The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1908-03-25

ed that I'd better drive on for a mile
and half.
What dye s'pose she lad done
while appearing to be as innocent and
childish as spring chicken? Got a
feller to look up my property and
found l was under mortgage, and she
let 20 as If l had been a hot tater.
Yes, she did. and all the time she was
ag'in she didn't care how poor the
man was If he only had manly heart
In his manly bosom, meaning me. II
I'd been courting long huff to be head
over heels in love Id have come home
to hang myself in the barn.
"a widder woman don't hit fair from
the shoulder.
"You don't know when to believe her
and when not to.
"When you think you've got her she's
somewhere else. When you begin to
fatter yourself that you've got all the
other fellers on the run she's working
her cards to ring in a new bunch.
Zone experience with widder wom-
an wasn't huff for me. It's jest like
when you git blowed up with powder.
You know you've been blowed. but yet
you banker to go back to the spot and
look around for the fragments. was
buying hay that summer, and called
on the widder to see if she'd sell me
five tons.
"She wasn't five minutes finding out
that I was a widower.
"As she knew that I'd quit the
tombstone business and she would be
safe, she begun to talk about her dead
and gone Moses. He had split her life.
He was dead, and she didn't want to
talk ag'in him. but she had to say that
he was pesky mean man. When she
married ag'in she hoped to marry her
equal and a man who loved her for
herself alone and all that kind Of non
sense.
Left House illustrated.
IT went away from that house so
frustrated that l forgot all about the
hay. I'd have bet steers to calves that
the widder was gone on me at first
sight. OF course I went back ag'in.
Had to see about the hay. No hay for
sale, but we sat down on the shady
veranda and talked, and when we got
through talking was asked to call
ag'in:
1T hain't no use In denying that I
thought I had struck good thing.
There was good farm and a nice
widder woman that could do Monday
washing and ironing and be ready to
bake bread on Tuesday. I used to sit
and hold that widders hand in the
moonlight and hear the whippoorwills
sing and feel Jest as If could melt
away like butter In July. She kept
drawing me on, and I should have
popped the question within two months
if she hadn't stopped me at the critical
moment. Size seemed to read smy
thoughts, and she'd bring me up short
before could get the words out.
''Then, as in the other case, went
over one day to lay my manly heart
at her feet. She caught me up before
I could lay it by shedding tears and
telling me that she must raise hun
dred dollars or be sued. My Marian
be sued? Never! Never on this earth!
I bumped for town and borrowed the
money on my note and carried it to
her, and was to call next day, when
when I didn't. / had never seen a
man spooking around there, but I
learned that she had five Of us on the
string and that she had borrowed the
same amount from each without Sc
curity. Can't talk about security to a
woman who's going to marry you, you
know. Yes, sir, made fools Of the
whole five Of us, and that, money paid
for her bridal tour with a wire fence
man to whom she had been engaged
for two years. Just got through pay
ing the last Of my hundred dollar note
the other day.
"My case is Jim Hopewell's case.
Got in love with a widder woman and
got the throwdown and took it to
heart He'll live to get over it, jest
as I have, and, though he may never
be purity ag'in, he'll know more. He'll
come to realize that it's h heap safer
to court five old maids than one wild
der, and now III get my mail and
'lasses and 60 home" NJ. QUAD.