The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1913-08-14
- THE -
Melting
Of Molly
MARIA THOMPSON
DAVIESS
Copyright, 1912, by the Bobbs-
Merrill Company

molly, dear" she said, with her
words literally falling over themselves,
"Tom says you'll give us some of your
dinner leftovers to take for lunch in
the auto, for we are going way out to
Wayne county to see some awfully
fine tobacco he has heard is there. ]
don't want to ask mother. for she
won't let me go. and his mother, If he
asked her, will begin TO talk about us.
Tom said come to you and you would
understand and fix it quick. He said
kiss you for him and tell you he said
Come on in. the waters fine Isn't
he a Joker" And we kissed and laugh
ed and packed basket, and kissed
and laughed again for goodby. | felt
amused and happy for few minutes
and also deserted. It's very good
thing for woman's conceit to find out
how many of her lovers are just make
believes. | may have needed Toms
DETECTION.
Anyway, don't know when | ever
was so glad to see anybody as | was
when Mrs. Johnson came in the front
door. A woman who has proved to
her own satisfaction that marriage is
a failure is at times a great tonic to
other women. | needed a tonic badly
this morning, and l got it,
"Well, from all my long experience.
Molly" she said as she seated herself
and began to hem a dish towel with
long, steady stabs. Husbands are just
stick candy in different jars. They
may look a little different but they all
taste alike and you soon get tired of
them. In two months you won't know
the difference in being married to Al
Bennett and Mr., Carter and you'll have
to go on living with him maybe fifty
years. Luck doesn't strike twice in
the same place and you can't count on
losing two husbands. AIS father was
Mr.. Johns0n's first cousin and had
more crochets and worse He had 81
lent spells that lasted a week and
family prayers three times a day,
though he got drunk twice year for
month at time. Al looks very much
like him." gasEssHEzssSi H.ssSi
MIS-. Johnson" | said after min
ute's silence, while had decided
whether or not | had better tell her
all about 1t Of a woman's in love
with her husband you can't trust her
to keep a secret, but decided to try
Mrs. Johnson), 81 really am not en-
gagged exactly to Alfred Bennett,
though l suppose he thinks so by now
if he has got the answer to that tele-
gram. But-but something has made
me-made me think about Judge Wade
that is, he-what do you think of
him, Mrs. JohnsonT | concluded in
the most pitifully perplexed tone of
voice
"All alike. Molly; all as much alike
as peas in a pod ell except John
Moore, who's the sAs1 sTreption in all
the male tribe e~.s met! His marry
fng once was just accidental and must
be forgiven him. She fell in love with
him while he was treating her for ty-
phoid, when his back was turned, as II
We're, and 1t was Gods own kindness
in him that made him marry her when
he found out how 1t was with the poor
thing. There's not a woman in this
town who could marry. th'' '"ouldn't
marry him at the drop Of ~ hut.
thank goodness, that hat e.. ever
drop and I'll have oiE "1T>ii,le man to
comfort and doctor 'wn into my
old age. Now. just lu,.n at that. Mr.
Johnson's come home here in the mid
die of the morning and I'll have to get
that old paper hunted out of his desk
~ MT I "a
came to forget itr It's funny how
Mrs. johnson always knows what Mr..
Johnson wants before he knows him
self and gets 1t before he asks for it!
AS she went out the gate the post
man came in, and at the sight OF an
other letter my heart again skunk off
into my slippers and my brain seemed
about to back up in a corner and re-
fuse to work. In a fash it came to me
that men oughtn't to write letters to
women very much-they really don't
plOw deep enough; they just irritate
the top soil. ! took this missive from
Alfred, counted all the fifteen pages,
put 1t out of sight under a book. looked
out the window and saw the ginger
DdTDer coming ueJeCleuly dIouuu w
the side gate from the ktchen-I knew
the scene he had had with Judy about
the bottle encounters of the night be-
fore-saw Mr.. Johnson shooed of
down the street by Mrs. Johnson; saw
the doctors car go chucking hurriedly
in the garage. and then my spirit turn
ed itself to the wall and refused to be
sOmforted. | tried my best, but failed
70 respond to my own remonstrances
with myself, and tears were slowly
gathering in a cloud Of gloom when a
blue gingham. rompers clad sunbeam
burst into the room.
"Git your nightgown and your tooth
bresh quick. Molly, If you want tC
pack 'em In my trunk" he exclaimed
with bis eyes dancing and curl stand
ing straight up on the top Of his head
as it has habit of doing when he IL
most excited. you can't take nothing
but them cause I'm going TO put in {
rope to tie the whale with when