Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1895-12-20
THE RIDE OF BETSEY.
BY JOHN PRESTON TRUE.


That would not have troubled the
village to any great extent had she
been willing to take the advice in re-
gard to everyday affairs which SO many
were eager to give her. But that was
the last thing she was at all likely to do,
for Miss Betsey was independent. She
lived with very deaf sister in neat
little cottage at one of the towns.
That is to say, it was reputed to be neat,
although very few of her fellow-citizens
ever saw it, as it was shut off from a
front view by an exceedingly thick
hedge. A vigorous board fence in full
flower of spikes took care of the other
three sides; and as to callers, Miss
Betsey never had any.
1t is true Pelatiah Macomber came ut
lengthy intervals, harmonious with his
own length of limb-once in the spring
TO pillow and lay out her garden; once in
October to harvest the proceeds; once
In November to stack away the stock OF
fuel which had already been tossed over
the fence in short cuts of rock maple,
stove-length size. But Pelatiah the
Silent was not given to speech, and the
extract of news thus acquired was sin
gularly deficient in details. Even the
boys of the town had ceased to consider
that fence "a defiance.
1t was different once; but one day
they raided some other places, and then
spent some little time in the singular
business of tossing dozen or SO of
dead cats into the air, with great regard
to where they fell. When they had uc-
quired commendable delcucy in
handling the defuncts and could place
them to nicely, they all marched down
to lietsey's in u body and began mortar
practice. When they finished, IA dead
cats were suspended frop the spikes on
that fence. The 18th. by Dick Jones
unhappy miss, had landed inside the
wall.
Miss Betsy came out, of course. That
was to be expected. But she had
thanked them with suavity! had tossed
them with erratic aim an apple apiece,
and then with a pitchfork had lifted
down each cat and had planted it at the
foot of rose bush as fUSti!jAer
What ccrld the boys do in the face Of
such sangfoids iicr .agacity lost moth
ing in their estimation by the fact ;ilut
those apples all proved to be of Il
kind that had no superior in acidty,
and were not even worth considering as
u stump"
"Tell you what, fellows.r said pick
ruefully, trying to get his teeth out OF
pucker, "if that's the sort she keeps
behind her old fence, the longer they
stay there the better I'm suited, |
shan't cry If never sink my teeth in
one again. We're sold the worst kind"
They all laughed at him, of course,
but concluded that, on the whole, they
had better cry "quits"with Miss Betsey,
and for a long time afterwarG, when
any scheme was proposed that babe fair
tn prove boomerang, some square
headed youth would be likely to re-
mark, dryly: "les, it's pretty good
plan; but hadn't you first better just
cat Betsey apple and sleep ont?''
1T is astonishing how many such plans
stopped right there, buried out of sight
in the laugh that was sure to follow
So, on the whole, they rather steered
clear of the little cid lady after that,
No fellow likes to be laughed at--and,
somehow, the girls got hold of the
story, too!
But the boys couldn't quite keep out
of her way altogether, for she was
everywhere. Although she lived al
the far end OF the village, she by nc
means stayed there. On the contrary
III May one was quite as likely to find
her miles up the likeliest trout brook
with an apron full of the earliest water
side flowers. In June she would he
bo,anizing in the foothills beyond the
valley. In June she knew where the
earliest strawberries were quite us well
rs the boys, and, as u rule, she gnt there
first. In August the raspberries and
blackberries saw her, while more than
once abe was met pegging steadily
homeward with ten-quart paiifn each
hand filed with the ripest of choke
cherries, so ripe as TO he black instead
II red, and from the very trees that
the boys had planned to visit when hay
ing demands permitted
After young days are over, we New
England country people are great
home-keepers, so Mist Betsey was =
marked woman. Besiles-and this,
after all. was her one objectionable s.r
years ago, when she was girl. there