Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1925-05-15
BARNEY
AND THE
WIDOW
ID by short Story Pub. CO. }
By HELEN PARKER

II Tony T.'' and ID watched long ps
black line of men with dinner
pals wind out of the factory and scat
ter like spilled mercury.
"You saw that red-headed fellow"
said he. well he looks an awful lot
like Barney Benton. Didn't ever tell
you about him."
Upon my denial Hendrikson emptled
his pipe knocked 1t clean in the palm
Of his hand, and after slowing 1t away
In his hip pocket fell to stroking his
stubby beard-loslng somewhere In
the process the merry twinkle from his
eye.
Queer fellow, Barney" he said,
after long pause. Didn't know who
his folks were. Couldn't remember
any childhood at all. Fact is he
couldn't remember anything back of
time when he was about fifteen years
old 'Half-wit Barney we used to
call him.
He'd knocked around pretty much
all over the world. Knew Indians like
q brother. You couldn't show him an
Indian rug or basket but he'd tell you
just what tribe made 1t and all about
1t. He had lot Of charms and jewels
necklaces and things he'd picked up
everywhere under heaven. Some Of
'em he'd look at kind Of blank and
say he couldn't remember. Others of
'em he'd tell US about and about places
where he'd been-the north countries
with their lonesome trails and horrible
cold. He'd frozen his feet some time
or other, that's one thing made him
lame. He'd tell about the baking,
bone-cluttered desert, and ports in far
of countries with their ships In the
harbor all saffron and orange colored,
and the Islands Of the sea.
Il can see 'em now-the water lap
ping their shores-the dark women
and the palms. And l never was out
Of Manhattan except as we fellows sat
in back Of Tony's and listened to him,
our mouths open like we had tooth
to be pulled. 1t was like reading a
book. He'd thrill you like typhoid
chill.
But he was queer. Awful queer
looking, too. About six feet tall he
was, and slim as a rail. He was a
little bow-legged and one leg was
longern the other. He had great
mop Of thick, bright red hair, chock-
full Of cOwlicks. He stammered a
little when he was excited. He was
terrible deaf, too. He'd get up close to
tell what you said. That's what
scared women so and made 1t hard for
him to keep job, even on an ice wa
gon or grocery cart. That, and his
smiling. Seemed sthough he was al
ways grlnning
you don't know how queer he'd
look smiling and showing two Of the
whitest, evenest rows OF teeth you ever
saw out of dentists window. And
his blue eyes-blue like chllds-
wide open and looking you through
and through and way back to your
grandmother.
"Well-he fell in love. Yes, sir, Il
fellow like that Don't laugh
though we used to for that matter.
She was u widow, youngish, black
eyed, shining haired creature with
tiny round waist and little bits of high
heeled shoes that went click, click on
the sidewalk. She had child, boy,
cute little curly-headed thing that
looked like a picture on Sunday
school card.
"Of course 1t was hopeless from the
start, hopeless as though you'd expect
to carry away the Atlantic ocean by
running at 1t with "a tea-stralner.
More'n one perfectly good man, as far
AS the looks of him went. wanted the
widow; did too.
But the sight of 'half-wlt Barney
leaving posies at her front door and
cherries at her back, sending her for.
eign jewelry anonymous, and begging
to put on her screens, was awful
funny. We thought so then. At night
he'd walk past her flat-she was way
up on the seventh floor-with his store
clothes, his red shoes that matched his
hair, his big crimson tie with the green
stone in it,-a real jewel 1t was, in
queer carved gold setting-an odd,
creepy thing that some prince person
had given him-honest, we'd watch
him and just double up laughing. She
laughed. too.
"She said 1t seemed 'sthough she
never opened door that he or his
flowers or fruit weren't there, or put
up a window and looked down into the
street that she didn't look into his
face. 1t got 50 she hated to open her
mail box on account Of the letter that
might be there. Yes, sir, he used to
write to her. Good letters they were,
too. She told me about It afterward.
Sometimes / think those letters tum-
bled out of some part Of his brain un-
touched by the awful calamity
whatever 1t was-that had left him the
MANNED, twisted thing he was. Lord,
how he loved her At the last he
wrote her every day, every day. ."
Hendrlkson cleared his throat, and
dropped his jaw into his upturned
palms The streets were thinning
quickly, as they do about seven in the
evening. Between the rush Of day and
the fever Of night there settled a mo-
ment's calm, golden with the glow of
sunset far beyond the eye Of the city
It was horribly hot In narrow hall
way doors women sat with their babies
and famed their bare threats with