The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-05-04

work. y
"Gosh, that was narrow escape
I thought she was going to say at
wife, muttered Wigglesby to him
self as he dashed out of the room IL
search of the tack hammer.
"Thank you very muchl'' said
Mrs. Wiltsey, with grateful smile,
when Wigglesby returned with the
required article. "It is real kind OF
you to lend your hammer, and
will be sure to bring it back the
minute I'm through using it,
"You're welcome, I'm sure, and
-and there's no hurry about bring
ing it back, "Wigglesby managed to
stammer as his fair caller took her
departure with the hammer.
After she was gone Wigglesby
was unaccountably nervous and de-
jected. His bachelor bosom had sud
denly become filled with a vague
unrest, a new, strange longing.
Could it be that. after all, there was
something lacking in the life he was
leadiug9 He wandered restlessly
about from room to room, and some
how the big house had never seemed
to him so empty as it did then.
Next day there came timid knock
at the door. Wigglesby's heart
jumped up into his throat, and he
straightway forgot every word OF
the gracious speech he had planned
SO carefully.
"Just my luck" he groaned, and
then, hastily pulling himself togeth-
er, he started for the door, groping
blindly around in his mind in the
meanwhile for his mislaid speech.
Before he reached the doorway he
had found it once more, and all
might yet have been we'll were it
not for the fact that instead of
bringing back the hammer herself
Mrs. Wiltsey had sent it by her
younger sister.
When Wigglesby opened the door
and saw girl standing there with
something in her hand extended to-
ward him, the smile on his face sud-
denly vanished, and he waved her
away with: Don't want anything
TODAY. miss. Inever buy FROM
"But don't want you to buy it, y
she laughed. ''This is your tack
hammer, and my sister said to tell
you she was ever and ever so much
obliged for the use Of it,
Er-excuse me, miss!' stammer-
ed Wigglesby. "I-I-took you for
a.one of the confounded-er-l
should say, female agents, and I
fact is, I-er-oh, Lord, why didn't
your sister come with it herselfi
Then this wouldn't have happened. y
And with this somewhat lame and
incoherent conclusion to his at
tempted apology Wigglesby seized
the tack hammer and fed, leavin.
his astonished caller still standing
at the door.
When Maud Maxwell (for such was
the young woman'sname), upon her
return, laughingly related to her
sister the particulars of her inter
view with Mr.. Wigglesby she wound
up by saying, Don't you think he
must be just trihe cracked, Kit
tieg'
And, with smile of superior in
telligence, the astute Kittie, other
wise known as Mrs. Kate Wiltsey,
dryly observed:
81 guess not-that is, no more
cracked than any old bachelor is.
From which it is evident that tho
plump widow did not have very
exalted opinion of a man who pre-
ferred to "fock by himself. %
But to return to Wigglesby. For
several days after the hammer cpl
sode he spent the most of his time
drifting uneasily about his house
and grounds and casting furtive and
frequent glances across the way to
see if perchance his fair neighbor
might be coming to borrow some
thing else. A woman, he reasoned,
is always losing things, and of
course Mrs Wiltsey would come
over to borrow again, for where else
could she so except to her nearest
neighbor? So Wigglesby kept on
the qui vive, with his entire collec.
ton of farming and household equip
ments in readiness for lending at a
seconds notice. But, alas, the
plump widow came neither to bor-
row nor to lend, and finally Wig
glesby was in despair. He even be-
gan to think seriously of sneaking
across the way some dark night and
stealing some of Mrs. Wiltsey's
tools, so she would be compelled to
some the next day and borrow Of
him.
Somehow he felt that he must Sc
cure another interview and get bet
ter acquainted with her in some way
either by hook or crook, and at the
same time he kept wondering why
it was that he was suddenly taking
such an interest in woman, or at
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