Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-11-08
SHE TOOK HIM.
The Reason Why, Likewise Her Opinion
 of Him.

 The Reason Why, Likewise Her Opinion
 of Him,
 The woman at the gate of the monn- tain farmhouse was an unusual type of mountain woman, in that she was enormously large of frame, and had the flesh 10 match it, weighing 200 pounds at the least. She was good looking, too, albeit her hair was inclined b red, and there was a snap in her eye ard in her voice that boded i'll for the person provoking her. She told me l could get my dinner in half an hour, and by that time her husband, man not half her size, and almost young enough to be her son, joined us and sat at the foot of the table. After the meal she hustled the man out on the farm again as if she had him hired, and I sat down in the shade to smoke a pipe before riding on.
 My husband wanted to smoke around the house, she said but l wouldn't let him.
 "I beg pardon" responded, taking my pipe out of my mouth,
 "Keep right on," she said, disappear ing in the house and coming out again in minute with a clay pipe. T wouldn't keer to have a fillin' uv yer store terbecker myself; l git kinder tired uv long green.e
 As she filled and lit her pipe she went on:
 Hit looks kinder funny, mebbe,' she said, ito see me smol1in' and not let Jim smoke, but he ain't gotter bit nv control over hisself an thar's no tellin' how lazy he'd git ef l let him set round smolin all the time. Smollin' is POW erful lazyin' eff you ever noticed"
 I confessed to the soothing qualities of the weed, and branched out on the subject of her husband
 ''Is he your frst?s inquired, mildly.
 ''Well, no,' she laughed. "Td be plum ashamed uv myself ef I couldn't do no bettern that the fust time. He's my third, an l needn't a tuck him, l reckon, of I hadn't been sorter oblceGed to him fer favors."
 May I inquire what kind of favof0 gentleman could show a lady that would impose such an obligation 1pon her?" I said very politely, so she would not think I was poking fun at her.
 "Well," she said, hesitatingly, "ef l iist ketch yore idee, he saved my fife and I thought hit wasn't no more'n fair to sheer hit with him when he ast me to-"
 "How could puny little fellow like he is save the life of a such a big, strong woman as you are?"
 That's what I would a-thought eff hit hadn't achally happened. Hit was about two year ago an he'd been worl<in' fer me about two year. an kinder hintin' round ez ef he might be aXin' me some day, am I jist laughed, fer l knowed didn't want no small packages ike him. We'll, one day I was up in the field whar he was workin', and all to onc't a copperhead swung round on a log an bit me in the hand. l aip't afeered ny nothin' like I am uy snakes, an I list kerfummixed an fell over an pore little Jim couldn't a-paeked me home to a-saved his life. We'll, l come to after while, an thar wuz Jim with his mouth to whar the snakes teeth had gone in, an he had plum sucked every drap uy pizen out an wuz able to set mp while he went an got wagon to haul me home in, fer I wuz that shook up I couldn't a-wallSed a-tall. But my life wuz saved, an when Jim axed me to marry him, I felt obleeged to him fer favors, as I told you, an l list tuck him. Jim ain't no great shakes mebbe fer husband, but he'll be mighty handy to have round the house in case uv snake bites, an this is a powerful neighborhood fer snakes which I knew to be the truth, for had seen a hundred rattlers and copper heads within month. J. Hampton, in K. Y. Sun.