Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-03-23
Matilda Brixs, Widow
She Tells How She Got a Second
Husband
By M. QUAD
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1916, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

me Scant heed.
I don't know to this day why I en-
tered the hotel. l suppose it was fate.
The landlord of the place was in the
Office. He sat in a chair with his feet
In another, and he was asleep with
his mouth open. He was bareheaded
and b~aldheaded, and a hundred or
more flies were running up and down
his bald pate trying to find a soft spot.
took off my hat and sat down and
famed away the insects. After about
five minutes and with a lonesome
smile OF his face the man woke up
and whispered:
"Oh, mother, that is so NIGEL"
But l am not your mother" l re-
piled.
"Then who are your"
81 am only the widow Brixs, SIR"
"And what do you want here?'
II want to see your wife"
But you can't unless you can fly.
Her soul passed into the beyond about
three years ago, and since then | have
had to go it alone
AAtCA a " ~ LII oCCl1S Luc
dirt and dust and cobwebs and con-
fusion that prevailed | said:
You seem to have made hard work
of it going 1t alone"
Eyes, it's a little tough to be with
out a wife when you have had one for
twenty years. | do my own cooking,
washing, mending and b~edmaking.'
"This is a tavern, and what about
the travelersT l queried.
"Oh, there are no travellers but me.
and / don't travel very much except in
my dreams. All the travellers go to
Mrs. Carson's boarding house, and 1
am rather glad of it. as my style of
cooking might bring about a tragedy"
"Mebbe you want to bust up Mrs.
Carson's boarding house?" l answered.
But how will l do it?" he asked,
with a little animation in his voice.
Eyes, / believe I would like to bust up
her house. because I have asked her
three times to marry me-. and three
times she has throwed me down"
"If you will hire me I'll bust her
boarding house within a month";" I
said.
"Lordy mel But how would you do
ftT' he exclaimed.
81 should begin by busting. mop
ping, washing windows and making
this old pigpen look like a first class
hotel at Newport. I presume there is
a weeks work III the Kitchen setting
things to rights, but / am a worker.
When l got things cleaned up l should
want you to buy some provisions and
see that the word went around that
the Paradise was ready to entertain
all patrons on a scale of unexampled
magnificence."
"Great Caesar!" he whispered as he
held up his hand. "Say, gal, you are a
wonder! What about wages?"
"You are too poor to pay any wages
for the first month at least"
"Doggone me if l amt, but I'll tell
you what I'll do. and 1 never broke
my word yet to man, woman or tele-
graph pole. If you will work for a
month and get things shipshape I will
marry you-yes, by gosh. I'll marry
you! That will be better than wages"
"But l shall have something to say
about that" l replied as I rose up.
It was three days before the news
got around in Jackson's Hollow that
a new move was on foot at the Para
disc hotel. The idlers dropped in to
the number of twenty or more. and
when they saw me flying from room
to room with broom and mop they had
many compliments for me. In fact,
more thar a dozen of them offered me
their hands and hearts in marriage.
In each case I replied that / was high
" f1attered. but had no time to fool
away.
1t will surprise you to learn that in
a months time the old shebang was
doing a good tavern business. and Mrs.
Carson's boarding house was almost
deserted.
When the month was a little more
than up the landlord came to me as I
was frying pancakes for the break
fast of a dry goods drummer and said:
Matilda. what about our gettin'
married.
/ told him to go away until | had
fried six or eight more pancakes and
thought the matter over and the re-
suit was that we were married that
evening, and forty-nine lovers and
travellers kissed the blushing bride.
All went as happy as the pig in the po-
tato patch for a week or more, and
then my husband came into the kitch-
en- one day and found me using kero-
sene to hurry up the fire. With an i'm
pulse, which was very creditable in
him, he reached out and cuffed me on
the ear. That ear tingles yet, al
though many years have passed since
/ got the cuff. He lodged the stove lid
which l threw at him. and half an
hour later he was as dead as Hanni-
bal the Great. He had died while sit
ting In his chair. He had used too