Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1917-07-26
His -Four
Guesses
It Was Her Idea, and 1t Worked
Well.
By F. A. mitchell

/ As / was takin' the horses to
/ warter one evenin', lettin' down the
bars to git 'em out on to the road,
who should come along but Sairy
Higgins. She was lookin' mighty
peart out o. them snappin' black
i eyes O hern, an when she saw me
she smiled pleasant and said:
'Evenin', Mr.. Purdyw
"Evenin', miss Higginsp' says I.
"Been workin' hard today?"
"Not very" says I. "Leastaways
l hain't been workin' at all the
way I used to work when I done
the plowin' and SIGH like myself.
got so many men workin' for me
now just look after 'em."
"You got a fine farm" says she.
Reckon says /.
"There's only one thing missin',''
says she.
whats that?" says I.
ga woman"
ooh, ! got several o them crit
tiers. They do the milkin' and the
churnin'. They come in the morn
in and 60 home at night"
IT always heard" she said at this,
lookin' kind o quar-, chat you was
the biggest fool about wimmen in
the county. Now know it."
\ sWhat makes you say that?" l
asks, kind O. heated.
"Waal, you don't git it through
your noddle what mean about
your farm needin' woman"
I thort for a minute before an
swerin' her, then ! tole her I didn't
dream of any work woman could
do that a man couldn't do better,
even milkin'. She larfed and tole
me / was bigger fool even than
| she'd thort I was.
"What you need" says she, els a
wife"
4 ooh! That's what people call me
stupid about wimmen for, is it? ]
can't git none of 'em to marry me-"
"Reckon they're more likely to
call you a fool cause you don't
know when they want you"
I thort agin awhile. I hadn't
seen that any woman had 'peared
to want me.
81 know a gall" sairy went on
a-talkin', Gas would jist give her
head to git you"
"You don't mean it?"
ri do, sartin sure"
"What's her name?"
She snickered at this and said,
says she:
Don't it occur to you that it
would be kind O. interestin' to try
to find out who the gal is?"
"Seems to me-" says I, cit would
waste a lot O. time-that is, eff l
could git it from some one who
knows already"
She larfed ag'in. She was larfn'
all the time she was a-talkin' to
me with her head to one side and
her eyes a-dancin' about as though
there was somepin funny about it
all.
'1'll tell you what I'll do" she
says. "l'll give you four guesses,
a week apart. If you don't guess
4 right on the fourth guess TN tell
you who the gal isl
"When am / to do the guessin'?"
II asked.
Come and see me Sunday nights
for four Sundays. You can make
a guess each Sunday night"
With that she flung me a look
and a laugh and tripped along
down the road. 1 kind O. wished
she'd a. KEEP me talkin' about it
some more. I thort over all the
gals roundabout, but couldn't hit
on any one of 'em as had ever ap-
peared to take any interest into
me. Then / remembered the barn
dance week before and all the
gals I'd danced with, but couldn't
think O. any one on 'em as had
looked longin' at me. Marthy
Beams had always been frien'ly to-
ward me, and onct she'd invited me
to tea. I wondered if it could be
Marthy.
There was big cornhuskin'
few days after my meetin' with
Sairy Higgins, and I was there. So
was Marthy. She was sittin' on a
pile of corn, and I jined her, both
hnskin' hard. When l struck a red
ear I tried to kiss her, and she fit.
II But later on, when / was huskin'
with Hepzi Jenkins, I got another
red ear and kissed her without her
maxim any fuss at all. So COM
cluded to name Hepzi for my first
guess.
When went to see Sairy Higo
gins on Sunday night I found her
with a new dress on and lockin'