Mexico Missouri message., 1910-06-23


farm and livestock Of the Widow Hal
sey. He was in love with the widow
herself. And 1t wouldn't be fair to the
widow to assert that she was in love
with Joseph Brown because she was
lonely and wanted to hear a mans
voice yelling at the oxen ard telling
the hired man that he wasn't worth
his salt.
Farmer Brown had married at
twenty-five and lost his wife a year la
ter. The widow had married and was
widow at twenty-three. There had
Deer no romance about their mar
riages. They had Just gone and got
married and continued to till the soil
and make soft soap and sew carpet
rags. Nature owes every human being
little scrap of romance.
Romance came along over the dusty
highway to this couple after many
days. They were not looking for 1t in
the least. In hoeing corn one day the
widower broke the handle of his hoe
ana logged across the field to say SO
to the widow and ask for the loan of
another implement Up to this time
there had been no love-just that
friendly acquaintance that farmers
have among themselves,
Mrs Halsey had brought out the
half OF a custard pie and a pitcher of
cold milk and insisted that Mr.. Brown
sit down on the doorsteps and eat and
drink, when Romance came along hot
foot In the shape of a mad dog. Let
IL he understood fbah Aba,o 4. -. -.
dcular sex, color or shape to Ro.
nance. 1t can come as a bouquet of
flowers, or as a roaring bull Just bro
ken out of pasture.
This romance happened to take the
form of mad dog running at large
through the country His eyes glared;
he chanked his teeth; the foam few
from his mouth. The Widows gate
was open and the dog turned in. The
widow screamed and fell helpless on
the floor. Not so with Farmer
Brown. Up rose he and hurled the
remains of that custard pie full in the
dogs face and followed it with the
pitcher of milk, and then he grabbed
the mandy ak and completed the trag-
edy. When the widow revived, the
canine was dead and Farmer Brown
was a hero in his shirtsleeves. He had
saved her life, and she would have
been a selfish woman not to have ar
gued that her life was his'n.
The romance and the heroism and
the argument were all right, and but
for one circumstance marriage would
have followed inside of three months.
1t happened that both had been born
bashful. The previous marriages had
dulled the feeling in a way, and yet
had added to it in another. The wild.
over was afraid the widow would
think he wanted to marry her acres
and cows and sheep, and the widow
was afraid the widower would think
she was after second husband. That
feeling rose up to plague and embar-
rass them and to make them shy. How
much better had they sat down to pop-
corn and hard cider and had plain
talk and settled things. The fact that
the farmer had saved her life only
added to the embarrassment.
Farmer Brown didn't cease jogging
over to see his neSghbor now and then.
If he appeared during the day, It was
to talk about the potato bug, the wee.
VII and the dry or wet weather, and
he never went beyond the doorstep.
II he came in the evening, he brought
his weekly paper along and sat on the
edge of chair with his hat between
his feet and read out the news. In.
Guiding the paragraph that the Turks
had slaughtered few thousand more
Armenians. AS he read he realized
that he loved the listening widow. And
as he read, the listener thought of the
mad dog-thought OF the good words
the neighbors said about Joe-thought
of his lonely situation, and wondered
why he didn't get move on him.
Farmers and farmers wives like
their little gossip as we'll as the PEG
pie who are shut in by the walls of
a town. They gosslped about Joe
Brown and the Widow Halsey. They
said 1t would make a match, and a
good one. They set the marriage day
q dozen times over. They congratu-
lated one and the other, and thus
made matters worse. Every congratu-
lation only added to the embarrass-
ment. There were few like Deacon
Sprout, who, while dickering with Jo-
seph for hive Of bees, turned on him
to say;
'See here. Joe. folks is calm you a
fool, and it's time you knowed it,"
But what about, Deacon?"
About that wilder. If you love her
and want her. why don't you stand up
like man and ask her to have YER
I'm a-goin' to-"
"WheD?"
Tonight"
But when evening came and he was
seated In the widows house he talked
about Early Rose potatoes, the
weather of last winter and anything
but love and matrimony. And there
were old ladies like Aunt Sally War