Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-04-27
Euer;,,g Story
UNCLE HIRAM'S EXPERIMENT.
BY Lawrence Alfred Clay.
copyright, 1911, by Associated Liter
arY PreHal


copyright, 1911, by Associated Lite
airy Press.)
The old farm had been sold-th
farm that Hiram Jackson and hi
bride had come to three days ate
their marriage. That was lon
thirty years ago. Both husband an
wife were now over fifty. gray-haire
and bow-backed. There had bee
years and years of the. hardest toll
sickness debts-accident; but mai
and wife had worked together ant
had conquered.
That evening as they sat on the
yeranda and the sun went down there
was a slonesomeness they had never
felt before. Selling the farm was
tearing their world up by the roots
For a long time they didn't speak.
For q long time they didn't look at
each other. In week more the buy
er was coming to take possession.
The wife had these thoughts alone as
the tears stood in her eyes. The hus-
band had other thoughts mingled
with them.
That day as he chatted with a
neighbor the neighbor had said:
We'll, Uncle Hiram, make out
that you are fifty-three years old;
and you have done heap of hard
work l wouldn't take you for over
forty however. II you was to dye
your hair, shave up and put on q
good suit Of clothes you'd pass for q
spruce young widower out west,
where you are going. Good wife you
have got, but It's a pity you are mar
ried. You ought to have chance to
run around and see life."
Both laughed at the remarks. but
they stuck with Uncle Hiram. He had
been twenty miles from the farm.
He had never attended circus. To
bed at 8. o'clock-up in the morning
at 5; plow. plant, reap-that was
the daily routine. Then there was
milking to be done, hogs to feed,
wood to cut. He had gone through
all this without complaint, but just
now he was feeling the bitterness
OF 1t.
Uncle Hiram turned bit to look
at his wife. In his selfishness he
gave her little credit. She had done
her best. She had often taken the
place Of man in the field. II age
showed more on her than on him, II
her hair was winter, If she was more
stopped, If her face carried more
wrinkles, he should have felt more
tender. But he didn't. His bitter
ness was all for himself. He had
planned to go west and buy another
farm. He must take the "old woman
with him to be drag on him. Never
until this evening had he thought her
naisshapen or homely. The words OF
8. neighbor, uttered half in Jest, were
bearing fruit
That night Uncle Hiram scarcely
closed his eyes in sleep. There was
q change IN him, and he realized It.
He found himself planning things
that he would have turned from al
most in fear thirty hours before
Yes, he went at 1t deliberately and
planned, and when the restless won.
an beside him asked II he were
awake he deceived her. He didn't
want her either to weep or chatter
to disturb his planning. He was to
60 out west somewhere alone and
make the purchase, and the wife was
to come on. That is, they had planned
1t that way. 1t was the fear Of travel
that was keeping her awake that
night.
In the next two weeks many PEG
pie wondered what had come over
Uncle Hiram. OF course, he would
be bit sad about leaving the old
farm, but why his nervousness and
irritability? Why so brusque and
blunt with Aunt Jane? Why tell so
many conflicting stories as to. the 10.
cality he should head for? Those
who had known the man the longest
criticised him most.
When he finally started away there
seemed much pretence in the part.
Ing. The wife felt it, and was not
altogether unprepared for what soon
took place. Uncle Hiram had been
gone i've days when friend from
the village placed thousand dollars
In her hands and told her that she
would never see her husband again.
Uncle Hiram went west. He halted
in city for q week to get slicked
up. When the barber and the cloth
Ter had got through with him, not
even his wife of thirty years would
have recognized him. Farm life and
toll had been left behind. He WASH t
q married man now, but widower
So he told himself, and tried hard to
believe 1t. There was no accusing