The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-01-16

lection Of those days.
Them Tas the times, he asserted,
siapping his hand on his knee and with a
grimace~ carefully caressing that mem-
Der Immediately after this display Of.
enthusiasm. eThem was the times
that politics was politics, I tell you,
young feller-e Bit / did not want
to be told, and suggested that he was
going to tell me about Betsy Bram-
well.
YES, I was jest fggerin' it up he
said, coming back to his story. "Danl
Webster was born in the fall OF 90,
cause that was the year when I listed
an the doctor throwed me out an said
I wouldn't live a year. Betsy was born
the next spring, an remember as well
as II twas yesterday, the mornin' when
Jud BramweIl come over before break
fast an said: See here, 81, I've got a
wife for hat boy Of yourn over to my
house. an that was the way it all
come to be planned that Danl Webster
was to marry Betsy some time, wy
that was SO years age" he exclaimed, as
If q vexing problem had just been
solved.
sThat was a long time ago." I ven
tured.
Yes" he ~assentcd, slime flies, an it
only seems a few days ago that my boy
an Jud Bramwell's girl was running
about barefooted. Catch either of 'em
dom any such trick now. Betsy was
one o. the slickest girls I ever see. I
used to say that she got the color of
her eyes from the blue Johnny-jump-
ups, that growed everywhere in them
days, and that her hair was the color of
ripe wheat straw.
"Afore we knowed it them two was
growed up to be man and woman, an
they didn't seem to hitch at all. I
s'pose it was the c-ontrariness that is in
all human natur', but we felt pretty bad
about it, an 1 wrastled with Dan'l
Webster and Jud an Mis- Bramwell
talked to Betsy, but we might as we'll
a~saved our breath, for they was all the
more obstropolous. Two more hippo
canarious young ones 1 never set my
eyes on-fer a spell, that is"
My friend stopped to think overthese
failings of these young people while
! mentally attacked the orthography of
the two new words with which he had
enriched my vocabulary.
1T used to be a good place to hunt
duck in the ponds over yon way re-
sumed the story teller, presently, "an'
a lot O young fellers used to come down
from town in the fall to waste gum
powder an have a good time for a few
days.
"0ne O. these was a big Teller that
looked as if he might be doin' better
than tramp around with a gun an a
dog, for he looked as if he could do4a
big days work if he wanted to. The
hunters used to come to our house an
to Bramwell's an stay a day or two an
sometimes a week. They was free
handed with their money, am I Kind
O. liked some O. EN-, but when it come
to be whispered around4he settlement
that this big felfEhl Rame was
Browning, Hugh, the boys called him
was ~a-castin' sleeps eyes over lords
Betsy Bramwell, I see at once that there
was more danger than ever of u
plans nliscarryin'.
81 went over to Jud's an looked at
the lay O. the land one day, when young
Browning was there, and / see that he
was clean took up with Betsy. 1 thought
she knowed it, too, but she was purity
sly about it, an didn't let on very
much.
Il spoke to Jud about it, an he an his
wife an me an my wife got together
an tried to fix up a plan to stop mat
tiers from goin' any further.
1--WE didn't see our way very plain,
but trusted to Providence for some
thing to turn up, an sure enough,
something did, for Hugh Browning got
shot one day, an hurt so bad that he
couldn't be took back to the city for
weeks. Our house was the nearest
one where the accident happened, an
they brought him there, an there he
laid, helpless as a babe, for weeks.
BETSY was almost distracted, an
Hugh asked for her as soon as he come
to, IN as we all thought he was done for
we thought 'twant no difference n
way, and 50 we had Betsy come over.
Betsy an Hugh's sister took to each
other right away an got to be great
friends. We finally see how things was
liable to go, and that he was more'n Ii
able to get well, an so Jud kept Betsy
away as much as he could an be decent
about it, an she begun to pine to a shad-
der. We talked it over during the time
that Hugh laid there, an concluded
that it would be the best thing all
around to break up the match afore it
vas mades Betsy was only a coun-
try girl, an Hugh was a city-bred boy,
am we knowed that even if he now
thought he wanted to marry Betsy,
honorable like. he would get tired OF
her an likely misuse her or neglect her
when he see her alongside the uppity
city girls with their feathers am fur
bellows.
$50 Jud an Mis- Bramwell told her
she had better not pay any more atten-
ton to Hugh nor let him to her, an
when she didn't want to mind what
was said to her, Jud jest put his foot
down an told her that she couldn't go
to see him any more, and that ended
it, for. Jud is powerful set wheh he
gets set.
II never see d girl 90 down hill as