The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-28
THE EVENING STORY
SaIted Ghosts.
(By Lawrence Alfred Clay.)

Brunswick, had passed her year of |
mourning, and there were gossips in |
the village mean enough to say that |
she was in the market again. Of |
course they did her injustice. No
widow is ever in the market If it SO
happens that women contract a sec
ond marriage it is a matter of sur
prise to them. They didn't plan to, |
and how they came to do it is a mat
ter to puzzle them
IL was true that the widow Arm
strong was looked upon with favor |
py several men. There was the piano |
tuner that came down from Cleveland |
every Two or three months on his |
ROUNDS of the villages. She had no |
piano, but he called and discussed |
| grand opera with her. He had long
mar and wild eyes and dandruff on
ms coat collar, and he had thrown
out hints that his artistic soul longed
for a mate.
Ihen there was the sewing machine
man. He had short hair, tame eyes
ana no dandruff, but he had his good
points. He had committed pages and
pages of Shakespeare to memory, and
between the way he could spout them
ana repair sewing machine was
something to make a widow sit up
and think
butcher, the lightning rod man, the
| druggist over at Liverpool and the
man Who came twice a year to sell
the farmers fertilizers and labor saw
ing machinery.
For not being in the market, and for
a woman who did not in the least en-
courage the hattery of men, the
WIDOW Armstrong was well provided
for The last, but not least, of her
admirers, was the village carpenter.
His name was Phillips, and he was
bachelor. He was coy man and
a shy man. Of course he couldn't
always run away when he saw a
woman coming, but he talked as little
as he could and got away as soon as
he could. He hadn't married simply
because he was shy.
1t was when the widow Armstrong
laid off her weeds that a great event
happened in the life OF Mr.. Phillips.
He found himself thinking of her
not thinking whether she wanted
summer kitchen built on to her house.
or the picket fence repaired, but of
her as prospective wife. He thought
and blushed. He thought and lodged.
He thought and felt chills. 1t was
no use to Danish the thoughtsi Once
they got foothold they stuck by him
like a porous plaster. But what
could the poor man do7 There he
was, born shy and coy, and the widow
might marry twenty times over be-
lfore he would dare to tell her of his
love. He did brace himself to walk
by her home, and to bow to her, and
to sit in the pew behind her in
| church, but at the some time he real
| lied that widows are not won that
way. He even went so far to put
a hinge on her gate and make her a
press board, gratis, but was that
| counting and telling her that he could
not live without her?
And all the while Mr. Phillips was
loving and hoping and despairing, he
was hearing from the gossips how
this or that man was laying siege to
the widows heart. He just groaned
as he listened to the talk. Then the
either suicide or a bright idea. The
| bright idea came just as he was Sc
lecting a rope and a limb.
| The widow Armstrong had had a
pleasant day of it. The butcher, the
man had all called the same after
noon and laid their hearts at her
feet. She hadn't refused and tram
pied on them-oh, no! She had sim
ply said that she felt honored, and
if in the far distant future-years and
Years in the future-she should desire
to marry again
They had to be content with this
No wise widow ever turns man down
a hope to cling to. Mrs. Armstrong
went to bed happy and fearless, but
at midnight she was awakened by
sounds that made her sit up in bed and
gasp for breath. Her bedroom win
dow looked out on the garden, and the
sash was raised.
widow Armstrong" said a voice
that was certainly not human, II am
here to warn you'll
She looked out. Under the apple
tree stood a ghost. It was none of
the vapory ghosts that weave for
ward and backward over the ground,
but a solid looking chap in white who
stood firmly on his feet.
Al -
ware of the piano tuner! He is
doomed to go mad. Beware of the
butcher! He will slay you as you
sleep. If you marry him. Beware of
the lightning rod man! He will get
iyour last dollar. and then abandon
lyou! Beware! beware! beware!"
And then Mr.. Ghost retreated
lnoiselessly and gave the frighten-
ed widow chance to get her breath
All the rest of the night she lay with
the summons any moment, and she
was happy woman when the roosters
began Growing for daylight.
Did she rush off to tell the neighbors
as soon as she had eaten her break,
fast? Not a bit of it, If she had told
of the ghost she must have repeated
the ghosts words. She wasn't going
to tell of those three offers of marriage
and set other tongues to wagging.
And before noon came she began to
doubt the ghost. She went out to the
lapple tree and she found tracks on
the soil-tracks of boots, or she didn't
know tracks when she saw them.
Some one had wrapped himself in a
sheet, and some one had held peach
lstone in his mouth while he talked.
When a man trifies with a widow
he doesn't know what he is going to
get When this widow had decided
that she was being guyed by some
lone she went across the street and
borrowed a shotgun to shoot cats
with. and paid a boy ten cents to load
lit with powder and salt and show her
how to fire 1t.
No ghost came that night or the
next. On the third day tn Liverpool
druggist drove over and eased his
Ipalpitating heart by a confession and
a proposal. His tracks were hardly