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

''Pinkleberry, | heard a charming
young widow say the other day that all
bachelors were bears and that YOU were
the 'Crsa Major of the lot-the biggest
bear of all
''Humphl Hang widows, sayr'
eyes, she said that any man who
would live bachelors life in such a
pretty place as yours and put up notices
on the grounds warning off trespassers
ought to be caught in 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 wood pile and get rid of her
at once. If that were in the law here
We would all be more comfortable. l
detest widows, anyhow"
Squire Burnham reported this CONVEX
sation, with few rhetorical additions,
ut the tea-table of his sister-in- law, a
pleasant-faccd 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 the 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 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
Harkins 5 tea-table when Squire Burnham
repeated his conversation with Mr.
Pinkleberry. ''The monster!" said the
Widow Smith, whose two sprightly
daughters from the metropolis had made
themselves recognized at Edgewood as
the bellies of the season. Gle ought to
he married to an old maid who would
nag the life out of him" said the elder
daughter, and Hanging would be too
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 to
administer to him such punishment as a
feminine Judge Lynch should decide
upon.
There was one lady present who lis
tened TO the discussion with quiet mien
but an ominous flashing of her hazel eyes.
She had been staying at the house for
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 was
sparkling and witty, except that her
name was Wiley. The fact that she was
guest there was sufficient evidence .ol
her respectability, and her manners gave
the best of evidence to her good birth
and breeding. But the young ladies had
all along been puzzled to know whether
she was the rival they most feared in
their tlirtations-a widow. In vain they
had applied to Miss Harkins for informa-
tion. That lady was accustomed to
speak, in the village vernacular, even of
the most venerable of married ladies as
"Aliss Smith or "AIiss Brown" and she
answered their queries by saying: Claw,
mel I've something better to do than go
asking Miss Wiley if she has ever buried
husband or mott"
II was few days after this heaping of
feminine anathemas on the head of Mr..
Pinkleberry that this gentleman made his
appearance at the boarding house to con
suit Miss Harkins in reference to the pro-
posed purchase of portion of her land
which lay contiguous to his own. When
the conference had been concluded the
two walked out on the front piazza
where the pretty little widow (for we may
as well confess here that ''AIissn Wiley
was "a widow indeed'O sat in camp
chair busily crocheting in worsted. Mr..
PinklebeTy nodded a bare acknowledge
ment of the introduction which Miss
Harkins gave him to "Aliss Wiley, but
as he did so must have found the picture
presented to his eyes a most enhancing
One-and, to be sure, he might have
journeyed fifty miles without meeting a
more attractive face and tigure-for he
paused, and, leaning against a pillar
with his hands in his pockets and his hat
ON his head, watched her busy, dainty
fingers for full minute before he spoke
stranger here;n at last asked the
rich man of Edgewood, in a patronizing
fashion.
The lady looked up with a surprised
rather than naughty air, and looked the
iron'elad bachelor squarsly Ia the faes,