The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-10-20
band as he came up from the corn

band as he came up from the corn
field.
"Well," she began, after he greet
ed her, "you want Sarah to chop you
up with the ak or pour melted lead
in your ears, seer"
"What Is it, auntyl"
"It's that life insurance. Henry
Harper. I'm astonished at you. Do
you know how many wives killed
their husbands last year to get the
insurance
"A million perhaps, but Sarah
isn't going to kill me. !"
"'Time will tell, James; time will
tell. Sarah is sweet and lovely and
innocent, but when there's 81, 900 at
stake who can tell what a woman
will do? With this farm and all
that money behind her if she was a
widow she can catch better looking
man than you."
The good natured young man con-
tinued to laugh, and at the supper
table his wife laughed with him as
they chaffed Aunt Deborah, but the
old lady continued to shake her head
and reply:
"Wait till the ak or the melted
lead get to work and then we'll see
whether there is anything to laugh
at or not"
That night at midnight Sarah woke
up with her heart beating rapidly.
She was about to nudge Henry with
her elbow, when a sudden thought
came to her. Aunt Deborah's grew
some predictions came up, and she
wondered if she had been awakened
by some move on her husbands part
some move to take her by the
throat. She smiled at first, but pres
emily the smile faded away. Wives
had been killed that the husband
might profit by the insurance. Aunt
Deborah was always predicting, but
at the same time many of her pre-
dictions had come true. She knew
that Henry loved her with a great
love, but there was that 81, 900. For
an hour she lay awake and thought,
and the longer she thought the more
miserable she was.
Sarah had only fallen into trou-
bic sleep when the dog barked and
Henry awoke. He did not get up
for fear Ct disturbing his wife, and
after listening to the dog for few
minutes the thought of Aunt Debor-
abs predictions and solemn face came
to his mind.
He grinned at the idea of Sarah
killing him off for that $4,000, and
yet he began to recall cases where
wives had done that same thing.
She could push him into the well,
push him down the cellar stairs or
dispose of him in other ways to ena-
Bile her to escape detection, and with
that $4,000 she would be rich
widow, and windmill men, wire fence
men, piano agents and men with pa
tent farm gates would tumble over
each other to ask for her hand. She
might not even put $40 headstone
at his grave.
There was constraint between
them when the couple woke up next
morning.
They tried to make out that there
wasn't but realized that there was.
Sarah claimed to have headache,
and James said he had touch of
rhematism.
At noon when the husband came
up from the field he had been think
ing things over and almost wished he
had turned Aunt Deborah out of the
house. She was meddlesome,
gossipy old thing, and he would let
nothing she had said annoy him In
the least. Sarah had also been
thinking, and about the same
thoughts, and so there was return
of love and confidence.
It did not last thirty-six hours,
however. Henry had to sharpen the
ak, and Sarah saw him at 1t and felt
that he was contemplating crime.
Sarah asked if the handle of table
knife could not be made fast by
little melted lead, and Henry said to
himself after answering her question :
"Ah, ha Cot melted lead on her
mind, has she? Well; I've got to
look out for my ears"
For the next four weeks the pair
were hypocrites toward each other.
They dissembled and deceived. They
thought black thoughts of each other.
James wanted to sleep in the barn O.
nights, and Sarah wanted to go home
and tell her mother all about it.
Things were fastening on toward a
separation when, as they sat on the
veranda one night after supper, say
ing little, but thinking a great deal,
farmer Joe Collins came driving
along and halted to say:
"Say, you folks heard the news ~
mo. What is jt?''
"It'll take your breath away"
"But let's have it."
"Wall, that life insurance company
you are insured in has busted high
erin Gilroy's kite !"
"Oh, James !"
"Oh, Sarah T.
And as they were dancing around
the veranda in each others arms Mr..
Collins looked at them in astonish-
ment and said to himself:
"By George, but they seem to be
burned glad of it 2"
And so they were.