The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-03-23
MISTAKE OF 0BED
MADE ScARECROWS OF CLOTHES
WIFE AND DAUGHTER
WANTED.
Il Frightened the Birds Away From
the Corn, but He Had to Give
S'lome Money for New
Things.

"My gracious" calculated Mr.. Gun
ney. He passed from the fervent
warmth OF the June sunshine into the
welcome coolness OF Caleb Peaslee's
wagon shed and famed himself vigor-
ously with his straw hat. MY gra-
cious!" he repeated. Mr.. Peaslee
looked up from the rake that he was
mending.
whats the matter of We now,
Obed" he desired to know.
MY wife and daughter" replied Mr..
Quincy, "have jest gin me kind Of
goin' over, guess you might call it
and me as innocent as q baby. 1t
sort of took my breath away, and I've
skun out a spell, to give 'em a chance
to get over it,
what you been up to now?" de-
manded Mr.. Peaslee.
Il amt been up to a single thing"
asserted the culprit stoutly. "At any
rate, I amt done nothin' further'n to
make a mistake that any man might
have made. I dessay you would have
done jest the same as did,"
"Mebbe," admitted Caleb. "What
you been doin'?"
"Well," hesitated Obed, ''Tll tell you
how twas. Ny wife an S'lome huve
been away visitin' for bout three
weeks, and they left me to do as 1
was a mind to in most ways; but when
any little thing'd come up that / was
onsartain bout, I'd write to 'em, or
one of 'em. There want much
bout whether I'd set another hen, or
how much Mis- Griggs owed us for but
ter, or some such thing as that
''Bimeby, though, l wanted some ad-
vice bout what to use to make a scare
crow. I'd got my corn in, and them
pesky crows was clawin' it out of the
ground Eastern l could put it in. I
didn't know where to find the things
to make a scarecrOw of; so l wrote to
'em and wanted they should tell me
where 1 could find somethin'.
'Mebbe you remember" said Obed
with q questioning glance, that wom-
an and her daughter that boarded at
our house last summer| Mr.. Peas
lee signifed that he remembered them
we'll
"Well," Obed went on, when they
went away they left raft Of stuff
that they didn't want in the way Of
clothes, I mean. Some Of the things
were clothes that they'd worn f1shin
and trampin' round in the woods, and
~ 1'oI 70 II
There they was, hangin' up in q
clothes-press, and S'lome wrote to me
to go and get somethin' to dress the
scarecrow. She didn't tell me what
to take" he added defensively, $50 how
in tunket they blame me Is more'n I
can figger out.
"Well, I went up there, and | paved
over the mess Of stuff and picked out
some things and took 'em out to the
field and dressed the critter up in 'em.
There was fancy rig for hat, and
a long, jacketlike thing that they
called a blazer, and a skirt with red
and white stripes in it, and the stripes
was an inch and a half wide. l don't
believe" Mr.. Quincy declared, in the
pride of creation, that when I got
through you could have found a tastier-
dressed scarecrow anywheres.
81 took d lot of pride in it," Obed
admitted, "and guess it's just as we'll
l took it before them womenfOlks got
home. Well, L amt had q quiet min
ute since, and no knowing when I will
have.
Come to get at the rights of It," he
explained, there was some things
there that both my wife and S'lome
was cal'latin' to wear themselves. My
wife was goin' to fix over the hat for
herself, and Stoned been picturin'
herself rigged out in that striped skirt
and that fancy jacket.
Course they couldn't use 'em now
-'twouldn't never do to have it said
that they'd been Robin scarecrow
to get things to wear. So the upshot
Is that I've had to give 'em more
money than l could reely afford, to lay
out in new clothes. There's jest one
comfortin' thing bout the whole busi-
ness"
What Is it?" asked Mr.. Peaslee.
Them crows" grinned Obed con-
tentedly. There amt been crow
that's felt it safe to come within q
quarter of a mile Of the field since I
rigged that scarecrow up. So mebbe
after all."-Youths Companion.