The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1905-12-14


@0N was very unhappy, being 8
widow.
Not that she had so much regretted
Peaslee-oh, no! Indeed, if the truth
were told, she had rather felt as if
Peaslee We're doing the handsome
thing by her when he caught the
measles. He was seventy-eight or
nine before he did this, and, having
escaped the cOntagiOn during his first
childhood he had perfect right to it
In his second, but it went hard with
him, and after an interesting illness
of four days, during which he ''swore
the very hair off her head" as Mrs.
Peaslee informed her neighbor, Mrs
Brown, he passed on.
He was man of property, and of
course Mrs. Peaslee wept becomingly
at his funeral, and made herself as
and bombaZine.
She employed Paul julius, the vii
iage poet, to write a poem of sixteen
stanzas by way of an obituary notice
a poem which Mrs. julius, who was
not romantic, declared touching
enough to wiring tears out of a grid
iron.
She also had a 5000 tombstone set UP
to his memory, with very much bent
over angel, with spreading wings, re-
Ginning against an urn which looked
like a patent coffeepot, and underneath
the announcement of Mr.. Peaslee's age
was inscribed this sentence from the
Spanish: MAS vale tarde que nunca"
She had asked one of her nephews-
a wild, young chap, just entering his
senior year at college, for some ex-
pressive sentence from some foreign
language to put on his Uncle Eben's
tombstone, and the young rascal had
imposed this: Better late than nev-
err upon her, assuring her it meant:
There is rest in heaven"
When Peaslee's will was opened the
widow was raging mad. Most of his
property had been willed to certain
Jonathan EbeneZer Peaslee, a relative
of his, and the widow had only her
I'LL u. oul SHc CudIStO tu0 lOu1U
stone, angel and all, to the estate
and recovered the price of it. After
that, finding she was desperate won.
an to have around, Jonathan Ebenezer
bought out her thirds" and the
widow set up house for herself.
Directly Grape began to give way to
lavender ribbons, and when a widow
begins to don lavender the fact is sig.
nificant
Mrs. Peaslee was still young-she
owned to thirty, but was really abou.
forty-and a very good looking woman
L suppose she had an undoubted right
to look around after a second husband
Barzilla BODICE was her first flame
The courtship was made easy. Every
thing was lovely, and the course of
true love ran smooth. The wedding
dress, white silk, with pale lavender
trimmings, was ready, the day was
set and the cards printed. But, to use
the language of the twentieth century
life had soured on Barzilla. and a week
before the wedding he was seized with
cholera morbus, and in a few hours he
was no more. Mrs. Peaslee was again
q widow.
She put on the old mourning-it was
by no means rusty-and wore it three
months. At the end Of that time she
got little bilious, and black was not
becoming, SO she went back to the Law
ender.
Squire Legro began to visit her. The
squire was man of wealth, and Mrs.
Peaslee considered herself very fortu-
nate when he proposed. Again the bri-
dal day was appointed, but, alas! fate
was still unpropitious, and stepped in
between the widow and her fond
hopes of felicity, in the shape of Annie
Tracy, the squires seamstress who
threatened to sue the squire for breach
of promise. This was too much for
that worthy gentleman, and he packed
up his movables and escaped. His hat
was found on the shore Of Swift
River, together with a note directed
to Annie and the widow saying that
he preferred death to disgrace, and
announcing his intention ito shuttle
off," ct cetera.
His body was never found, and two
years afterward he was seen in the
fiesh-180 pounds of tin Chicago,
along with his wife and a pair of twin
babies. So, of course, he had not died
when he expected to.
A month or two after the squire's
exodus John Nugent came to town to
engage in the very striking business
of putting up lightning rods.
Immediately the widow was seized
with terrible dread of lightning. She
had reds put on all her buildings, the
hen house included.
Mr.. Nugent took room at her house
When it Numbered she few to him for
protection. He protected her. When
Ct did not thunder she was afraid it