The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1901-10-18
RIGHT IN THE END.
I BY Hon. II. W. Duck) Hlnrichsen. .
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

M lSS MEHITABEL SCROGGS hat
lVI reached the age of 80 without
ever having been able to truthfully
claim a sweetheart. She was not ugly
nor was she ill-tempered. She trieC
TO make herself agreeable to men
and would, no doubt, have made q
good wife, but the men somehow
passed her by.
Perhaps her Indifference TO her own
good qualities and her attempts to
shine in fields where she was weak
gave them an erroneous idea of her
true worth. Perhaps an appearance
of insincerity and a too evident desire
for attention may have had something
to do with her eXclusiveness. But
whatever the cause, she saw her girl
friends, one after the other, wooed,
won and welded, until she alone of
all her old associates remained a spin
ster.
While she was anxious to marry, she
was yet more anxious to have the pea-
pie in her world believe that her sindAp
state was due to her own wishes and
not to lack of opportunities.
She was a seamstress in the village
of Towers, and in her visits from house
to house among her patrons she threw
out hints of mysterious affairs of the
heart which made the thoughts of mat
rimony unpleasant 10 her.
She had gone TO sew for a week at the
house of Mrs. Logan, in the neighbor-
ing village of Parsons. She was but
slightly acquainted with Mrs. Logan
and her daughter Julia, and she rather
enjoyed the eprospect of giving them the
impression in regard to herself that
she usually tried to create.
In the village of Towers and well
known to Miss Scroggs lived Philip
Strong, young man of high character
and sterling worth. He had enlisted in
the Spanish war and was at that time
with his regiment in Cuba. He was
engaged to be married to Julia Logan,
but the engagement was secret be-
tween them. Indeed, the people of his
own village knew nothing of their ac-
quaintance. His strongest rival, Mr..
Green, of Parsons, unaware of the en-
gagement, continued to pay his ad-
dresses to Julia, though without en-
couragement, and therefore when
Miss Scroggs found herself engaged
in preparing certain wedding gar
ments for Miss Logan she believed
that Mr.. Green was to be the happy
man.
Skaters army was before Santiago.
The surrender of that city was daily
expected, when one day the papers
contained this item of news:
Lieut.. Philip Strong, of the Ninety
eighth Wisconsin, was killed this
morning from an ambush which he
had been sent to reconnoiter. The de-
ceased was resident of Tower, Wis"
Miss Scroggs was the first of Mrs.
Logan's household TO read the paper.
She was shocked by the news, for she
knew Strong well. Her sorrow, how
ever, did not prevent her from a re-
solve to turn his death 10 account after
her own peculiar method.
She waited till she heard Mrs. Logan |
enter. Then she screamed and threw
herself on the floor and pretended to |
faint. This brought other members Of ]
the family to the scene, and in the
work of restoring her to consciousness
the newspaper was not noticed.
Brought to her senses, she called at
tention to the paragraph and ex-
planned that her heart was broken by
the horrible death of Lieut.. Strong,
her betrothed.
Julia read the paragraph, but did not
faint. She retired to her own room to
nurse her grief. There her mother
found her and told her of the cause of
Miss Scroggs' sorrow. Julia was sur
orised and indignant.
at cannot be possible" she declared,
md she proceeded TO interview Miss
scroggs.
That lady was making the most of
he situation and lay on her bed weep
ng when Julia entered to console her,
IS Miss Scroggs supposed.
Jealous as she was, distracted by the
Ieath of her lover, and torn by the sus-
,icion that he was false-to her, Julia
ould not but feel pity for the grief of
he woman who lay sobbing before
Ier.
my dear Miss Scroggs," she said,
Il am so sorry for
ou," and she put her arms around
er.
Miss Scroggs laid her head on Julia's
Iosom and sobbed.