Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-04-02

seemed to do well under him. 1t wasn't
long before he'd took on flesh and color
till you wouldn't know him. He wasn't
handsome. but he looked well enough.
Marthy thought SO, anyway.
Mrs Bridges took up her knitting again
before she continued: "Marthy and
were always good friends. and that night
We went to the Brushes apple pairing bee
was going to happen. And it did They
were the lovingest lovers you ever saw.
shy as they both was 1t wasn't no
surprise to me when / went over there
one day and Marthy showed what she
had made toward her setting out But
I don't Believe I'll get it all done SAYS
she. cause ENVY won't wait longer'n
spring. He's hired place and he wants
to get on it before planting time Well,
I pitched in and helped her. She showed
me how to knit lace. She made yards
and yards of it. and she was the happiest
thing you ever saw.
They were married the last day of
April. because Marthy was kind of SUI
perstitious about having May wedding.
She wore green silk dress-they want
given SO much to wearing white in them
days as they are now. L wish / had
picture Of her to show you the way she
looked that day. My. she was pretty!
did SO want her to be happy. I hadn't
met Morton yet, but the time want far
away. 1 remember thinking that would
mt look no such way as Marthy did on
my Weddlng DAY. LOT L WASH near SO
nice looking, beside having the Bascom
nose.
After the wedding Envy put Marthy
in the buggy and they went away off
up Meredith way to visit some of his
folks who couldn't come to see him mar
on the new place. And they lived there
happy as kittens for three years. Then
Envy was took. The war had been too
much for him.
orI Wit
her, l can tell you. There she was on
that little place, which want paid for,
and everything just as Envy had laid 1t
down. Some women would have gwen up.
but Marthy want that kind She dldn
ask any odds of her folks or anybody
else. She just took holt and went right
on farming it the same as II Envy was
there. When the work got too much for
her she'd make bee and call III the
neighbors. and, my how she'd feed en-.
Morton used to say that it was worth
pitching in a. dozen ton of hay Just to
set down to one of Marthy's dinners.
We'll. Marthy kept that gait right up
for couple of years and then we begun
to hear that Joe Mac, as we called him,
was buzzing round her. Joe Mac was no
favorite in the community. but every
body thought that Marthy knew her own
business. l hated to see her marry him,
stopped her. l used to think that Joe
Mac had bewitched her. He was as
different from Envy as anything YOU
ever see. Land. I wouldn't have picked
him out o the gutter! But Marthy mar
ried him.
II don't know why 1t is" pondered
Mrs. Bridges, that no woman ever gets
the same kind of man twice running.
But it's just as true as it is that light
ming never strikes twice in the same
place. Envy was the best boy that ever
lived and Joe Mac was perfect divvil.
He didn't let Marthy have no kind of
life at all. Why. when her first baby
want moren seven weeks old he made
her get up and build the fire mornings. !
UP and spoke my piece to Marthy about
it once. but she only sighed and said
There's enough to quarrel about with
out quarreling about who shall light the
fire mornings That was the most she
ever let out about the way she and Joe
lived together, but. my land every body
knew. Why. often she didn't have
calico dress that she could come to meet
ing in. He never give her one cent to
spend for herself or the children, and she
had four right along together. but, thank
the Lord. they all took after her, instead
of their pa.
Mean as he was, Joe Mac was
great worker. 'Twa'n't no time before
he had that place paid for and was on
another. If he got cent in his hands
he kept it You couldn't get the best of
him on a bargain, and he was as slippery