The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-03-20
When the Deacon
Cut Loose
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1912. by Associated Lit
erary Press
By M. QUAD

When the doctors told the good wife
| IF Deacon Gray. with whom he bad
lived In peace for almost twenty-eight
fears. that her time on earth was
short. she had him called in from the
ied that she might say:
Deacon. you have never spoken an
angry word to me in all our married
| life"
I'm glad ont" be replied.
1--WE have never quarreled."
"Noap."
Il have never seen you out of tenn
per with the oxen. and when you've
been stung by humble bees you haven't
said a word"
mo use getting mad
You've gone right along. deacon,
being as placid as an old hen and let
ting me do all the jawing and lighting.
and now you are to be left alone. I'm
sorry for you"
II shall hope not TO have any trou-
BILE with any one" was the deacon's
humble reply.
"But you will have unless you spunk
up. Promise me that you'll have a
chip on your shoulder"
I'll kinder have one"
The good woman departed for the
better land feeling that way. and the
deacon lifted up the added cross and
bore 1t along as best be could His
wife had been right as to what the
world would do TO him when she was
gone. He had always been considered
an easy mark, even with her to defend
him. but now with her gone he was
rich find. They borrowed his money,
his plow. his hoe. his wheelbarrow and
his old gray mare. They cheated him
m buying and some more in selling.
They got him to indorse notes OF hand
and left him to pay for them If it
hadn't been such a task for him to
write with his stiff fingers they'd have
had a mortgage on his home.
As predicted by the dead wife the
Widow Brown did her fair share to-
ward making the widower's life miser-
able. She encouraged her scratching
hens. she encouraged her Growing
ROSTERS, she encouraged her mean
tempered dog. she threw more ashes.
and she helped herself TO cucumbers
and squashes as long as they lasted
Deacon Gray saw and knew all these
things, but he kept right on being
complacent and placid
The Widow Brown was a woman
with a personality. No neighbours
chicken dared to step foot on her land.
The boy that swung on her gate got
box on the ear TO make his head ring
for an hour One day when her old
spotted COW had jumped the fence and
was in the deaeon's cornfield. plain to
be seen by the deacon himself. she
walked over to the man and said:
Deacon Gray, you're bean pod"
"Mebbe."
you're a cucumber. a ishworml
You hain't got spunk huff to keep the (
boots on your feet Lor' bless me. I'd /.
marry Eastwood htching post be /
fore such man as youl"
"Yes, reckon you would" was the
weary reply as the widow rounded up
her COW and drove her home without /
another look at the man
She had sowed a seed. however Aft
sr few nights the deacon had a 1
iream OF his dead wife. She was back .
ID earth again aud calling him names
and jawing around because he hadn't
got his dander up yet Her voice came
10 him as plain as he had ever heard
/ when she exclaimed:
Deacon, you hain't no man to stanG
III this. You're nothing bur a frazzle"
What the widow and what the wife
laid started new train OF thought in
he good mans mind Was he a fail
ire2 Was he an easy mark7 And in
being so had he lost the respect of the