The New era-leader. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1911-1912, 1911-08-11

had rot through with him. mot
even his wife Of thirty years would
have recognized him. Farm life I'M
toll had been left behind. He wasn't
a married man now, but q widower.
So he told himself, and tried hard to
believe It. There was no accusing
voice. He had left a thousand dollars
behind for the "old woman" Some
men wouldn't have left q dollar.
Uncle Hiram took another name.
and in due time he arrived some
where. He found people who did not
hesitate to ask him why he made a
fool of himself by dyeing his hair
and whiskers. Indeed, he was an OBJ
ject OF suspicion and was arrested.
When he arrived somewhere else he
was taken for a man of sixty instead
OF fRfty-three. The tailor hadn't
taken away that stoop. and he walked
with loose knees, al all farmers do.
Boys called after him on the street.
In a place of amusement he saw a
whom he thought he would
like to make his wife. He was the
dashing widower now. In the midst
of his gazing and thinking the woman
turned on him with:
See here. you old hundred-year-old
manikfn. you quit your staring or
I'll have you thrown out Of here!"
Uncle Hiram was dyed and padded,
but he was deceiving nobody. Peo-
pie offered to assist him up and down
steps and over rough places, and now
and then men appealed to him In re-
gard to dates of sixty or seventy
years ago. 1t was very often that
children called grandpa. and he was
cautioned that such and such weather
was dangerous for an old man like
him.
Uncle Hiram saw the elephant. He
saw him literally and theoretically.
He couldn't figure where he was bet
ter OF for SO doing. When he saw
the animal literally, the mahout eau
toned him against coming too near,
as Behemoth seemed to have a spite
against old men.
In one locality Uncle Hiram re-
newed his hair-dye and started in to
court a widow. She shifted the dye
and called him an old fool and held
the door open for him to walk out.
In no one case vas any n deceived.
In most cases he was asked why his
wife wasn't with him, or how 1t
came that a man of his age was out
in the easy west seeking a divorce.
z q H. ,4,lS ~D {~tn hv,c5nncc vnonV
inquiries would be made. If he tried
to buy a farm he was asked when his
wife was coming on. When he got
rid of his dye and whiskers he was
no better on. His speech was the
speech of a farmer who had got his
education in the little country school
house.
Uncle Hiram had wandered about
and spent fifteen hundred of his hard
earned dollars before awakening to
the fact that he had made a DOL of
himself. What to do? AS he asked
himself the question a great longing
came to him. He tried to down it,
but he couldn't. Then a feeling of re-
morse came. He had been a dog to
abandon his wife. He sat down and
thought 1t all over. from the day they
were wed. She wasn't so gray haired,
but II she was, what of 1t? She
wasn't SO stopped, but II she was,
what Of It? If her face were wrinkled.
what Of his?
Uncle Hiram did not spare himself.
He administered kicks. He reviled
the man. He shed tears. And how to
mend matters? He had had a wife
and home for thirty years. He was
now an outlaw.
Back in the east was a sad-faced
rented a little farm and was living
all alone. The neighbors had com
miserated with her, but to one and
all she had said:
Hiram will come back. l am wait
ing here for him. He will remember
all that l did for him as a wife,"
And M rainy night, as she sat
alone. with her knitting and her
thoughts, she heard a step at the
door. The one who knocked seemed
timid.
Come In, Hiram!"
The door slowly opened and there
stood Uncle Hiram, wet, bedraggled
and forlorn.
II was waiting for you," said the
wife.
do you mean-mean-"
She rose and gave him a kiss and
then set a chair for him, and said
she would have. supper on the table
In Just q minute.
"But-but-"