The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-03-14
RESPECTED THE DEAD.
How Obed Treespiit Disconnected a Char,-
varl Party.

SOSPilC Was nara smell
preacher of Chowan county, n. c.,
whose skinfint tendencies were so ex-
| pressed that when his second wife,
Nancy, died people did not scruple to
declare she was starved to death.
More out of sympathy for the de-
ceased than respect for the husband a
large number of neighbors gathered at
the funeral, which was held in the
quaint old Dutch-roofed home that had
been handed down to him by his
father After long sermon by Per-
quimans county divine of the same
faith as Obed, Nancy was laid away in
a spot in the garden that had been used
for a century and more as a family
burial ground
obed was sixty. but rugged. He
owned a thousand acres of land and
t1fty likely slaves, to say nothing of
horses, cattle and sheep. Yet, such
was his meanness that the neighbors
universally decided he would never be
able to find another woman who would
consent to take Nancy's place.
Now it is possible for a community to
be united in opinion and yet be alto
gether wrong. 1t pro- so at least in
this case. Nancy wadepen~ied Sunday
+and on the follog" Il w morn
sfng obed who yemeterA n his
<shfrt sleeves, for it was June weather,
with but a single ''homespun gallus"
for his ''tow-cloth" brooches, mounted
saddleless blind mule, the other
CRITTERS being in the field, and rode
over to the Widow Stilton's, who lived
on She river bottom about mile away.
Her daughter, Mary Ann, likely look
ing girl of twenty-one, was hoeing a
patch of corn that grew in front of the
house
Pulling up his mule and pushing
back his ragged rye-straw hat he spoke
to her across the intervening rail fence:
''Mawnin, Ma'Ann; l wuz kinder
lonesome an I've rid over ter AK yer ter
mahry me. ="
La, elder" simpered the girl, draw
ing her sunbonnet down over her eyes,
Ain Nancy's-"
Look er yere, Nancy's es dead es
she'll ever be. We mought wait a yer
an she'd be no deader. You jis' let her
alone an min me. The Widder Stoke
ly's got niggers n land n you hahn
nawthin'. She's nigherbout es pooty
as you, eff she hahn quite es young, n
she'll hev me without akin Eff you
mean yes git on this yere mule ahint
me an Wen ride over to Squar' Besums
an git spliced. Never min akin yer
ma; you's of age"
'ERut tba li1anca E11ar 1a,,onJaJ
the prudent Mary Ann, as she dropped
her hoe and proceeded to mount the
fence, while Obed drew the animal
near SO that she might climb on.
80, | reckoned you moughtnt make
no bjection, so l jis' drove over ter
Edenton n got that Yesterday"
La, Elder" simpered Mary Ann as
she took her seat behind him and put
her arms around his fat waist her bare
feet beating a rub-a-dub against the
flank of the mule.
When the good people of the neigh
borhood learned of the wedding many
were The indignant protests that We're
made and that night along about 10
o'clock a very large number of men
gathered about the house to express
their sentiments in BETTING manner.
None of the usual accomplishments of
country charivari were wanting; in
fact, number of additional noise
makers We're added in order to empha-
size the proceedings. There were old
flint-and-steel muskets and horse pis-
tolls galore, big anvil which the boys
charged and fired at intervals, tin and
conch horns, and every available sound
producing appliance. Nor were there
lacking vocal expressions of contempt;
in fact, each neighbor We'd with the
other in declaring in the intervals of
clamor and clangor the various mean
nesses of Obed, especially dilating upon
the treatment accorded his late wife.
Matters went on this way for an hour
or more when, finally, an upper win
dow was raised and Obed's gray head
appeared. Immediately the gathering
became hushed as the voice of Obed
sounded out;
Say, boys, haint 'xpectin' you'll be
quiet on my account, but jis' have some
respec fer Nancy. Jis' think of it,
boys, she's buried under thet clump er
red cedars yander, right in hearin' dis
lance. Chicago Tribune.