Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-04-22

Sabbath day at meetin', last winter,
Horace's wife says to David, says she:
David, we've got some company at
our house."
ITO be sure" said David.
"Woman company" says Horace's
wife. "Thc girls an boys has got home
from school at Ex'ter, and they'v
brought friend with 'em, a school
ma'am," says she.
81 want ter know" says David.
"Yes, an she's just the match for
YOU" says Horace's wife. mot too
young, nor too old, but just young an
old enough, an they say she's great
ketch where she lives, David" says
she, San if you're still of mind to
marry, you kin come around Saturday
night an I'll make you acquainted with
her, an you and she kin do some
sparkin in the best parlor."
IL want ter know" says David.
So, on Saturday night, David fixed
himself up in his Sunday best, as pretty
as II ripe pumpkin, and he moseyed ovof
to Horace's house to see the woman
company from Ex'tcr. He was intro
duced, an fer a while all the folks was
in the best room with 'em; but bimeby
they slipped out one by one, and left
David alone with the woman COM
pany. She was n slick talker,
and she kinder drawed David out,
out, so to speak, an got him to tellin'
about fishin' and farmin and his new
house. with nary woman to put into
it. Then David he asked her il there
was n good deal of marryin' at Elk ter.
She said there was more or less, and
then David inquired why so pretty and
likely woman as she had never got
hitched herself.
He was fishin' with short line,
David was, and he didn't waste no time.
She Uttered an blushed, an said she
'sposed twas because no one had asked
her; that she'd beaux enough, but she
hadn't never seen no man until that
night to whom she'd give encourage
ment.
Then David, he came up to the pint
at once, an said if that was all that
stood in the way she'd not die single on
his account Whereupon she spoke up
sharp like, and says, says she:
David, be you jestin'p'
She looked him square in the eyes
when she said that, an David, he stood
it like man. He said he was never so
dead in earnest in all his life as he was
at that blessed minute. He said he had
a house, new built, an as good fishin'
boat as there was between Provincetown
and Portland, an though he was long
in years somewhat, he wasn't drinkin'
man, and come of a long-lived family.
If she wanted to hitch he did, and the
parson couldn't be called too soon for
him.
"Tll marry no man who doesn't git
down on his knees an ask me in the
old-fashioned way" said she.
At this David Topped down on his
prayer-bones and popped the question.
"Git up, David" says she, takin' him
by the hand, "Tll marry no man but
you"
Then the folks was called in, and
David he told 'em as how he and the
woman company was goin' to get mar
ried, an they all went to the kitchen
an had some popcorn an cider an
butternuts.
The next day was Sabbath, an when
David went to meetin' he looked over to
Horace's pew, but there want no wom-
an company there, only a young man
who looked amazin' like the girl he
kissed the night before. When preachin'
was over an the benediction said,
David waited in the entry, an when
Horace's folks come out he was Just
about askin for the woman company,
when the young man stepped up as
spry as could be, and takin' him by the
hand, he said:
David, I'll marry no man but you,"
an David he looked as if he'd 90
through the bottom of the meetin'
house.
1t was wicked thing, think, but it
cured David of courtin' strangers. The
young man was a school-teacher at Ex-
ter, an the boys brought him over to
play it on David as they did. He had
been actin q woman's part in some
theater play at the school, and did it so
perfect that nobody could have told a
bit of difference.
Twas great trial to David; he haint
been so much cut up by anything afore or
sence, an many folks in his place would
MT stood it, but there want nothin'
he could do to make matters any better,
or 20 stop folks talkin' about his
blamed thunderin' foolishness. 1t amt
talked about so much now, by a good
deal, but the tongues was pretty busy
at sewin' societies an candy-pulls last
winter, can tell you.
David got along pretty middlin' well,
an didn't say much to folks about it,
but he told his old mother he'd a real
lin sense of his foolishness an quit
runnin after the women for time.
But he amt gin it up yet, an you'll
hear from him in some scrape or moth
er next winter eff he's spared.
There's plenty o. good in David eff no
is near an graspin' an never thought o.
marryin' tell he was fifty-two. He's
got tender side to little ones, an is
often kindly an good-hearted on the
sly. There amt better seaman nor q
Drawer man on the hull coast than
David, an when the Seagull foundered
on the Fosdick rocks few years sence,
he was the first man to shove his dory
into the surf an row to her.
Others went to her, but David went
alone an asked no help. He said there
wan nO USE " buC WIN
folks if any lives was to be saved.
1t was most shutdown an q nor'east
gale was on, shakin' the rocks as tho
waves struck 'em. The breakers rolled
as high as the biggest barn in the town.
ship, an now you could see the Seagull
an now you couldn't. When David
got to her she'd been heaved way up
on the rocks, was ripped an split, an
'twasn't only matter of a mint or so
when she'd keel over. The skipper
had got his wife into boat, with some
o. the crew, and the rest of 'em was in
another, an they was just about
shown off when David he come up.
He cast them his painter, an they was
just maxim it fast when the woman she
tainted dead away, an her babe that
was in her lap it rolled into the sea.
David grabbed the child before it
went under, an lifted it into the boat,
but while these doin's was goin' on he
lost his oars, the painter parted, an a
bio breaker which broke over the Sea-