Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-07-09
When the Deacon
Cut Loose
BY M QUAD


! When the doctors told the good wife
Of Deacon Gray. with whom be bad
! lived In peace for almost twenty eight
years. that her time on earth was
short, she had him called in from the
field 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.
I'VE have never qnarreled."
'Noap."
81 have never seen you out OF tenn
per with the oxen. and when you've
been stung by humble bees you haven't
said 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 1awing and fighting.
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 win have unless you spunk
up. Promise me that you'n have
chip on your shoulder"
TN kinder have one"
The good woman departed for the
better land feeling that way, and the
deacon lifted up the added cross and
bore It along as best he could. His
wife had been right rs 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 a
rich find They borrowed his money,
his piow. his hoe. his wheelbarrow and
his old gray mare. They cheated him
in buying and some more In selling.
They got him to indorse notes OF hand
and left him to pay ior them IL II
hadn't been such task for him to
write with bis stiff fingers they'd have
had 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 sauashes 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 woman
with personality. No neighbor's
phtrkap IA rad ~ stay, foot an hor l.rd
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 deacon's cornfeld. plain to
be seen by the deacon himself, she
walked over TO the man and said:
Deacon Gray. you're a bean podw
"Mebbe."
You're a cucumber. fshworm!
You hain't got spunk 'nuff to keep the
boots on your feet. Lor' bless me. I'd
marry Eastwood hitching post be-
fore such a man as youf"
"Yes, reckon you would" was the
weary reply as the widow rounded up
her cow and drove her home without
! 0hpthtA iOoA at tut Auau.
| She had sowed a seed. however Aft
er few nights the deacon had a
/ dream of his dead wife. She was back
on earth again and calling him names
| and jawing around because he hadn't
got his daDder up yet Her voice came
! to him as plain as ne had ever heard
1t when she exclaimed:
Deacon, you hain't no man TO stand
all this. You're nothing but frazzler'
| What the widow and what the wife
said started new train of thought In
| the good mans mind Was he a fail
ure? Was he an easy mark And In
being so had he lost the respect of the
| community? TO- folks say of him
| that he was good man. but a half
fool at the same time? That new
train of thought lasted the good man
three days and nights. and on the
morning of the fourth day he woke up
and realized that he was a changed
man Before he was hardly conscious
1 of the change be found himself throw
ing stones at the Widow Browns hens.
and the widow looking right at him at
| A1hSi ne aDOut
for her dog and pumped a rock
against his ribs One of the widows
roosters few the fence to interview
the swill pail. and he didn't get home
alive
you monsterF' shouted the widow
The answer was another rock at her
dog.
you unhung villainF'
An old white hen was Jared by a
lump of dirt
'I'n have you in JAN within an
hourl'
or came the deaeon's hat and coat.
and with a yell be broke loose and
Jumped the fence and had lifted the
woman up to throw her into the old
tomato patch when he heard her say
ing:
Don't go any further. deacon! I'm