The suburban citizen., 1901-04-06
F BENEZER STICHNEY and
IL Polly Virgins were both ma
VI tive residents of Port Ryerse,

a small hill-surrOunded vii
lage on the northern shore of Lake
Erie. Ebenezer was forty-fve, a mil
Ter by trade, and a bachelor from
choice Polly was a maiden Of thirty
seven-everybody declared that was
her age, though all had seen and read
these words traced by Pollys own
fingers in the sand of the beach, times
without number, "Polly Fidelia Wig
gins, aged twenty-three.'
Ebenezer lived all alone, in a lonely
house near the mill; Polly lived with
her sister, and was the only milliner,
dressmaller, and doer of odd seams
tress jobs the place could boast of.
One afternoon, when the sun was
creeping down over the hills, Polly
threw aside the shirt she was making
for Ebenezer Stckney, and, taking
her sisters children, went down on
the beach for a walk. Half an hour
afterward Ebeuezer was walking in
The same direction. He had been kept
away from the mill all day by a felon,
which neither hot I've nor lemon, nor
! Il udll -u-uOLtu ullAGlGul pOulAlNSo Nuhlu
drive from his thumb.
He walked along over the shingly
beach, holding the afflicted thumb ten
derly in his palm.
At length, through an opening in
cluster of elders, he discovered Polly
Virgins. 1t was a raw day in early
spring, but for all that Polly's hat was
off and she was bowling and gesticulat.
ing and apparently engaged in earnest
! conversation.
Polly is either going crazy or else
she's trying to perform like them
theatre folks we saw when we took
that excursion to Buffalo" SO say
ing Ebenezer crept cautiously up to
the intervening bushes. He parted the
bushes carefully and peered through,
chuckling to himself with delight,
! while the pain in his thumb was en-
tirely forgotten as he watched Polly
go through one of her surprising bows.
But the broad smile disappeared from
the listeners face, leaving a look of
blank astonishment as he heard Polly
say:
"Yes, Ebenezer Stckney, con-
sent to marry you On four con-
ditions."
He saw her glance timidly not at
the whiskered face among the bushes,
but at the stump; then, as if she had
been asked what those conditions
were, she went on:
you must quit wearing that snuff
| colored, pigeon-taled coat that your
! grandfather was married in. You
must smoke cigars, if you can't live
without smoking, instead of always
having that old, black pipe in your
mouth. Then you must shave off those
Old-fashioned grzly-gray whiskers,
and raise a mustache and quit riding
that dingy-white bobtailed, mean
looking, rack-bones Of a horse every
where you go, and with your coat
tails hanging down to cover his ribs,
too. ThPr old plgeon-tailed coat! 1t
looks bad enough any time, but ten
times worse when you're a horse
back"
Ebenezer looked sober enough now,
and hung his head like n scolded boy.
He was very proud Of his personal
appearance, and often said to himself
as he arranged his necktie before the
glass:
There isn't q married man around
that can compare with me for starch
ings and sickness"
nj ha
thought he looked particularly grand,
! it was when he was dressed in his
| Sunday suit and mounted on his faith
full white horse. He was trying TO
| make up his mind whether he ought
to step out and call her the biggest
simpleton in all creation or go off
about his business, when Polly began
talking again in a tender, chiding
tone, as If her feelings had been hurt:
"Oh, Ebenezer! how can you ask If
love you? Didn't Jim Winters pack
off TO California just because l would
not have him? Didn't Ruby Oakes try
to drown himself because l mittened
him? Didn't l refuse Jerry Vail only
last Sunday, just for you? And after
I've waited, between hope and des-
pair, all these years, you ask me that"
And Polly covered her face with her
hands as if to conceal either her
bushes or her tears, but shortly she
uncovered her face-and a pretty,
pale, though somewhat careworn,
face it was-and continued:
You're very kind and thoughtful
Ebenezer to ask me about fixing up
your house. Where you've lived so
many years can't help being a happy
! home for me; but 1 might suggest one
or two little improvements, seeing you
asked me. You might just cart the
rubbish out Of the front yard-the
swill barrel and ash heap, and grind
stone, and such-and make up some
posy beds. I've got lots of seeds, and
you can have some on 'em-holly-
hooks, md china-asters, and mari
gclds, and double peoples, and sweet
williams, and four o'clocks, and morn.