Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-12-26
Getting Out
of It
GA@D
By o LA GRANGE
Copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa~
per Syndicate.)


Copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure NeWspa.
per S~yndicate.)
Deacon Strothers and his wife
were eating supper when she said to
him across the table:
CLOSES, if I should die, would you
marry again?"
"Bless me, butwhat a question:" he
replied as he chokcd.
"But 1 should like to know"
"It amt likely that l would"
"You believe I'll go to heaven when
I die, don't your"
"Straight as a crow flies"
"And how'd I feel lookin' down from
heaven and SEEM you around with an
other wife,"
"But the angels in heaven can't look
down on EARTH"
"It is said they can't, but how does
anybody know they can't?"
"These are nice mashed t%aters," said
the deacon as he helped himself to
some MORE.
His wife was a Christian woman,
and a church member, but nevertheless
| there were times when she wanted to
know, you know, and he found it safer
to choke her off than argue with her.
He was hoping he had in this case
when she said:
eyes, I've got a knack Of mashin'
taters, and you'll miss me when I'm
gone. How about my question, Moses?"
you'll probably outlive me ten
years."
IT probably won't, and I want to
know if you will marry again?
mo, sir, I Shouldn't"
The deacon was vexed with her per-
sistency, and he brought out his answer
with an emphasis.
Cali right" began the wife and be-
gan talking Of something else.
Next day she and another woman
were drowned by the upsetting Of a
boat on the river. The deacon, who
was over fifty, was overwhelmed for
a time, but gradually his grief wore
away and he was like himself again.
1t is not contended that he was an
absent-minded man, but it is stated,
and it is quite reasonable, that after
the first month the deacon did not
think of that promise again for four
years. Then it came like a knockout
blow. Bit by bit he had come to be
friends with the Widow Stevens. He
had sat on her doorstep; he had sat
by her fire; he had hoed in her gar
den; he had split wood for her cook,
stove. Aye, he had called her Sarah
and she had called him Moses. One
evening he had had a talk with him
self beginning with:
"By the great horn spoons, but that
widder cain make a custard fit for q
king!"
And then: "Deacon, you have been
a widower for four years-for foul
long years. You have been sad and
lonely. 1t has come mighty hard"
And again:
'sThere's folks winkin' and blinkin
around and sayin' that me and the
wilder will make a match of it, but
let 'em wink and blink. 1t hain't none
of their pesky business, and l have
told 'em So"
Then with a chuckle:
'It wouldn't be a bad match fol
either one of u.s.. Home is where the
husband and wife is, and we've'neithe1
one of us got a home 'cordin' to that
wonder if I had better hint around?'
Three minutes elapsed and then the
deacon brought his fist down and ex'
claimed:
Clint? Hint? No, I Won't hint g
hint! III just ask her outright"
And he was going over in his MIND
what he would say when a thought
struck him and he fairly leaped from
his chair and gasped out:
"My promise to my wife that
wouldn't marry again"
For five minutes Deacon StrOthers
was as weak in the knees as if he
had seen q ghost. He had promised,
and that promise was like a wall across
his future patti.
"What did Martha eve poster me
into making that promise for?' he
asked himself. cit wasn't right-no,
it wasn't. Did l ask her not t. marry
again in case I died first? No, of
course I didn't. I jest left it to her
feelings in the matter"
Was there any way out Of it?
Couldn't that promise be lodged?
1t was an hour after the deacon's
usual bedtime. but he was still as live
ly as a fox. He went over the matter
for ten minutes, and then said:
"Why did I promise? Because Mar
tina was in the best Of health, and ap-
pcared good for fifteen years yet.
Did she give me the slightest hint
that she was goin' to be silly enough
to get into a boat the next day? No,
she didn't. Did she say she might get
drowned? Not a word. Wouldn't a
court hold that it was deception, and
that I wasn't bound by my promise?
When Jabez Reed sold me a COW for
thirty dollars and never said a word
about her jumpin' fences, didn't the
court make him take her hack? TT