The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-11-05

any other way to put II
SM& up" said my father. ~ L
eM19 are fool. Here you have
been studying your books and mus
ing over the great things you arc
going to do, and now you want to
marry a widow 1 did not think G
Japerson, especially Anderson Jap
erson, would so far give up that in
born idea OF importance which has
ever distinguished US from ouI
neighbors."
My father turned, walked to the
end Of the porch, took a drink OF
water and rinsed his mouth as if he
would wash out the taste of his
words. I was much IN love with
the widow Hankins. Oh, she was
beautiful; so graceful with a charm
ing little laugh-a ripping giggle,
like the tinkling of a music box.
The widow HAWKINS, or Zelda, as /
was permitted to call her, was sew
eral years older than /, but she vas
so 1.-THE, so blithe, oh, so everyth ing
that 1 knew her beauty would last
forever. This charming creature
had married miller. Hawkins was
not q handsome man, but his old
water mill was such 4 romantic
place that Zelda, with her notions
of poetry and moss-covered rocks,
could not resist his opportunities.
He only lived two years after his
marriage, and when l saw him bu-
ried in an old orchard, fancied he
must have died of excessive happi-
ness.
My father was rather stern
man, but there was about him a pc
culiar humor that occasionally
cropped out, but since my mothers
death the outcroppings had become
rare indeed.
"You ought to have more sense"
said my father, turning from the
end of the porch and slowly APP
preaching me. "'If you are so keen
to get married, sir"
"But l am not so keen to get
married, sir"
at seems that you are. What is
there about Zelda Han kins you
find so attractive?"
"She is beautiful" l replied.
Beautiful" he contemptuously
"Why, sir, you can go
out in the woods any time and jump
up a better looking woman than she
is. She is squint-eyed-"
Father, you know better than
that"
mo, I don't. She is squint-eyed
with an expressiOnless doll face aud
has a laugh like the cackle of a
guinea hen"
81 won't stand here, sir, and lis
ten TO you. You are insulting"
EYES," he continued, paying no
attention to my rising resentment,
Sand worse than all, she is a firt.
If you marry her you shall not
bring her to my house. You are
only nineteen. Wait until you arc
twenty-one and then renew your
proposal of marriage"
"But 1 haven't proposed to her
yet"
"Well, wait until you are twenty
one, and then if you want to marry
her 1 will give you this farm and
every head of cattle on the whole
place"
Il won't accept such an outrage
Gus proposition"
ooh, well, then, go ahead; but re
member, sir, that you must not
bring her to my house"
1--WE can live at the mill"
Can you? Well, 1 am glad to
hear it. l have a mortgage on that
property, and the day you take up
your residence there the mortgage
shall be foreclosed."
Father, L thought you were
kind hearted man"
"And l thought you were a sen
sible boy"
81 would rather lack sense than
kindness of heart"
ooh, you are no doubt a philan
thropist, and like all other philaf
thropist, lack discretion"
"Were you not in love with my
mother?' l asked after a moments
silence.
"Oh, yes, but my love was tenn
pered with sense. Your mother
was a young and talented woman.
was a man, not a boy"
"You are wasting your words on
me, father"
Il think you are right in that
particular. Go on, now, and pursue
V our own course, but remember
W hat l have said"