The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1901-08-02
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES,
The Love of LemueL.
By Emma A. Upper.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

nTHAT feller," said old Solomon
Belts to stranger in town, as
Lemuel Jilson took his Weekly Clarion
and went out of the post office, sis
the bashfulest Teller in town, er 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
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 er
something ever since he's had whis-
kers. Mayor one time. Steward in
the Methodist church. But come
down to Em1ine ,Bestor and he hain't
the gumption of a moskeeter. Gu
rious case. Can't I recollect Lemuel
Jilson sparkling round Em'lin Bestor
when he want much more'n out O.
roundabouts? Err trying to spark
her, that's more like it-trying to.
He didn't git her. And why didn't he?
His own plegged foolishness! 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, show 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 a snort.
"More'n prob'ble. Wal, she's ben dead
fer ten years! What did Lemuel do?
Marry Em'line Bestor, her It 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 a 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
refectively a striking universal truth.
''Wal, 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 sGuinted at 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 telegraphic 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 modest man,
at heart singularly timorous and NOR
bidly self-distrustful.
Many times during the past nine
years had he tried to ask Emeline
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-memorable for the ap-
palling strangeness of his sensations,
for his unhappy struggles often
protracted, and for his failure al
ways. Everybody in town, he was
poignantly aware, knew his posi-
ton in regard to Epeline Bestor.
Everybody knew he had cared for her
all his life, and that long ago he had