The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-30
THE EVENING STORY
CaIeb's AiInlent.
By Lawrence Alfred Clay)

|
los on the highway one day and en-
| tered the widows gate and drove ner
nm q cherry tree and frightened her SO
that she had headaches Tor Wee
after. She was rescued after "hlie
| by Caleb who was her hlreo Hail. 0iiu
had been for a year.
| The bull was game, and he knocked
over a barrel of soft soap, smashed IN
! the smokehouse door ana uProoIeu
seven currant bushes, but ne hao TO
go. Up to this hour there had peen no
| feeling of love between hired man ana
widow. He was twenty-five years old
and she ten years older. She owned a
! nice farm. and he wasn't worth
hundred dollars, but he had done no
schening.
fallen bull had departed and the widow
had dropped from her perch TO the
ground with a thud that love came TO
both hearts at one and the same mo
ment. Cupid gave double dose With
out extra charge. There was an en-
pa cement. and there was talk Of having
the marriage come off along ABOUT
Christmas, this being early summer.
For two months Caleb Henderson was
a happy man, and was proud over the
congratulations he received. IL was
generally said that the widow was a lit
tie too old for him, but it was always
added that 1t was nice farm and Well
stocked. In the midst OF his great nap
piness trouble descended. Caleo was
mending a fence one day when two
young ladies from the summer motel a
mile away came wandering over the
field after daisies. They made for the
hired man. and although he was rather
bashful she stood his ground He had
never been close to angels before He
was as red as a beet and hopping his
brow within three minutes. The girls
saw how it was with him, and they set
out to Jolly and josh.
They were from the city, but they de-
spised city men. When they married
it would be some honest, Woodworking
farmer. They did not demand style nor
too much education. In place of it they
would have honest, enduring love
Caleb had large hands and feet. SO had
George Washington. Caleb had freckles
and his ears stood out. Wasn't that the
way with Thomas Jefferson? caleb
shouldn't throw his love and his life
away on a country woman. There were
hundreds of rich women who would
just scramble to get him If it We're
known. that he was in market.
Caleb Henderson was f1attered till his
brain whirled. The handsomer of the
two girls made an appointment to meet
him at the same blackberry patch at
the same hour next day, and when he
went to the house to supper he looked
SO queer and acted so absent-minded
that the Widow Clymer remarked:
Caleb. you may be going to come
down with a fever. I guess I'd better
make you some smartweed tea"
'Oh, I'm all right" was the reply.
None O. your family ever had fits,
did they?"
"Of course not"
'see any blacksnakes today and get
a shock?"
''Noap"
Caleb braced up and tried to shake
off suspicious, but when the widow
LIZ hoy ar-d
per and found him trying to milk a
cow on the wrong side she said to her
self:
1T can't tell what it is, but some
things going to happen. That young
man is either going to be sick or else
something has happened today to put a
new kink in his brain. I'll keep an eye
on him for a little while.''
There We're but few guests at the
summer hotel, and the young lady who
was to meet Caleb the next day, and
did meet him, was bored and wanted |
diversion. She jollied him, and by the |
time they had met four times she had |
smashed his engagement to the widow |
and learned the history of his life 1t |
wasn't understood in so many words |
but was strongly inferred by Caleb |
that in case he could get out of his |
tangle with the widow he could become |
the SOn-in-law of a rich man in the |
city. That meant the husband of the |
half-ripe blackberries as fast as he !
could pick them.
The widow had said she would keep
an eye on Caleb, and she didn't forget, |
She was cognizant of that Irritation in |
nc time, and from Caleb's looks and
bearing she knew that he had been
hard hit and was wondering how toll
break with her. She gave him rope to |
sec what he would do. The plan he
followed was proposed by the girl-fiirt.
rI7,01 nT5r So. l.
,'. la Jug Tor an hour after she left
him. The plan to checkmate him was
born in the widows own brain. and
was surrounded by grim smiles.
One evening, after Caleb had kept I'D
his new and strange attitude for a week
or more, and after he had hftched |
around in a nervous way for many
minutes, he said:
Cynthia, was wrong about none of
my family ever having fits"
''Yes?"
We've all had 'em, the worst way"
And that amt the worst of it.
Father and mother were crazy as
You don't say?''
And of course I'll be crazy sooner or
later
Very lfkelyr'
II think that's what ais me now
I'm going plumb crazy
L guess you are"
And you don't want to marry q |
crazy man, of course?"
Not under any circumstances NJ, |
I couldn't do that, much as might love
him. E. I've
Caleb did some grinning and chuck
ling He had looked for row, and
placidly as If it was of no account.
''Then-then our engagement is off?',
he asked after a. long silence.
mot quite, Caleb I want to watch
you for two or three days and see if
YOU get worse. 1 am sorry for you, but
it may turn out all right