The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-01-20

he thought was a rich widow. Well
they hadn't hardly ct their first neal
together until he realized he was tied
up to whited sepulchre. Yes, sir, for
a fact She took all her money and
put it into costly monument to her
first husband, an George w. had to cut
right out an dig for a livin'.
He tells me it is mighty handsome
stone, with two angels carved on it,
clasping hands, an right below the
words, "Pill we meet again. 'Manys
the night says George W., that I've
laid awake calculatin' just where I'm
supposed to be whilst they are a-meet.
in an claspin' hands.
"Danl widow either makes a club
or clog out of her first husband. You
are either whole lot worse or you're
never quite SO good as he was. an the
longer he's buried the better he gets.
Another thing, too, Dan'l, there is
no such thing as romance in second
marriage. Loves is plant that don't
bloom more than once for any one.
And when a widow decides she needs
another helpmeet she sizes up the can
didates with a mighty cold, calculatin'
eye first, while widower acts as If
he was afraid the supply would run
out before he got chance to get one.
10 my mind, there's one time, and
one time only, for marriage. It's when
you're young an in love, so young an
so much in love that nothing else mat
tiers at ALL A second marriage is like
a set OF false teeth-a more or less
passable substitute for the first accord.
ing to fit, but dreadful hard to write
poetry about
You're powerful set against such
things, it seems" complained Daniel.
| Now, | want to know what you'd do
in case you was left? Wouldn't you
turn an marry again?'
Maybe l would. Maybe 1 would,
Danl,' Nathan sighed. "A man an
moth has a habit sometimes of a cut
tin loose from everything an flying
plum in the face of Providence"
do you think | ought to marry
Abby Bell, then?'
''Um-perhaps She amt so old but
she might be older An she's proba-
bly, so unselfish that she'd marry you
for your own good. Yes, Abby could
likely scrape up enough romance to be
happy herself, an she'd be so perfect
ly proud that she had got a man, after
all, that she'd pamper you up like a
young JORDAN that l judge is what
you're looking for"
CHOW Nafho n al laanod fnr
ward and put his hand on his friends
shoulder-"as man to man. as the man
in light to man in the darkness
is 1t the thing-marriage Can you, in
the face of your knowledge and expert
ence say SOTO mel"
Nathan cleared his throat huskily.
"Comrade, don't you gather from
what I've ever said to you that Zerelda
hasn't been good companion to me.
I've talked mighty triflin' about my
wife, which is thing no man ought
to do, but I've got the savin' grace
to be ashamed of it. When she left her
home to come out here with me it
was sore trial to her. She thought
heap of her mother, an she bid her
SOOu-Oy lCdIlHlA IUdI SIG COuIu never
hope to see her again. She jest put
her hand in mine and set her face to
the west, an if she ever looked back.
like Lots wife, never knowed it. We
didn't have much to come to. Only a
log cabin in clearin', but love glori-
fed it into shnin' palace, an it was
not long until there was a curtain at
xrrir, III 49, Al,
babe in the cradle-three things to
make man happy"
We've raised four children an bur-
led two, Dan'l, an if ever a woman
done her duty by her family it was her.
it's only lately that she's had any time
to devote to the cause of sufferin' hu-
manity in general. A houseful of chill
dren Will keep a woman out of lots of
devilment Danl, | use tobacco, fish
good deal, an play cards whenever
l get the chance; while Zerelda tends
church an prayer meetin, feeds
preachers and delegates, wrestles with
the demon rum, an pretends to sancti-
hcation; an now that l come to think
of 1t, | reckon, after all, its simply diff
ferent ways we have of enjoying our
selves, an she's as much right to her
way as | have to mine. An I'll 60 |
further, and remark right here, that
If any other man would say the things |
OF my wife that I've said of her, I'd |
bust his head open. | would
Nathan said Daniel, hoarsely, IT'S
-its-a-goin' to be Abby"
The two old men clasped hands, and
looked long and darkly into the waters
of the race, that, like the stream of
life, could never turn backward.
The two sycamores alike bound 40
getser swayed and bent low in the
breeze, appearing with outspread arms