The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-15
EVENING STORY
A Widows Rirdshot.
(By C. B. Lewis.)

(By C. B. Lewis.)
/. One summers afternoon a woman
sat at country crossroads. She had
been there about fifteen minutes. Had
! she been a man there is no telling
what she would have said. but being
a woman, and a widow at that, she
had to be content with saying:
"Drat such a neighborhood to
goshen"
Half mile away on the lowland
was a farmers Wife chasing a goose.
while on the left hand, looking over
the roadside fence with one eye half
closed, was an old lame horse The
farmers wife and the goose were too
far away. But the widow was shaking
her face al the horse and getting ready
to tell him what she thought of d
crossroads without guide post when
man driving a horse and buggy ap-
peared half mile down the Hillsdale
road.
1t was Hezeikak, widower, and he
was in no hurry to get married again.
Neither was his aged equine in a hur-
I ry. To prove that he wasn't, he stop
ped every two or three minutes to see
if he could reach a horsefly These
sudden stoppings threatened to send
the driver over the dashboard, but
, they did not break the tune he was
whistling.
/ Nearer and nearer to the crossroads
came Hezeikak with his ancient rig as
the widow watched him/ and while
I he was twenty rods away. she NUT
tered:
He looks like a. half fool, but may
/ be he knows enough to answer a plain
question:
Whoa" exclaimed Hezekiak as he
came opposite. Are you waiting here
for anybody"
Il should think wasl" snapped the
widow Il have been waiting about
along and tell me in the name of old
Aunt Hammer why there isn't a guide
post at these crossroads"
! Madam, my name is Hezeikak
i Williams said the man as he ap-
! preached her horse and brought his
| hand down upon his neck with a
vigorous swat and killed horse fly.
And mine is Sarah Blackwell, Int
what has that got to do with it?''
We'll, madam. am a widower, you
see.'
And 1 am widow, but that isn't
| a answering my question as to why
there isn't a guide post here to direct
I strangers. IT seems to be the most
shiftless county in the state"
The county is all right" ne smiled.
! Il have been living here more than
twenty years and l VOW I have
nailed new guide post up here every
1 year"
But what has become of them 20
was her irritable demand. Are you
going to tell me that this horse look
+ ing over the fence has eaten them up
/ as fast as planted?"
+ No. ma'am, 1 amt They are
pulled up by the roots whenever a
young man around here gets hilari-
GUS and goes buggy riding with his
irl
which we both can see there amt,
! what town would you look for?'
why, Berea. of course
oh, Lord, woman, Berea has been
in front of your nose and only three
miles away all the time you have
{been sitting here. So you are going
to Berea, Ell? l have lived there nv
self since it was a town of four
! hundred people, and if you follow ms
! you won't lose your way 1 heard the
other day that a woman from RyefeId
was thinking of buying the Clixton
place. 1t don't happen by any chance
| that you are the woman?"
! Yes, it happens by a good many
chances that l am. I have bought
the place and am now on my way
over for it
''Shoo! That's right next door to
me, and l am glad of it."
1t Is needless to say that in due
and while the widow went about clos
ing the transaction, and making ready
to move over from Ryefield the fol.
lowing week, Hezeikak turned his old
horse into the pasture ana went in to
supper to astonish his housekeepeI
by saying:
well, Betsy. I have seen my sec
ond wife this afternoon"
Was that the woman driving the
buggy behind yours as you came
along?"
That's the one. How did you like
Il don't know whether she will eve,
be your second wife or not I don'-
think it will be for you to have al
the say about it,
i When the widow arrived next week
with her household effects, she found
| Hezeikak had done something for h 81
which he had never done for him
self. He had moved the grass in the
front yard. cut down all the weed;
and burdocks, and thereby made &
great improvement around the place
He was also on hand when the goods
arrived to help unload and carry the n
in.
When the window arrived she was
very much pleased. and said:
why Mr.. Williams. you certainly
must be a good man."
But you see, you are wilder
Mrs. Blackwell, and widders havy
a hard time of it,
1t was after three or four weeks
during which time Hezeikak had con-
tinued to play the part of a good
Samaritan, that he sat down on the
rail fence at the back of his garden
and had a muse with himself:
up with the lark in the morning
and working like a beaver all day.
makes the best hot biscuits and
custard pie of any woman in Stone
county"
The widower pulled silver from
the rail and >chewed at it for a whilt
and then continued:
"Hezeikak, you want wife. You
are a slow old poke and you want
someone to hustle you up. You haven't
made a dollar in five years and you
won't in the next five unless some