Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-07-24
The Flower Widow.
[Oriyina!.l ]

was not suspected by any one. Ia deed, it was not suspected at all that she was troubled. Why should she be? She owned the finest farm in the | county, was college graduate and cOmely. True she was an orphan, but l as far back as she could reme n>ber she had always been an orphan. Hee home was with an uncle and an aunt l What troubled her was this: She had nearly passed what might be consid cred the best age for women to marry she was twenty-seven-and was not i married. Had it not been for her prop erty she might have been married long | ago. None of the young men of her i acquaintance dared to aspire to the hand of the heiress, especially an heir ess who was college graduate. Nev. ertheless Alicia was a country girl and desired to remain a country girl. If she | married she would marry a farmer
 On her return from college she did not think of marriage. She had re sources within herself which were greatly broadened by her education For time she read books on the lines marked out for her in college and was i satisfied. But one morning she awoke to the fact that she was drifting into perpetual spinsterhood. The prospect ! did not please her. In her childhood i and youth she had been deprived oc that affection which exists in families ! and was averse to passing the latter half of her life without husband and children. She thought over the baci- ! elors of her acquaintance and after some deliberation settled on SilaS 1 Blakely. q young farmer with little | on his farm except a mortgage. On him she resolved to bestow her hand She did not know that Blalely would care to marry her. though she rather thought he would. But. considering she was well to do and he was poor she knew he would not have the asslIr- ance to propose to her She must propose to him. How should she pro pose?
 One evening Alicia say Bakely com ing up the road. driving the stock from pasture. Hurrying into the garden, she gathered a bouquet and said to it, q take you beautiful flowers, with your pink and blue and crimson and Wullt llIJItAtouS, tp pc Ills aCu'it9h husband" TEnn, calling to her aunt. she told her 1o take them 10 the well and throw them ill as soon as Blakely came opposite. making sure he saw her doing so. The aunt took the bot quet, went 10 the we'll and when the young farmer passed acted as she had been told.
 "Why do you throw those beautiful flowers away:" called SiIas.
 "They are my hasband," said Alicia from the porch. I'm a widow"
 What do you mean by that?'
 Have you ever heard of the proycrb 'Go to the ant. thou sluggard; con- slider her ways and be wise:'
 "Yes''
 "Well, if you wish to know the meaning of my being married to the flowers, go to your books, and if you hunt patiently you will find out"
 With this she went into the house.
 Blakcly hurried on to oycrtake the stock which had passed during the brief dialogue, but he knew not of horses or cows; the strange episode had got into his head, and he was filled with wonder as to what it meant. While Alicia had been telling him that she was q widow she had looked upon him kindly, and her voice which was sweet, still sounded pleasantly in his ears.
 Now. Silas Blakely was no fool. His education was good for a countryman, but he neither had the books nor the inclination 10 hunt through them for any interpretation of such an inane proceeding. One of his schooimates, however, had gone to college and had become q professor. To him Blakcly wrote an account of the episode, ask Ing for an interpretation.
 Alicia possibly wished to test Silas' common sense To hunt for the expla- nation himself would have been like looking for a needle in haystack and While doing so his farm would have been sold ont under the hammer.
 1t was long while before he re- ceIYed the interpretation to the conun- orum, but when it came he opened his eyes and his heart started up at a gait or hundred beats to the minute. The same evening, getting off his farm ciothes and into d very respectable ouIlit, Ill which, by the way, he looked very well, he went to call on Alicia.
 Il have come," he said, 'to offer al have-that is, my farm with a mort gage on it-for the flower widow"
 And how," she asked, blushing and smiling, did you learn what is meant by flower widow"
 h'akely told her of his application and showed her the reply. which was as follows
 ln india man often remains unmar- t eu longer than he would desire simply "ecause he cannot afford to pay the sum o 1ather of a desirable daughter de-
 his or his would be son-in-law. Wild ows, however, are cheap and a willy ia e. who fnds his daughter is getting on ta m years while suitors tarry takes advan- tase Of this fact. He marrcs his girl to