The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-01-09

emphatically wrong, and after discuss
ing the matter a while Maud said:
But, auntie, you haven't told II
about the one real offer that you di,
have"
Very we'll said Aunt Jane, laugh
ing, I'll skip the offers | didn't hay,
| then, and tell Of the ones | did have, !
vou say SO. You all remember Under
| wood, of course. Your grandfathe
boughtit. Jennie, when you were a baby
and we all spent our summers there
That's twenty years ago, and l wa
then what society calls passe-in fact,
had before that made up my mind to
life of old maldism.
''One day I had taken o fancy to g
into the kitchen and make q cake, J
did this because everybody except the
hired men and one of the chamber
maids had gone to the city, eve the
cook being away for the day, the hired
men of in the fields, and Mary and
the only occupants of the house. had
begun my cake-making when / discov.
cred the want of certain spices, and
Mary volunteered to go to the store tC
obtain them. She had hardly got away
when | heard a step, and raised my eyes
to see a man standing at the kitchen
door, which opened into the path that
led to the road.
MY heart was in my throat in an in.
slant, and / remembered how utterly
alone | was. We were not afraid OF
tramps in those days as now, but
think a better specimen of that genus /
saw. He was dilapidation itself.
and as I looked at him in a dazed.
frightened way, he whined:
LADY, I'm very hungry. Won
you give me something to eat?'
"As scared as | was [ reasoned. ]
would feed him and talk to him until
Mary returned, and | would then send
her for the hired men, and so ] babe
him come in and l sat before him the
contents of the kitchen pantry, with an
abundance of warm coffee from the
stove. He ate like one who had not
seer food for over a month, and as he
ate poured forth the tale of his troubles.
He had been a prosperous shoemaker,
having at time had as much as $40C
in the savings bank; but, as he declared,
he had been ruined by a bad wife, who
would not bear with his little foibles,
M of which was his conviviality, and
so she left him, and he became q wan
derer.
"Of course I sympathized with him
In his troubles, and under this the
stimulation of the coffee, as soon as he
could eat no more, / found him on his
knees before me, pouring out his adj
miration. On, if he hal but such a
wife as / was, what a different man he
might have been. A millionaire, per-
haps-Oh, will that girl, Mary, ever
return ?--but it was not too late yet.
His wife was not dead, but he was not
afraid of her. Would ! marry him?
Il don't know how l found words,
In my fright, but l saw that I must
temporize, and / told him that the
offer was too sudden, that l was un.
able to decide at once; that at any
moment my father or brothers might
come down stairs, and I would rather
keep it a secret from them. If he
would go away now and return the
next day at the same hour he should
have my answer. He promised he
would, and very candidly confessed
that he did not know where he should
sleep that night, whereat i took out my
purse and gave him what money / haG,
about two dollars, and he departed, and
that's the only direct offer, girls, / have
yer received in my life"
"Oh, Auntie!" went up in chorus
from the three girls. "How terrible
Did he come back"
ooh mol / never saw him again, and
as | did not know his name, you know,
girls, / could not hunt him up. When
Mary came back she found me stretched
upon the kitchen floor, where i had
chosen to drop in a faint, and after she
had brought me back to life she wanted
to send one of the hired men after my
visitor, but / refused to allow her, fol
what had the man done? Nothing
He was civil and quiet, and had gone
away at my request, and had left it il
my power to say that i had received
n offer at least in my life"