The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-11-06
MIS- HITS HUSBANDS.
They Failed Entirely to Discour-
age Her.

The young schoolmaster who presided
during the spring term over the seventeen
bare-footed children of district No. TO- East
Centerville, johnson County, did not find
the social element of the neighborhood
congenial. There was no lack of society
and social gayeties. The schoolmaster had
attended a surprise party, warm-sugar
party, and "sociable' during the first
week of his residence an district No. 10; he
had been stared at by red-handed hair
oiled, tongue-tied youths; danced several
Virginia reels to the tune of Pop Goes the
Weasel rendered on shrieking fiddle or
a hoarse melodeon; been kissed by scores
of buxom girls in innumerable osculatory
games; and had since refrained from East
Centerville festivities with a sternness
which had been looked upon as 'stuck-up,"
and which may indeed have been due in
some degree to that complacent self-est-
mate in which young schoolmasters are
not usually deficient.
He was fond of entertainment, however,
and being thus thrown back upon himself,
its chances seemed small. The comfort
able old couple who boarded him were
meek, industrious, deserving and common
place, and he was not hopeful of discover
ing any thing more exciting in district No.
10. He was reused to a mild interest,
therefore, when he found the ''sittin'-
room one morning, in the possession of
an odd and somewhat startling old woman.
She was white washing the ceiling. She
stood on top of step-ladder and covered
its cracked and yellowish surface with long
strokes Of her stubby brush She wore a
bright, new calico dress with a short skirt.
which exposed her heavy masculine boots.
Her hair, which was gray and scanty, was
drawn back over frequent patches of bald
ness and fastened in a candid knot of the
,Nf hfsly, Ilo,f p<,
and wrinkled, with bright eyes, and she
held a pipe between her lips.
The schoolmaster inquired concerning
her as he sugared his lettuce at the break
fast table; sugar and vinegar were the ap-
proved salad dressing at East Centeryille.
That's Mis- Hittn his hostess rejoined.
~'She kind of jobs round-lays carpet and
whitewashes and papers and helps house
cleanin' times. She's master hand Mis-
Hit is"
''Miss Hitt-she is unmarried, them" said
the schoolmaSter.
"Lawr' the old lady responded, while a
faint blush stole into her faded cheek;
''she's BEN married four times. Hitt,n she
added scrupulously, WANT her last hus-
band. but we didn' never git into the way
% calm her Mis- Doty 1t don't make no
odds as know of-Doty he's deadn
A week later the schoolmaster, who had
conceived liking for the outdoor aspects
of district No. 10, wandering in the dusk of
the evening through an empty pasture lot
which copious spring rains had developed
into a swamp, came suddenly upon small
red wooden building set into a corner of
the pasture and backed by piece of woods.
Its unstable appearance, produced by the
piles of stones upon which IT'S four corners
rested and its several props, made it OBJ
vious that it had been moved hther from
its native spot, where it might have been a
corn or hen house. In chair in the open
doorway, leaning forward on her elbows
and smoking, was Mis- Hit.
The schoolmaster went nearer and raised
his hat. The old woman took her pipe from
her mouth and eyed him with a heeting
suspicion then she got up and showed her
stepped inside and sat down on an anony-
nous object near the door while his enter
tainer lighted her lamp. Its light showed
a cramped interior of one room.
The walls we're covered with news
papers, tackled up; an unreasonable stove
retained its place, for lack of other
refuge. There were few attempts at
adornment which the hardened fingers and
belated tastes of the inventor had not
served to render successful. The school
masters seat proved to be nail keg,
whose hardness was not helped by its frill
of brown cambria. Mis- Hit, from the
one chair of the room, looked at her caller
over her pipe with no visible curiosity.
Saw We t'other day" she observed.
'Teachin' here, amt yea" And, when the
schoolmnster assented, relapsed into silence
with a nod.
''You are pleasantly situated" the
Schoolmaster ventured, looking out some
what doubtfully over the pasture lot.
Il don't know as be-" said Mis- Hit
alphabetically. u git along"