The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-12-01
Bill Arp
Tends Flowers

His Wife Watches Him Work and
Praises q Neigbbor-He Meets a
Friend of Childhood Days.
Now that the elections are all over,
/, let us wash our hands and turn over q
new leaf. It 10 q curious paradox that
90 q general rule q man car be elect
ed until he Hrst falls from grace. Pol
4 yinism and Arminianism. But reckon
we will all survive our disappoint-
nents and, as DR.. Miller used TO- say,
learn to spell. the word acquiesce. He
always pronounced 1t with the fret o
long like 1t was acquieece. This
seems to be the young mems era and ]
reckon they a run the machine, butt
since / have had my choice in any
thing outside of home. L am doing
reasonably we'll under my own vine and
.hg tree, where I am elected all the
time. The fact is, I never fall from
grace inside OF my own premises,
though sometimes things are not calm
and serene even there.
/ worked hard yesterday cleaning up
the flower garden and got In quite q
sweat Of Precipitation. The leaves
from our big trees had blown all over
the beds and the chrysanthemums had
: fallen down and had to be staked up
and tied and the old Gamma stocks had
to be cut down and removed. BY the
time l had got everything in good
the walks raked out 1 thought 1t was
about time to receive some praise from
somebody, for l had observed that Mrs.
Arp was sewing by the open window
and occasionally gave me an uxorial
glance. And 80 [ sat down on the iron
seat and mopped the honest dew from
my aged forehead. Suddenly she drew
uear the window and remarked
~ wish you could just see Mrs.
Crawford's front yard and flower gar
den {; they are as clean IS a parlor. 1
was there yesterday at the meeting of
the aid society and everything was
lovely. Mr.. Crawford certainly knows
how to keep o place in order"
Well, that disturbed my tranquility
q little n l was about to say maybe
you had better get him to come up
here and fix this one, but I dident. But
/ wasent serene at all and ventured to
remark that Mr.. Crawford dident do
it, for he had to weigh cotton all day
and 1 reckon it was Mrs. Crawford's
work. l paused for a reply, but she
resumed her needle and thread and 1
dinner 1 continued my broken remarks
and said that Mr.. Crawford dident
have four acres of big oak trees to lit
ter up his little front yard and I
thought that q carpet of rich brown
leaves wasent an unsightly thing no
how. She asked me to send down my
plate for some chicken. After another
found out that we couldent nave every
good thing in n place. We couldent
have a beautiful grove and a fine flow
/. er garden near 1t for flowers won't
grow under shade. Those beautiful
roses that Mrs. Laramore sent me have
the sunshine all the day.
LET me help you to one OF these
poached eggs" she said.
"But I reckon" said I, as 1 handed
my plate, "Mrs. Crawford had things
fixed up extra fine because the aid So
ciety was coming"
sit Is going to meet acre next week, u
my wife remarked in a modifying tom
OF voice. Won't you have a glass OF
buttermilk ; 1t is fresh and good"
And SO l gave it up, and after din
ner she came out and was quite pro-
u in her admiration, for she knows
that 1t takes lots of encouragement to
keep me at work. I'll keep on clean
Ing up until that aid society comes and
goes. I'll watch the leaves as they
fall and catch 'em in my hat. I'll sweep
and sandpaper every walk and then
Mrs. Crawford can go home and praise
me to Mr.. Crawford and put him in
pouts. Pm going to put out two more
rows of strawberry plants to-day, for
she limited that we hardly had enough.
l heard her tell the girls that she was
ashamed OF that old patched-up carpet
In the dining room, for 1t had been
down for four winters, and she wished
she did have q large rug to put under
the table. I'll surprise her with one
some of these days when I sell my gold
mine. 1t will sell now, I reckon, since
Mckinley was elected, for there is
gold In It,. 1t was the only thing I had
that Sherman's bummers dident pick
up n carry of.
Travelled the other day with an old
soldier from Atlanta to Cartersville
He couldent find q seat, and looked
troubled as he toted his old valise ur
and down the aisle. So I pulled his
coattail and made him sit by me. He
looked thankful and in reply to my in.
quiry, said he was going to Calhoun,
and from there to his son-in-law's In
the country, q couples of miles said
he wanted to see Sally. and her chill.
dren mighty bad.
Sally is q powerful good woman
q he, " and she has q good, indus.
trtous husband, and they are gittin'
along mighty well considerin'. My
old m died eight years ago, and
LII SO lOuebOmo 8L nome tnaG i 20
about and about end stay with our
married children. That's all that ap
old man q do for comfort"
This old veteran was nearing his
four score and was still quite alive and
lively. He followed old Joe Johnston
all the way down from Chicanauga
n had never been over the ground
since. How the old mans eyes bright
ened as 1 pointed out Kennesaw noun
tain, though he said he marched on
the other side, toward New Hope
church.
I'VE had a hard fight over there"
he said, land we everlastingly salt
waited 'em, as the boys said. We kept
old Sherman powerful busy burying of
his dead"
/ pointed out Lost mountain, and
when we reached the station that thew
used to call Big Shanty, the old man
stretched up another inch and point
ing his trembling hand, said: "Right
over there is the spring whore I used
to fill my old canteen. Yes, I would
be glad to stop long enough to walk
over there and take one more drink of
"