Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1907-05-02
A SECOND LINCOLN.


For a good many years people had
said that Farmer Johnsons wife was
head of his house but that he was
great incumbrance to her. They had
a farm Just outside thriving town,
and, had it been left to the wife. there
were many promising speculatlons she
would have entered into. She was al.
lowed to boss things around the farm,
but when it came to outside matters,
the husband would take no risks.
When his death finally took place,
people looked to see Aunt Betty, as
she was called, though only forty
years old, carry out some of her ideas
and make things hum. They were
not disappointed. She went into
strawberries and made money; she
went into the dairy business and made
money she went into poultry and
made money. 1t was said that there
was not half dozen men in the coun-
ty who had her business sense.
Aunt Betty had daughter nine
teen years old, by name Prue. PIue
did not run to business. She was
simply syeet.tempered and lovable
girl, who attended school in town in
winter and helped about the house-
work il summer. Up to the tine OF
the fathers death, the mother had not
suffered aspirations regarding
Prue's future. 1t was tacitly under
stood that she wonld marry som e
young farmer and settle down to the
humdrum life. But after the mother
had become business woman, there
were other plans for the girl. She
was to be educated in music and other
arts and made lady of.
Just how Prue johnson and Darius
Livingstone first met is Of no great
consequence. He was twenty-five, and
had graduated as lawyer and settled
in the town. He was a slab.sided
young man, tall and angular and IN.
calmly. There were few people who
said that he might know more than he
show ed, but the majority were of the
opinion that he didn't know whether
potatoes grew in the ground or on
trees. If Prue held with the majority
it was rather singular that the young
lawyer should have come driving out
to the farm one June day to inquire
for her. She was upstairs at the time,
and it was her mother who received
him. At the first glance she thought
him the homeliest young man she
had ever seen. After the second she
took him for some peddler Of music
and went up stairs and said to Prue
There's a beanpole downstairs
asking for you. never saw such a
gawk. He says his name is Living
stone. He's enough to scare setting
hen off the nest. Did you ever hear
of any such feller1"
why, ma. he's lawyer in town
and we have met three or four times,
replied Prue as her face flushed scar
let.
GA lawyer-humph If you was
to put club in his hands be wouldn't
know enough to pound sand. What's
he here forP"
"Why-why, he said he might
call some day. l don't see why you
call him homely. I've heard lots Of
folks say that he reminded them of
Abraham Lincoln"
The mother shifted her contempt
and turned away. Prue went down
and received her caller, and though
Mrs. johnson was rather busy round
the house and yard she saw and
heard enough to satisfy her that the
young man was interested" He
remained for an hour or so and then
left, and while his back was yet IN
sight Prue was properly warned.
II shall have to have a son.in-law
some day, added the mother, "but |
want one whose looks won't sour the
milk, and who knows a cabbage head
from an old gander. LawyerI Law
yerl Why. the poorest lawyer we've
got in town would make your young
man look like a bob-tailed wood
chuck if they had case in court"
Prus ran away without talking
back, and things quieted down for a
week. Then the mother came home
from town one afternoon to blurt out !:
do you know what ! heard this
afternoon At least half a dozen
people told me that you and that
scarscrow young lawyer were in love.
"Oh, mama T.
"You needn't 'ob. mama, me. II
~.r'ro fallan IN 1ova NTH auv enah