The Washington herald., 1914-10-04
MRS. DOLBY'S TALKS
She Hears Whispering Voice A-sayins

uel and everybody says she's worth 8, 900
but Wouldn't want to marry her. She's
TOO hity-aty for 3 man Of your age.
she'd let the bread burn up in the oven.
Shed want you to go on to q picnic every
day In the year. and II you hadn't any
soft soap in the house you'd have TO
She's good housekeeper. Samuel, as
I'll admit, but they say she gifts streaks
on. One day she'll be laughin' and gig
glin, all day long, end the next day
she'll be as sulky as a mule. She kin
make q pound OF tea go as far as /
kin, but she told me with her own mouth
that she had four pair Of stockins last
year. Could you put up with sich ex.
you be thinkin' OF how allus got along
on two pairs year?"
Mr.. Dolby whistled softly to himself
as he felt Of the edge Of the sickle with
his thumb. The whistle conveyed no
direct information, but was a whistle
in the abstract Mrs. Dolby looked at
the back OF his neck for a moment all
worked up and choked back a sob. and
There's Phoeba Cousins, whom every
body likes, but she's an old maid and
sot in her ways. She never backbites
nor gifts mad. but she wants everything
jest so. II you come into the house and
throwed your hat down on the floor or
pulled your boots OF in the parlor in the
evenin', she'd raise the awfulest kind Of
row. I guess you'll hev to marry a
gal. Samuel You are old nun to be
the father OF any gal around here. but
I don't see no other way. Hev you got
any pertickler gal in mind? / was think
in Of Sue Sabins the other day. She's
twenty years old and a great hand to
her. Her mother says Sue likes to be
petted. You've never petted me, but
mebbe you'll change when I am gone.
No, Samuel. I can, remember a time
In NNT-nn nfry vnTh nv
ear or patted me on the shoulder or
poked me in the ribs. IL"
The remembrance that there had been
no shoulder-pstting or ear-pulling during
all those long years brought a fresh out
burst of emotion, and for two minutes
Mrs Dolby sobbed bitterly. Mr.. Dolby
laid down the milestone and the sickle
and picked up the paper Of tacks and
but he was oblivious OF his surround
inEs.
I'll don't complain" said Mrs. Dolby
when she could control her voice again.
to pet, I let 1t go. am old and wrink-
led and scrawny, and I can't look fur
pettin, 1t will be different with a gal
however. II you don't pull her ear at
she'll git suIky and finally run away
with a tin peddler. Mrs. Bebee was sayin'
that Bertha Williams would make a good
Ral-wife fur you. and Mrs. Williams says
tnal you cOulQ not 90 Deller InAn 70
marry Mary Hawkins. but amt goin'
to pick out nobody fur you nor hnd
fault with your choice. All I'm going
to do is to die and become an angel and
let you do Jest as you want to. I've
got Jest one leetle favor TO ask
The lump in her throat and the tears
in her eyes checked her speech for half
n MIR and during that time Mr.. Dolby
nut the tacks down and lifted up the
S'Irs only this. Samuel. You needn't
do no weepin' fur me when I'm gone.
and you needn't hang over the gate and
try to look all broke up over my loss.
You kin 90 right TO playin' checkers as
soon as the funeral is over, but some
nigh later on, when you are all alone
in the house and the crickets are singin',
/ want you to remember that I had nv
good p'ints as well as my bad. want
YOU to remember that I used a clothes
biler with seven holes in the bottom fur
nine years without uendin' and that 7
hain't had a new corset fur levene years.
Our teakettle is over nine years old. and
I've made one set of Guns and sassers
last us since we was married. That's all.
Samuel. and now and I'll go In and die.
and you Tin be lookin' around fur your
second Wife,
She rose up with a sob and retreated
into the house, but Mr.. Dolby knew
nothing OF It. He hung the sickle on
a nail near the door. put the milestone
and tacks on a shelf In the woodshed
closed the henhouse door and cast a look
into the pig-Den. When he returned to
the house, Mrs. Dolby was looking at
her bowl of emptings under the stove and
humming the air OF IT Want to Be an
Angel" She had had her lamentation
or four days before she would break out
again.