The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-01-04
for THE LAsohER AND HIS HIRE

ed that ia better drive on for a mile
andla half.
"What dye s'pose she had done
while appearing to be as innocent and
childish as spring chicken? Got a
feller to look up my property and
found | was under mortgage, and she
let go as If | had been hot tater.
Yes, she did. and all the time she was
telling me that IL she ever did marry
ag'in she didn't care how poor the
man was II he only had a manly heart
In his manly bosom, meaning me. II
I'd been courting long 'nuff to be head
over heels in love I'd 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
flatter yourself that you've got all the
other fellers on the run she's working
her cards to ring in new bunch.
"One experience with q widder wom-
an wasn't 'nuff for me. It's jest like
when you git blowed up with powder.
You know you've been blowed, but yet
you banker to 90 back to the spot and
look around for the fragments. was
buying hay that summer, and called
on the wldder to see IL 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 n pesky mean man. When she
married agin she hoped to marry her
equal and man who loved her for
herself alone and all that kind of non
sense.
Left House frustrated.
81 went away from that house so
illustrated that forgot all about the
hay. I'd have bet steers to calves that
the widder was gone on me ut first
sight. OF course l 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 l was asked to call
agin.
1T hain't no use In denying that I
thought | had struck a good thing.
Thnra 70 al
widder woman that could do a Monday
washing and ironing and be ready to
bake bread on Tuesday. l used to sit
and hold that widder's hand in the
moonlight and hear the whippoorwills
sing and feel jest rs If l could melt
away like butter in July. She kept
dra wing me on, and l should have
popped the question within two months
IL she hadn't stopped me at the critical
moment. She seemed to read my
thoughts, and she'd bring me up short
before I 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 1t by shedding tears and
telling me that she must raise hun
dred dollars or be sued. My Mariar
be sued? Never! Never on this earth.
bumped for town and borrowed the
money on my note and carried 1t to
her, and I was to call next day, when
when l didn't. / had never seen a
man spooking around there, but
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 n
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 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 widder woman and
got the throwdown and took 1t to
heart. He'll live to get over 1t, jest
as / have, and, though he may never
be purity ag'in, he'll know more. He'll
come to realize that it's heap safer
to court five old maids than one Wild
der, and now I'll get my mail and
Jasses and go home" NJ. QUAD.