The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-11-15
AN APPLE PIE ROMANCE.
The Old Way to a Mans Heart
Through His Stomach.


Through His Stomach.
"Heigh-ho! 1 wish something would
happen. Something good, mean. 1t
seems as II something ought to happen
on such a pleasant day, and sort O.
feel it in my bones that it will"
Miss Barbara Brown sighed little.
as she looked out of her sunny west
window on mellow September day,
and listened to partridge whistling
Bob White" in a neighboring corn
field.
Miss Brown had often wished for a
romance of her own, but had never
had one, though she was thirty odd.
She was tall and slender, with rather
long face, thin, yellow hair, very
smooth and straight, and small mole
on her chin, which she imagined peo-
pie were always looking at
Perhaps her sigh was for the missing
romance; at any rate she sighed again
as she glanced across the neat paling
fence to where Mr., Peter Peril
man was busy gathering his Northern
Spy apples. Mr.. Perriman was a
bachelor who lived with his widowed
sister, Mrs. Tibbins, and her daughter,
Mary Ann, or May Annie, as she in
sisted on being called. The one
crumpled rose leaf in Perrima1's lot
was the style of cooking done by his
sister and niece, whom he credited,
deep in the recesses of his own mind,
with having as little faculty for the
culinary art as a pig has for playing
checkers.
''If they would only give me plain
bread an meat, with potatoes, an a
bit of pie to top off with, I'd be per-
fectly content" he groaned inwardly,
as he dispatched the mussy fricassees,
sloppy hashes and 'made-over" dishes,
and the fearfully and wonderfully con.
cocted puddings of his sisters produc-
tion. But he made no audible COM
ments, for Peter possessed the virtue
of eating what was set before him
without grumbling Perhaps it would
have been better had he done so, and
disabused his sister Of the firmly
grounded conviction that Peter would
scorn the everyday fare which would
have been amply satisfactory to May
Annie and herself.
plain, wholesome vittlcs, it would be
far better for him and much less
trouble to us" she would sigh, as she
stirred and mixed, and seasoned, at
the elaborate messes, which tried the
soul of Peter and injured his digestion,
as we'll as kept herself and daughter
in the kitchen for the best part of the
day. But, as already stated, Peter
Perriman was not grumbling man.
Neither was he ''ladies' man" In
fact, he had always been exceedingly
shy of the women folks" and while
Miss Barbara Brown had for years been
in the habit of visiting and receiving
visits from the Tibbinses with neigh
borly freedom, she had never had the
pleasure of exchanging as many as
dozen words with Mr. Perriman in her
life. He had troubled himself very
little about her indeed, except as to
the best means of keeping out of her
way when she called on his sister.
To-day, however, Mr.. Perriman found
himself in rather unusual mood.
Whether the mellowness of the apples
he was gathering communicated itself
to his feelings, or whether his obdurate
bachelor heart was softened by the
gentle September sunshine is matter
of uncertainty. At all events, after
casting several glances at Miss Browns
window he remarked to himself:
THAT woman looks kind of lone
some like, setting there all by herself.
But no wonder; staying shut up in the
house, darning or sewing on day like
this, instead of being outdoors gath
ering apples.
Come to think of it, she hasn't got
any apples to gather. Just like a
woman he grumbled. Not an ap-
pie tree about the place; nothing but q
lot of old gooseberry and currant
bushes, by way of fruit! Maybe she
couldn't help it, though, seeing she's
all alone. There now, maybe I'm a
BOBBY, but believe in my heart I'll
go take her mess or SO Of these here
apples"
Mr. Perriman took a large tin pan
with which he had been gathering ap-
pies, heaped it high with the rosy
frnit, carried it to Miss Browns door,
and presented his fragrant offering
with few hasty and not very appro-
pirate words.
"And something did happen" she
breathed, ecstatically. II just felt as
II i. would, though I never dreamed of
anything like this"
"And now know what I'm going to
do to show my appreciation. I'll make
the loveliest pie l know how and send
it over. don't believe that poor man
ever gets q taste Of pie--any that's fit
to eat Mrs. Tibbins says she and
May Annie never have any luck with
their pies, 80 they don't often make
'em. And men folks are mostly SO fond
of pie, too"
Miss Brown was one Of those women
who have a natural faculty and love
for cooking. and II she excelled in
any one branch of the art it was that
OF pastry. And the pie which she con-
structed out OF portion OF those APP
pies and sent over to Mrs. Tibbins was
q masterDiaaa and ma uaorlx, ,,n~fao<