The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-02-13
AM.
Experiment
By DONALD CHAM 3ERLlN

Id been plautin' corn All day. and
when | started for hum | met Martha
Hodges.
"Evenin'. Mr.. Rogers" she said.
ION your way home. reckon. 1t
must be mighty pleasant to have such
q nice home IA yours tn ~ to after
a hard days work"
1T used to he 'slOng az mother and
Anna lived. but now It's kind y lone
some Resides. when II fpIler's tired
out he don't want to cook hix upper
aud wash dishes"
why don't yon Kit married: Then
you'd have sOnie one to do yOur cook
In for YOU and wash the dishes and
take kper q the house
"Waal." said. kind ~ th1nkin' out
loud. II don't know Int that's II gtm,d
hee. Hut 1t amt 40 simple m would
appear Furxt III. n fp:lpr's got to
lind the gal he wants. md tp make It
. r she's got to want him. Then.
s'Ih~tD' II IL u w. it's easy and cheap
enough tn git married: vOn kin git a
parsOn tO 10 the Job for whatever q
like I u pay Now. can't hitch two
critters together and pxln-ct 'em to
travel easy. .Furst III. one an 'em u
plunge fOr'ard. and t'Other II hang
back Then n on EN- II halk when
the other II xOt down tO a stiddy gait.
Thnt's the way II IL when two pus-
a0ns tegin to travel the matrimonial
rad tOgether And. s'posin' that In
stead ut gpttin' used (" thu. N me- kind
o g,in they VT wuss and w,,ss. what
you g"in' tn do thpn?"
"Oh. Mr. Rogers" says Martha.
''yOu're u Tessimist. and the wnst kind
Of n one"
~ don't know what that Ia. Int I
do know that gittin' married n like
buyin' \ piy In a imkp. You kin see
the gal plain enough IN the outside.
hut you don't know what ah~ II on
the inside She may M white "a
snow on the surface. and not two
inches down she may be a smolderin'
IRE. ready to hnnst nut At any mo
ment."
It'll tell you what I'll do with Won.
Reckon yon don't want me. and I'm
NOT hankerin' to cit married. YOn kin
experiment on me II yon ike. and II
yOu don't find ont at the end u Rx
months that I'm what You took me
for In the be9innin' III agree With You
that winner In mighty deceptive."
"Weli. now. that's accommodatin.. I
declare" ! aaya to her. "When shall I
be9in?"
whenever Won like"
"rn commence tonight. when I've
had supper and got the dishes washed"
"YOu needn't mind ahNnt the dishes.
Jest yon let EN- alone tonight. To-
morrer when you're out to work TIL 20
In and tidy M for you and do your
dishes Wherein ! ind the door key"
"Hanein' under the porch. left side
near the front"
Shed started on. and didn't say no
mor went IN hmm. got my sup
per and tuk Martha at her word. leav-
in the dishes In the pan About =
o'clock ! went over to her house and
found that she'd done her evenin'
chores and was a-sittin' before q hlaz.
in fire. darnin' stockin'a., ! thanked
her for the offer she'd made me and
told her when she'd convinced me
that wimmen was Jest a. amiahle a.
they looked I'd like for her to put
me onter a nice gal that I conld ex-
pertinent on. with a view to marriage.
She said ahe would n she conld hit on
the right gal.
spent q couple of honrs with Mar
tha. t0ppin' OF with nome cakes and
cider she brought ont. The next day.
when I went home at NOM. ! found
the dishes washed. the pOts and kat-
tlee shinin' like lN,kin' glasses and
everything spick and apan. By
crackey. hardly knOwed the place.
That was Saturday. and th"rt !
oughter "a ' 2 the name ev~nin' and
thank Martha. did ~. and ahe
aaid that for q few weeks shed clean
m for me every saturday.
After that every Saturday u0rnin'
Martha put everything to rights. and
drOpped In to thank her Saturday
evpnin' She said shed do II for a
few weeks. bnt the few weeks grOwed
into a few months.
Meanwhile I was a-watchin' her to
zee II she was gUOd all the way
through Or only Vanished. At last !
told her that I was we'll satisfied with
the experiment and didn't think
wimmen was ~ Onsa rtin' after all. I'd
been SO encouraged by her Rth,dnesa
TINT l concluded to git married. She
looked very much pleased after this
and asked me who was ROin' to
marry. hadn't any n In view: but.
thinkin' I Onghter name s"Inehsdy. In
asmnch an I said ! was gOin' to git
married. I said the gai was Matilda
Rlnke.
"You jist onghter seen the change in
Martha Her face got red. and her
eyes fairly spit fire.
"Matilda Blake" she said. mighty
ecorpfni '.Shp dOesn't know how to
Try hAcOn. She couldn't s~w a hutton
90 .-N.E-#L u. sNN- 49,