The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-19
THE EVENING STORY
An Ae. of Providence.

Farmer Joseph Brown coveted the
farm and live stock of the Widow
Haisey. He was in love with the fs wid,
the widow to assert that she was In
| love with Joseph Brown because she
was lonely and wanted to hear
mans voice yelling at the oxen ana
| telling the hired man that he wasn't
worth his salt.
Farmer Brown had married at twen-
ty-tWo and lost his wife year later.
The widow had married and was q
widow at twenty-three. There had
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 De-
ing little scrap of romance.
Romance came along over the dusty
highway to this couple after many
days. They were not looking Tor IL
in the least. In hoeing corn one day
the widower broke the handle OF MS
hoe and logged across the field TO
say so to the widow and ask for the
loan of another implement Up TO TINS
time there had been no love-1ust that
friendly acquaintance that farmers
have among themselves.
Mrs. Halsey had brought out the
half of a custard pie and pitcher OF
cold milk and insisted that Mr.. Brown
sit down on the doorsteps ana eat
and drink, when Romance came along
hot-foot in the shape of mad dog.
Let it be understood that there is
no particular sex, color or shape to
Romance. It can come as bou-
Quet of flowers, or as roaring Dull
just broken 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 flew
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 hurried the
remains of that custard pie full in the
dogs face and followed it with the
pitcher of milk, and then he grabbed
the handy AK and completed the trag-
edy. When the widow revived the
canine was dead and Farmer Brown
was a hero in his shirt sleeves. 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 marriage had
dulled the feeling in a way, and yet
had added TO it another. The widow
er 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
feeling rose up to plague and embar-
rass them and to make them shy.
How much better had they sat down
to popcorn and hard cider and had
plain talk and settled things. The
fact that the farmer had saved life
only added to the embarrassment.
Farmer Brown didn't cease jogging
over to see his neighbor 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. If
he came in he evening he brought his
weekly paper along and sat on the edge
of a chair with his hat between his |
feet and read out the news, includ-
ing the paragraph that the Turks |
had slaughtered a 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 dida't get a move on him;
Farmers and farmers wives like |
their little gossip as well the peo-
pie who are shut in by the walls of
a town. They gossiped about Joe
Drawn and the Widow Halsey. They
good one. They set the marriage day |
a dozen times over. They congratu- |
lated one and the other, and thus |
made matters worse. Every congratu- |
ment. There were a few like Deacon |
Sprout, who. while dickering with Jo-
seph for a hive of bees, turned on him |
to say:
fool. and it's time you knowed itt''
"But what about, Deacon ?''
about the wilder. If you love her |
and want her, why don't you stand |
up like man and ask her to have
.I'm a-goin' to-"
"When?"
Tonight
But when evening, came and he was
seated in the widows house he talked |
about Early Rose potatoes, the wealth |
er of last winter and anything but |
love and matrimony. And there were /
old ladies like Aunt Sally Warner, |
who had won and lost three different |
hubands, who would drop in on the |
widow to look at her last crazy quilt |
and make and make an opening to |
say:
Look a-here. Lucy Hawley, how
much longer is Joe Brown comm, |
spookin' around here?'
why, what can you mean?"
"Oh, you know well enough. You
hain't no Dullet. He's been spoonin'
for goodness knows how long, and IT'S
time he toed the mark or dropped |
out. # it was me I'd find out pretty |
quick"
But can I ask him to marry me ?"
mo, but you can throw out hints. |
I never should have been married the
third time If I hadn't throwed out
hints. I waited and waited It'll every |
body said was a ninny, and then I /
let on to Sam that I had had an offer |
from windmill man. He 1ust drove |
right off and got a justice of the peace. |
and then he went about licking every
windmill man he could find,
These people talked with the best
of Intentions. but they only made |
things worse. One day. when Deacon |
way a sort of last inquest was held
on the remains of Cupid in this par
ticular case