The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1901-07-27
The Love of LenueL.
BY Emma A. Upper.
Observation-Disclosures,

~ Hal leller, SAID old solomon
Belts to stranger in town, as
Lemuel Jilson took his Weekly Clarion
and went out of the post Office, lis
the bashfulest Teller in town, err in the
country. You wouldn't think it, but
he's ben trying to make it up to a
woman. old maid as she is now, fer
Lord! how long is it, anyhow?-and
he can't ever git up spunk enough to
tackle her"
Don't tell me?" said the stranger,
with full interest, watching Lemuel
-Jilson getting into his blackboard.
Fact. jest as good and capable a
Teller as the town'll show up. Ben
school director er town trustee err
something ever since he's had wills
kers. Mayor one time. Steward in
the Methodist church. But come
down to Em'line Bestor and he hain't
the gumption of moskeeter. Gu
rious case. Can't l recollect Lemuel
Jilson sparkling round Emline Bestor
when he want much more'n out o.
roundabouts? Err trying to spark
her, that's more like it--trying to.
lie didn't git her. And why didn't he?
His own plegged foolshness. She
liked him; she's always liked him; and
if it had ben any other Teller on the
hull face o the globe but Lemuel jill
son.
"Wonder to me-" chuckled the post
master, "how he ever contrived to ask
the woman he had"
"Sary Dow was his wife, and it's
more'n prob'ble she done the asking"
said Solomon Belts, with n snort.
''More'n prob'ble. Wal, she's ben dead
fer ten years! What did Lemuel do?
Marry Em'line Bestor, her t he'd
always hankered after, and have a
good mother fer his girls and take a
little comfort fin'ly? No! There he
was ag'in; twenty-five years hadn't
boosted him along any, seems if. He
got an old sozzle of housekeeper,
some kind o. distant relation, and he's
kept her. And there's Em'line-hull
town knows her condition o mind.
Hull town knows she'd marry Lemuel
in half minute if he asst her. Looks
like it, don't it? She stayed an old
maid when she might "a had any one
o. five er six good-enough fellers and
one minister"
''Yeup. You see, she's good-na-
tured, and got as much horse sense
as most women, and good cook,
and good looking, and fair dresser.
She's the kind of woman men buckle
to-" said the postmaster, formulating
reflectively a striking universal truth.
oval, now, look, a-here, Solomon,
Lemuel goes up there to see her. He's
got along that fur, and you can't tell;
mebbe-"
Old Solomon Belts squinted Mt him
Sarcasm imbued him, and profound
incredulity. Got that fur, has he?
You take it ten years from now, er
forty. if they're living. and you'll find
him sneaking up there to see her now
and ag'in, off and on, and Em'line
feeding him apples and cookies and
talking pleasant to him; and that
b. gol, is all you will find!" said old
Solomon, in the scorn and wrath
which contemplation of the facts had
aroused within him.
Whether by the Geographic com
munication between minds, or from
the force of habit, Lemuel Jilson was
thinking about Emeline Bestor as he
drove up the road. So long and faith
fully had he thought of her that the
vision of her was with him always
like the indestructible subconscious
ness of self. He was a modest man
at heart singularly timorous and NOR
1,;dIy calf a; a. ~, n ff,,l
Many times during the past nine
years had he tried to ask Emelint
Bestor to marry him. His constant
attitude was, indeed, a silent, touch
ing inquiry on that point. But those
occasions when he had striven to put
the question in material shape were
memorable-memorab for the ap
palling strangeness of his sensations
for his unhappy struggles Otter
protracted, and for his failure al
ways. Everybody in town, he wal
poignantly aware, knew his posi-
ton in regard to Emeline Bestor
Everybody knew he had cared for heI
ali his life. and that long ago he had