The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-05
WEB HAWLEY's CoURTING.
The Schoolma'am Tried to Encourage
Him by Telling His Fortune.
(Chicago Record-Heraldl

I never told you about Web Hawley
ana the school ma am. did 12' said Uncle
Daniel Sanford. web was about the
bashfulest teller on earth in them days.
lie was boardin' with us that summer,
and L seen by the way Web used to come
down 10 talk things over with me that he
was Just tryin' TO git a chance to shy
around her. but / never let on. He'd come
eYenin's ana want 10 know what
thought was the best way to handle sick
calves, or mebby he'd ask If I'd rather
put out buckwheat on low ground, or
something Of that kind. One evening
taikin about it, out come the school
ma am, and / might tell YOU that she
was one Of the beautifulest little crea-
lures / ever seen. You ought of heard
her play on the melodeon. She could al
most make YOU think it was heaven,
turnin' and lOOkin at you with them eyes
of hers every little while and never miss
IN note. 1 went in and left them talk
IN there, but all I could hear was her
voice, with Web kind of drawlin' Oh
dunno, once in awhile till il got so late
/ went to bed and forgot all about EN-
Web come the next night, and she went
out on the porch again, and | left EN-
tneFe. and Il went on that way night
after night for a month or two, and him
never gettin' a bit further than he was
Tlght at the start, with his oh, 1
"One Sunday along in July instead Of
goln' home up in town, she stayed over
al our house, and Web he come around
pretty soon with his best clothes on
They sOt out on the porch, and I was
inside near the open Winder where
cOuldn help hearin' what they said, and
tAem. 'sDosin' all the time that I had
went 10 church with NAV.
AIter they'd been kind of quiet long
time. she says.
- What did you sdy%
" 'Nothin', says Web.
oh, she says, L thought you spoke.
NO. says Web
We'll, you were just goin' to. though
weren your she says.
on ] dunno, says Web.
S'pOsing,' she says. that you had
been goin to, what would you have said%
" oh, i dunno, says Web.
We. If you had not been going TO
speak, then, but were just gettin' ready
she asked him.
" m ! dunno says Web
After that I didn't hear anything for
pretty long spell, and then she says:
" How would you like TO have me look
At your hand and tell your fOrtune2
could hear Web breathin' hard and
short. and pretty soon he says, kind Of
faint and gaspy:
" oh. ] dunno
Then she hitched her chair oyer to
where he sot and I'm about half a min
ute she commenced to tell him what was
gOin' TO happen.
Sc " nat a queer fortune you have she
SAYS You are soin' to marry a widow
with six children
Then she stopped a bit but Web he
didn't say n0thin'.
" She's tail and has reddish hair, she
says, and you will be very happy, but
married to her.
Il heard Web give a cough then to
clear out his throat but he didn't say
nothin'.
.Vo,,-t1 ,,,~~+ 80. --. -. 49,, -
says, and fall in love with her at first
sight. But YOU don't look as though YOU
believed what I'm tellin' YOU?
Web didn't say a word
" She WI be several years older than
you. the school teacher said, but YOU
won't mind that. I don't believe age
ouSht to make any difference where we
love, do your
Oh. I dunno he saws.
You would jest as lieye marry a lady
who was several years older than YOU are
as not, wouldn't your she asked him.
" No, says Web.
Why not says she.
" on. ] dunno says he
BY that time I felt like goin' out there
ana THROWN him Offn the porch and
giVln' him good swift kick or two be
sides, and / guess she was Disguised too
{ because she didn't say anything for quite
him:
% I'm afraid I'll have TO get you to ex-
cuse me-. and she got up.
i heard him gattin' M. too. then and
pushin his chair back from the edge of
the porch. She said goodbye 10 him and
he walked down the path 20 the front
gate. When he got there aud had shut
1t behind him. he hollered back. kind OF
slow and solemn:
" You said she was a widow, didn't
yOu2'
- Yes, she answered; with several
children
hc
d" Why not? saws she
"' Cause you amt a red-headed widow
with children. SAYS he.
But il seemed TO me he took the
blamedest longest way around to get to f.
of anybody / ever seen"