Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-10-29


thirty-seven-everybody declared that
was her age, though all had seen an
read these words traced by Polly's own
fingers in the sand on the beach, times
without number, "Polly Fldelia Wig
gins, aged twenty three
EDenezer lived all alone, in a lonely
house near the mill; Polly lived with hel
sister, and was the only milliner, dress.
maker, and general seamstress the place
could boast of.
One afternoon when the sun was
streaming down over the hills, Polly
threw aside the shirt she was making foI
Ebenezer Stickney, and taking her sis
ter's children, went down on the beach
for a walk. Half an hour afterward
Ebenezer was walking in the same direc-
ton. He had been kept away from the
mill all day by felon, which neither hot
lyc nor lemon, nor half dozen poul-
tees could drive from his thumb.
He walked along over the shingly
beach, holding the afflicted thumb ten
derby in his palm.
At length through an opening in a
cluster of elders, he discovered Polly
Virgins. 1t was raw day in early
spring, but for all that Polly's hat was
off and she was bowling and gesticulating,
and apparently engaged in earnest CON
yersation.
"Polly is either going crazy or else She
trying to perform like them theatre folks
we saw when we took that excursion to
Buffalo"
So saying, Ebenezer crept cautiously
up to the intervening bushes. He par
ted the bushes carefully and peered
through, chuckling to himself with de-
light, while the pain in his thumb was
entirely forgotten as he watched Pol5e
go through one of her surprising bow.
But the broad smile disappeared from
the listeners face, leaving look OF blank
establishment as he heard Polly say:
"Yes, Ebenezer stickney, l consent to
marry you on four conditions.
lie saw her glance timidly, not at the
whiskefed face among the bushes, but at
a stump; then, as ii she had been asked
what those conditions were, she went
on:
"You must quit wearing that snuff
colored, pigeon tailed coat that your
grandfather was married in. You must
smoke cigars, if you can't live without
smoking, instead of always having that
old, black, Dutch pipe in your mouth
Then you must shave off those old-fash-
toned, grizzly-gray whiskers, and raise a
mustache, and quit riding that dingy-
white, bobtailed, mean looking, racka-
bones of a horse everywhere you go, an |
with your coat tails hanging down to
cover his ribs, too. That old pigeon
tailed coat! it looks bad enough any
time, but ten times worse when your
on horseback"
Ebenezer looked sober enough now,
and hung his head like scolded bow
He was very proud of his personal APP.
pearance, and often said to himself as he
arranged his collar before the glass
"There isn't married man around
that can compare with me for starchings
aud sickness
And if there was time when he
thought he looked particularly grand, it
was when he was dressed in his Sunday
suit and mounted on his faithful white
horse. He was trying to make up his
mind whether he ought to step out and
call her the biggest simpleton in all Gre
alton, or go eff about his business, when
Polly began talking again in a tender,
Gliding tone, as if her feelings had been
hurt:
ooh, Ebenezerl how can you ask if
love your Didn't jim Winters pack of
to California just because I wouldn't
have him. Didn't Ruby Cakes try to
drown himself because | mittened himl
Didn't refuse Jerry Vail only last Sun
day, lust for you2 And after I've waited
between hope aud despair all these years,
you ask ne that!h