and after that
Charley Cooper earned many dime
by little services performed for the
widow lady.
frank Sunderland and he became
quite well acquainted in the course OF
these labors, and, as a general thing,
the two boys got along together re-
markedly well; bWt one day some acct
dent happened to Charities wheelbar-
row, and he chose to think Frank was
the cause of the disaster. The evil
temper which had hitherto lain dor
mant sprang suddenly to life, and Char
lie gave utterance to such torrent OF
profanity as utterly appalled, not only
Frank, but Franks mother, who wit
messed the scene from her kitchen win
dow. She called Frank away at once,
and after few words of rebuke to
Charlie, spoken far more in sorrow
than in anger, she sent him home,
saying that she could not allow any
boy who swore or used bad language to
be the companion of her son.
Charlie departed in tears with his
broken wheelbarrow. and probably
gave an account of the trouble from his
own point of view to his mother, for a
few moments later Mrs. Sunderland
was startled to see. coming over her
back fence, first a cabbage, then a peck
or so of potatoes, and finally the basket
in which she had that morning sent to
Mrs, Cooper the vegetables thus uncer-
enormously returned. An explanation
OF this surprising shower followed in
Mrs. Cooper's voice:
'Hill thank you after this to keep
yourself and heverything belonging to
you to yourself. Hif my boy haint fit
society for your boy, we don't none OF
US want nothink to do with you.
Of course to such a speech as this no
civil reply was possible, so Mrs. Sun
derland quietly withdrew from the
scene of action, leaving her neighbor in
possession of the field. The predicted
quarrel had come, greatly to Mrs. Sun
derland'S modification; for to have il
known to the whole town that she was
at variance with her next-noor neigh
bor-as, thanks to Mrs Cooper's un-
scrupulous tongue, it speedily was
was felt by the widow to be real dis
grace.
All that she could do to smooth mat
tiers she did, with no effect, however,
except that Mrs. Cooper subsidized grad
ually from a ferocious into a sullen
mood, but lost no opportunity of exhib-
iting her dislike and ill-will in the num-
berless little ways which a near neigh
Dor can always make available.