Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-11-28

''You come right in and take off your
things ard sit down. I'm used up with a
cold; but I'm nightly glad to see you.
Where you been all this timei How you
beenf Come home to stay.
Been in Texas, to be sure, where his
place is. Been pretty we'll No; just tax
ing an excursion, and thought I'd like to
see the old place and the folks and all.
declare you amt changed any to speak
Of"
''Same old creature" said Miss Hannah,
throwing some light wood on the blaze.
"Well, you look as though the world had
prospered with you"
80 it has. And so do you Yes, our
children are all married and doing well,
and Joe has splendid place, far as you
can see on every side and soil maybe
eighty feet deep and rich as wedding cake,
l reckon; two crops year and sometimes
three"
''Awfully hot down there in Texas,
supposed"
''Hotl No indeed Just right We
sleep under blankets. That puts me in
mind. You remember old Miss Hepsy
Bean, we used to call her old-Lor! She
was young woman-that always used to
sleep in the blankets, and they shrunk all
up so in washing that the night you and l
stayed there they would not cover either
of us, and we teased her about having crib
/ AL L.l
it in mind to give her pair woven of our
wool; and | brou ght them on"
"well, poor Old Miss Hepsy's gone
where they don't need blankets"
$50 warmi" said Mrs Pelton, her cheer
fulness unimpaired by the intelligence.
Say! do you remember when her niece,
Susanne, was married and we weren't in
vited and climbed into the scullery window
while the minister was marrying of them
and stole the cakei What girls we were!
| / wonder if James Munson, that used to
court that girl, is alivef"
might as well not be-" said Miss Han
nah, shortly. 'Lives in garret. chained
to post, and crazy as eoot."
Don't sayf Poor soul Who'd ever
have dreamed that of James l wonder if
it would have been different if Susanne had
married him, instead of the other"
''Well, Maria, if that's not just like youl
You believe in everybody just the way you
used to do. l suppose you never heard
that men have died and worms have eaten
'om; but not for love-"
"Dear me! What set you against the
men sol You used to like them as well as
any one. Well, there" throwing off her
hood and shawl, ''Tm going to stay an
hour; and l want you to tell me all about
everybody. l haven't heard word OF
Lowtown news, and I've just ached to,
since l went away with Joe forty years
ago, except what Silas Wheeler brought, and
that was no great; for he wasn't much of
talkir man, the poor wretch"
''Silas Wheeler
"Why, yes. You've not forgotten Silas
Wheeler, the one that came out to live
next to us in San Saba, and brought
pretty little wife with him-pretty as a
peachf"
''No, I've not forgotten!" said Miss Hah-
nah grimly. And presently she added,
''He alive, thenY"
''Well, yes, suppose he is. But to
quote your own words, he might as well
not be. A great sight better not be, 1
should have thought if I'd been his wife.
| I r oil I'd oil nf i'm,
back in Lowtown if ever l had a chance;
and he's made me blush for my part of the
country moren little! He's as shiftless
as poor farm tenant, any way. l don't
literally believe his wife ever had a new
gown in all the years of her married life.
He never took her into town. She never
had one cent to spend; and you know a
woman likes a little now and then. She
had a whole flock of little children, and
nothing but corn bread and bacon to feed
them with-she always ailing and they al
ways dying. One day 1 was over there,
and he didn't know | was about, and he
comes in, and says he: Ann, here, what
have you been drawing the charge of my
1
the way of getting drunk and shooting
round promiscuously; and I've always had
my suspicious if one of the children that
died suddenly with nothing the matter
didn't die by that gun"
'My good gracious, Maria!" cried Miss
Hannah, who had been stiffening gradually
into her original clay.
eyes, indeed! And that day he just
cuffed her ears then and there"
"I-I can't believe it."
"Of course you can't. But | reckon she
did. Seeing's believing; but feelings the
naked truth. 'Twasn't the first time either.
But he was usually off hunting with that
gun and his dogs and some boon compan-
ion; and I've seen her digging mesquite
roots to burn, and working in the little
garden she tried to keep, and planting and
hoeing and picking cotton herself Then
he'd come home and have a fit of the chills
enough to shake the roof off, and keep hei
up night and day He used to be as savage
as q wolf then. Once, when he was get
ting better, he up and locked her out o.
the house; and l saw her crying on the
doorstep, with norther blowing the rair
straight through the air like arrows"
"Well!' cried Miss Hannnh, her white
face blazing with indignation. 'She was
a poor stick. Silas Wheeler-it don't seem
YOU re snre twas the same
"Sure' 1 reckon so. Suppose | didn't
know 81 from a baby Is you may sayf'
"Then why in the world did she stayf'
"Whyf" said Mrs. Pelton, inEocently
"What else should she dof She was
married to him, she might have gone, but
she promised before God to stay by. And
then there were the children. She couldn't
leave them | tell you, when you have
children, man has you bound hand-fast
Then she was that kind-regular sticking
plaster, love a man once love him forever
Besides. reckon he cared for her as much
as he could for any one. When she began
to lose her color he was so mad you'd have
thought she did it on purpose. When she
was sick he'd jump on his horse and &c
Looping into town for the doctor in no time;
he always staid there himself then carous-
ing. When the bill came in, to be sure,
he never had any money to pay it; and
then you should have heard him swear al
.f