The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-10-02
TANNING A BEAR.
BY BERKELEY ROBINSON.

y
bachelors were bears and that you were
the 'Crsa Major of the lot-the biggest
bear of all"
"Humphl Hang widows, sayl'
eyes, she said that any man who
would live a bachelors life in such a
pretty place as yours and put up notices
on the grounds warning off trespassers
ought to be caught in a trap and put out
OF their misery"
"Well, you can tell her for me that
think the native East Indians the most
sensible people in the world. When
married man dies there they burn his
widow on a wood pile and get rid of her
at once. II that were in the law here
we would all be more comfortable.
detest widows, anyhow"
Squire Burnham reported this CONVEX
sation, with few rhetorical additions,
At the tea-table of his sister-in-law, a
pleasant-faced maiden lady, who eked
out rather narrow income by taking
half dozen summer boarders. Her
house, long and low and old fashioned
and shaded by grove of ancient cherry
trees, was one of the oldest in ehe pretty
little village Of Edgewood, but it de-
lighted all strangers by its picturesque
surroundings.
The show place of the village was the
handsome stone mansion Of Mr.. Pinkle-
berry, who was reputed to be the richest
man in the township and who, as the
neighbors said with disgust, had 'neither
chick nor child to leave his money to"
To speak more truthfully, his would have
been the show place if he had permitted
visitors within his gates, but he never
entertained any strangers at his house,
the notices against trespassing which were
conspicuously posted up over every en-
trance to his grounds kept away those
who would have been glad of a nearer
view Of his residence and of sight of his
household furnishings and treasures which
common report had fabulously enlarged
and overvalued.
All the boarders were present at Miss
Harkinss 5 tea-table when Squire Burnham
repeated his conversation with Mr..
Pinkleberry. "The monsterl" said the
Widow Smith, whose two sprightly
daughters from the metropolis had made
themselves recognized at Edgewood as
the bellies of the season. she ought ia
be married to an old maid who would
nag the life out of him." said the elder
daughter, and changing would be toe
good for him, chimed in the younger
Indeed, it might have gone hard with the
woman hating bachelor had this bevy OF
ladies been made the jury with power tC
administer to him such punishment as {
feminine Judge Lynch should decide
upon.
There was one lady present who lis
tened to the discussion with quiet mier
but an ominous flashing of her hazel eyes
She had been staying at the house fol
nearly month, but no one knew any
thing about the bright, pretty little wo
man of twenty-five, whose face was al
ways demure, but her conversation wa
sparkling and witty, except that he
name was Wiley. The fact that she wa
a guest there was sufficient evidence o
her respectability, and her manners CAV,
the best of evidence TO her good brit
and breeding. But the young ladies haC
all along been puzzled to know whethe
she was the rival they most feared il
their flirtations-a widow. In vain the
had applied to Miss Harkins for informa
tion. That lady was accustomed t,
speak, in the village vernacular, even o
the most venerable of married ladies a
''Miss Smith or "Miss Brown" and sh
answered their queries by saying: claw
mel I've something better to do than 2,
asking Miss Wiley if she has ever buried
a husband OF mott"
1t was few days after this heaping o
feminine anathemas on the head of Mr.
Pinkleberry that this gentleman made hi
appearance at the boarding house to con
suit Miss Harkins in reference to the pro
posed purchase of a portion of her lane
which lay contiguous to his own. Whei
the conference had been concluded tn
two walked out on the front piazz
where the pretty little widow (for we ma,
as well confess here that "1Iissn Vile,
was "a widow indeed'O sat in a cam
chair busily orocheting in worsted. Mr.
! PinklebeTy nodded a bare acknowledg
ment Of the introduction which Mis-
Harkins gave him TO "AIiss Wiley bu
as he did so must have found the pictur
presented to his eyes most entrancinI
one-and, to be sure, he might hav
journeyed fifty miles without meeting
more attractive face and igure-for h
paused, and, leaning against a pillaI
with his hands in his pockets and his ha
on his head, watched her busy, daint
fingers for a full minute before he spoke
"Stranger here" at last asked III
rich iman of Edgewood, in a patronizin
fashion.
The lady looked up Xith a surprise
rather than naughty air, IND looked tn
tron'elad bachelor squarsly In the faes,