The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-01-08
JUST LIKE A MAN.
BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.

Christian Union.
"They do beat ALL" sighed Mrs.
Peck, as she wiped her face earnestly
with q spotted cotton handkerchief,
and set her spectacles aloft on the top
OF her cap border. II summercd and
wintered one on EN- nigh on to fifty
years, and there vas things he done |
don't seeinto up to thisday. Besides
Ihad sons, and darters' husbands as
vel, .and they're all of q piece; tarred
with the same stick, as Lias used to
say"
"Well," spoke up Miss Patty Brink
ly, q vivaclous maiden lady, stopping
to tkreadher needle, with both elbows
on the quiltframe, andh thread and
needle stabbing at each other nearly
half a yard away from her strainlng
eyes. II hadn't never had no such
experience, thanks be to praise. Pa
used to say ii | hadha' married any
body I'd have killed 'em or run away
from 'em, and l don't know but what
I should"
"They had something to be thank
full for, then, as well as thee, Patty"
dryly remarked Aunt Marcia Blinn,
the only lady ofthe Friends" pcrsua-
sion, as she called it, OF whom Oakley
boosted.
"Well," they're queer anyhow" re-
sumed the Widow Peek. There's no
'countin' for 'em; they'll up and do
things you would no more expect of
'em than anything; and as for bein'
protectors for women-folks and all
that, which folks tell about in books,
my land! Lias Peek would ha' died
more'n forty times ef hadn't ha'had
dry things for to put into him when
he came in soakin' wet out OF the
crick,or after apourin' rain. AS twas
he died o. rheumatiz't he took along
O. tioatin' saw-logs down to the mill
in q spring freshet and never COMM
home to dinner, but workin' all day
in them damp clothes. / give
him p~okeberry rum, an a hemlock
sweat, and two hull bottles of Gump-
tions Ginger Bitters, besides a rubbin'
of him powerful with campfire, before
Isent for the doctor; but it struck to
: his stomic and he went off like a snuff.
But that ant here nor there; as | was
sayin', for nigh onto fifty year I'd put
his flannel shirts into the front left
hand corner of the bottom drawer in
the m'hog'ny bureau in the bedroom,
and every Sunday mornin> regular,
when he vas cleanin' up for meetin'
he'd holler out 'Laurancy! where's
them flannel shirts o. mine?' Now
that's sol" concluded the widow, WHIP
ing her eyes and addingin u stage aside,
-"But I'd glveconsider'ble to hearhim
holler that asain!"
'And they amt got no memory"
put i'll Miss Patty, who had at last
coaxed needle and thread to an ami
able understanding, and was quilting
away with zeal and discretion, as every
good quilter knows how. ~ never
see the time when they wouldn't for
get things. I've tailored round quite
a number o. years, and I've had an
eye on them as you say. There was
Silas Buck. l used to tailor for his
folks considerable; the was him and
three boys and the hired man. Well.
I've got out O. linen thread, say, and
you can't no more make overhauls
with SEWN cotton than you can with
spider webs, and Mis- Buck she'd say
'Silas,' says she, Miss Patty's all out
o. linen thead. When We 60 down tc
the store after them rake tails Iwish't
you'd fetch up a hank O. black and q
hank O. brown. Now don't you foget
i'll" And Silas he'd laugh, he was Just
as clever as a basket O. chips.
and he'd say, "Ill fetch it, moth
er,'--but he wouldn'tl an l set, an
set q waitin' for it and fin'ly put or
my bunnit and walk a mile down to
the Corners for to fetch it myself; ther
he'd say, Cousin Patty,'-you see W.
called cousins because his fathers sec
ond wife was sister to. my Aunt So
phrony's husband,-'Cousin Patty
hain't you got them overhauls done
YETI an I'd sorter buster up nd say
Cousin Silas, l ant more able tt
make bricks without straw than thu
Isr'elites wasfor Pharo' an youdidn',
fetch me no thread yesterday ant
then he'd haw,. haw. right out: he wa:
real clever, but land! SO shlitiess
That's just q case in pint SO to speak
ye know; just one time, you a tel
by q little what a great deal means
and AS Mis- HeCk saws, re al