The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1906-02-09
WIDOW PEASLEE'S
TROUBLES
By CLARA AUGUSTA

MI IRIS. PEASLEE had been a widow
IVI for two years. and did not want
to be unwedded any longer. She was
very unhappy, being widow.
Not that she SO much regretted Peas
aee-oh no. Indeed if the truth were
told, she had rather felt as if Peaslee
were doing the handsome thing by her
when he caught the measles. He was
78 or 79 before he did this, and, having
escaped the contagion during his first
childhood, he had a perfect right tC
it in his second; but 1t went hard with
him, and after an interesting illness OF
four days, during whicA4 he "swore the
very hair off her head" as Mrs. Peas
lee informed her neighbor, Mrs.
Brown, he passed on.
He was a man of property, and, OF
course, Mrs. Peaslee wept becomingly
at his funeral, and made herself as
gloomy as possible with Grape folds
and bombazine.
She employed Paul Julius, the village
poet, to write poem of 16 stanzas by
way of an obituary notice-a poem
which Mrs. julius, who was not roman
tic. declared touching enough to wiring
tears out of gridiron.
She also had 5000 tombstone set np
to his memory, with very much bent
over angel, with spreading wings, re-
clinging against an urn which looked
like 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 at college, for some expressive
sentence from some foreign language
to put on his Uncle Eben's tombstone,
and the young rascal had imposed
this: Better late than never!' 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 a certain
Jonathan Ebenezer Peaslee, relative
of his, and the widow had only her
thirds" But she charged the tomb
stone, angel and all, to the estate, and
recovered the price of it. After that,
finding she was a desperate woman to
have around, Jonathan Ebenezer
bought out her thirds" and the wild
ow 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 80, but was really about 40
and a very good-looling woman. |
suppose she had an undoubted right
to look around after second husband.
Barzilla Bodge 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 trim
mings, was ready, the day was set and
the cards printed. But, to use the Ian
guage of the twentieth century, life had
.soured on Barzilla, and week before
the wedding he was seized with cholera
morbus, and in few hours was no more.
Mrs. Peaslee was again widow.
She put on the old mourning-it was
nv no means rusty-and wore it three
months. At the end of that time she
got a little bilious, and black was not
becoming, so she went back to the Law
ender.
Souire Legro began to visit her. The
Sonire was a man Of wealth. and Mrs
peaslee considered herself very for
Hunate when he proposed. Again the