Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-09-21
CYNTHIA'S
WOOING
By PAULINE D. EDWARDS

When mother died and left me the
farm l found 1t mighty hard to run
the homework.
One evenin' when I'd watered the
horses and MIXED the cows and done
all the other chores we farmers have
to do l went into the house and got
my supper. By the time I'd washed
the dishes | was dead tired and, set
tin down in front OF the fire, got to
thinkin' what a lot o. work l had to do
that was usually done by m l
could stand 1t all till it came to wash
in dishes, and that l always hated.
There came a rap at the door, and
Cynthia Jones came in to ask me If /
wouldn't lend her mother a quart OF
milk. The Joneses have the next farm
to mine. There's one boy and five
girls. I've often wondered what Farm
er Jones'H do with all his girls. There's
only one Twin at the farm, and thatE
go to the boy. | went to b spring
house and got Cynthia the milk. and
as | handed it to her she said:
You're very comfortable here, Mr..
Crabb, amt your"
well, yes" | answered. "rm com
Portable enough"
Don't you ever git lonesome Twin
all aloneT"
mo. | don't git lonesome at all.
You see, by the time 1 git the dishes
washed it's perty nigh bedtime"
"Do you like dishwashin'? Most
men don't"
81 hate It."
"Why don't you git a woman to do
it for your
II don't know anybody that would
like to hire out for that purpose"
You might marry some one. She
could do all the woman's work-the
sweepin', the cookin', the milkin' and
ALL"
Il don't know any one that would
marry me-"
You don't mean it.! Why, there's
lots o. nice girls would be glad of the
position. | know a girl that would mar
~ you and make you a good wife,"
who's that?"
why, Mr.. Crabb, you wouldn't have
me tell you. She wouldn't thank me
for dom so. If she did it would be
immodest of her."
rs it Susan ParkT"
NO
at amt Melis Billings, is it?"
mo; | don't refer to Melis. But /
won't give you any more guesses."
Seems to me that's kind o. mean"
'I1l tell you what I'll do. Come in
to our house Sunday night and I'll give
you the first letter of her first name"
| made the call on Sunday evenin'
and found all the family except Gym
thia gone TO church. There was a fire
burnin' on the hearth, and the brass
andirons shone beautiful. Cynthia had
some apples and cider on the table
waitin', and altogether everything look
ed mighty fine. Somehow l could nev-
er make my Twin room look like that,
and l told her so. She said men
couldn't do such things; only women
could.
Cynthia made me feel at home and
l forgot all about askin' her the letter
she was goin' to tell me, and I went
away without it. / met her on the
road the next day, and l said:
IL was NhS JOo "o9 9OA4
to tell me? l clean forgot it."
You'll have to come for it next Sun
day. she said as she hurried On.
l went the next Sunday night, and
the first thing | did was to ask for
that letter before l forgot it. Cynthia
said she'd tell me just before l went
home, only l was to remind her of 1t.
The family was mostly at home this
time, and Cynthia took me into a little
6 by 8 room off the dinin' room. There
was only II easy chair in 1t. Gym
! thia set herself down in that and left
me a chair with q wooden seat. To-
ward 10 O'Clock | got so tired | couldn't
I stand it any longer. | got VI n walk
ed about to rest myself, and Cynthia
moved aside, and, SEEM she didn't In
tend to be mean about it, | sat down
beside her.
Would you believe it? l went away
without thi1kin' to remind her of the
first letter of the girls name who
would like TO marry me! l met her in
a few days in the store and asked her
for it. but she said I'd have to try it
again and If | didn't remember this
time she wouldn't tell me at all.
/ went r,und the third time to get
that letter and found not only the fam
lily at home, but a lot o. friends there.
So Cynthia had to take me to a closet
where they kept old books and maya
zines, and we set on the pile with u
legs stickin' u into the hall. The
closet was than the easy
chair we'd Spt in the second night /
was there, and there want no room
for my ARM, so 1 had to put it around
her. We set there that away from 7
till 10 o'clock.
by cracky," I said jest as I was
a-goin' away, "if l didn't pretty nigh
forpit ap'in fO ask for that ~1etterf'