The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-28

my wife and Mrs. Hills used to
think a heap of each other; that was
when Sarah imagined she had hay
fever, and told Mrs. Hills every day
how poorly she felt. Now they don't
speak, and it's all on account of float
ing around on an iceberg"
Mr.. Abner Spencer stirred UP the
blazing logs in his fireplace and smiled
reminiscently. L expressed my ignor-
ance and interest.
Mr.. Spencer's office, in which we
were seated, was not a busy place, but
then Mr.. Spencer was not a busy man.
His bankers could vouch that he had
no need to be. His office was for him
an asylum to which he could go every
morning and read the newspapers,
thus adding to his sense Of importance
and avoiding domestic worries at the
same time.
''You never met Mrs. Spencer" her
husband inquired. 1 had not.
well, my wife is a capable woman;
yes, sir, as capable woman as there
is in the state of Connecticut; but it
wasn't always that way. For a spell
she used to think she had hay fever
every year from the time the grass
turned green in the spring until fur
mace time in the fall, and it took
good sized iceberg to make her agree
she was mistaken
Mr.. Spencer drew his chair trife
nearer to the fire. A smile that start
ed in a twinkle in his eyes spread
itself over his smooth-shaven cheeks,
hesitated for an instant in his short
gray bread, and following the bullying
curve of his waistcoat was finally lost
in the tips of his square-toed shoes.
when l come to think of all the
things that happened they do seem
funny, he said in explanation. THE
doctors-and we had considerably
many of them take it first and last
all told Sarah that there wasn't any,
thing really the matter with her except
nerves. But she wouldn't believe any
of them, and it finally came to a point
where something had to be done.
There wasn't much fun living in the
same house with a woman who was
grunting all the time the way nv
Sarah was, so I got desperate and said
to the doctor we had then that things
had got to stop somehow. We talked
the matter all over and we both came
to the conclusion that as long as Sarah
really thought she was sick-and YOU
couldn't beat it out of her that she
didn't have hay fever-the only thing
right, and then to pretend to cure her,
So we decided that l was to take her
to some place where she couldn't have
hay fever. even if she wanted to.
That evening / took out the map
and l studied it like when 1 was a
boy at school. 1 looked all over North
and South America, and they wouldn't
do-green grass growing everywhere;
then | tackled Europe and Asia and
Africa and Australia and the islands
in the sea and, by Jinks! they wouldn't
do either. Every single place was full
of flowers and weeds in summer and
the only place that looked as if it
might do-barring the ocean, and /
never cared much for sea trips-was
Greenland. So l said to my wife, Just
as naturally as If I'd said Sarah. we'lI
have corned beef for dinner to-mor-
row. l said, Wen spend the summer
in Greenland
Greenland" she answered. You
| mean Switzerland, Abner. There's
where Mrs Hills is going. She was tell
ing me about it only yesterday-all
about the mountains and everything
she was going to see. TIN be nice to
| goaalong with her.
"@Mrs. Hills may be going to Switz-
erland, but that's no place for folks
with hay fever l said There's moth
, ing but edelweiss crawling all over the
hills there, and that makes it pretty
bad for people who are sick the way
you are l was taking chances, and
though didn't relish the idea of COOP
ing myself up in Greenland all summer
was bound to try to make Sarah
think she was cured.
Il guess what l said about the edeI-
weiss impressed Sarah some, for the
next day when Mrs. Hills came in to
talk about Switzerland Sarah got hack
at her about the advantages of Green
land. about it being more romantic TO
go to places everyone didn't go to, and
! all that sort of talk. 1t finally got so
hot that it wasn't safe to talk of for
sign travel when those two were to-
gother.
well, along the first of June we
started. How did we go? Oh, that
was easy enough. ] fixed 1t up with
the captain Of a whaling steamer sail
ing from New Bedford that he'd take
us up and leave us while he went
whale fishing for a couple of months,