Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1906-07-12

w nat Is III, duuty
"It's that life insurance. James
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 is
not going to kill me.
"Time will tell, James-time will
tell. Sarah is sweet and lovely and
innocent, but when there's $4,000 at
stake who can tell what a woman will
do? With this farm and all that
money behind her If she was widow
she could catch better-looking man
than you"
The .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 wheth-
er 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 James with
her elbow, when a sudden thought
came to her. Aunt Deborah 8 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 $4,000 dol
lars. For an hour she lay awake and
thought, and the longer she thought
the more miserable she was.
Sarah had only fallen into trou-
bled sleep when the dog barked and
James awoke. He did not get up
for fear Of 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
vet 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 wild
ow, and windmill men, wire.fence
men, piano agents and men with pat
ent farm gates would tumble over
each other to ask for her hand. She
might not even put ten dollar head.
stone at his grave.
There was constraint between them
when the couple woke up next morn
ing. They tried to make out that
there wasn't, but realized that there
was. Sarah claimed to have a head.
ache, and James said he had touch
OF rheumatism.
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, gos-
sipy old thing, and he would let moth.
ing 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 conf
dence.
1t did not last SO hours, however.
James had to sharpen the Ak, and
Sarah saw him at it 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 James said to him.
self after answering her question:
"Ah-hal Got 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 at nights, and Sarah wanted to
90 home and tell her mother all about
it. Things were fastening on to-
ward separation when. az they sat
on the veranda one night after sup.
per, saying Little but thinking a