Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-07-18

downright, 1918, by the Mcclure NeWspa-
per syndicate)
Deacon Strothers and his wife
were eating supper when she said to
him across the table:
"Moses, if I should die, would you
marry again?"
"Bless me, but what a question:" he
replied as he choked.
0But I should like to know"
at amt likely that l would"
'You believe I'll go to heaven when
I die, don't your"
"Straight as a crow flies"
sand how'd I feel lookin' down from
heaven and SEEM you around with an
other wifei"
"But the angels in heaven can't look
down on EARTH"
at 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,
i 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.
i He was hoping he had in this case
when she said:
"Yes, I've got a knack of mashin'
taters, and you'll miss me when I'm
gone. How about my question, MosesT'
you'll probably outlive me ten
years."
81 probably won't, and I want to
know if you will marry again?"
"No, sir, I shouldn't"
The deacon was vexed with her per-
sistency, and he brought out his answer
with an emphasis.
"All 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 wor
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
hac 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 can make a custard fit for a
king"
And then: "Deacon, you have been
a widower for four years-for four
long years. You have been sad and
lonely. 1t has come mighty hard"
And again:
'There's folks winkin' and blinkin'
around and sayin' that me and the
widder will make a match of it, but
let 'em wink and blink. 1t hain't none
of their pesky business, and 1 have
told 'em So"
Then with q chuckle:
att wouldn't be q bad match Tor
either one of US. Home is where the
husband and wife is, and we've neither
one of us got a home 'cordin' to that.
wonder if 1 had better hint around?'
Three minutes elapsed and then the
deacon brought his fist down and ex-
claimed:
"Hint? Hint? No, I won't hint a
hint! I'll 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 l
wouldn't marry again!"
For five minutes Deacon Strothers
was as weak in the knees as If he
had seer a ghost. He had promised,
and that promise was like a wall across
his future path.
"What did Martha ever poster me
into making that promise for" he
asked himself. SIT wasn't right-no,
IL WASN'T. Dlu L dSh ucI uOI " hlohAJ
again in ease 1 died first? No, of
course I didn't. I jest left it to her
feelings in the matter"
Was there any way out OF lit
Couldn't that promise be lodged?
1t was an hour after the deacon's
usual bedtime, but he was still as live
" 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-
peared 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 promisef
When Jabez Reed sold me a COW for
thirty dollars and never said a word
about her jumpin' fences, didn't the