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Show rven ine men eoindn't vote tuen. s 1 what authority is he on suffrage?" Naturally, this dispute could not be ended then and there. Hiram Tuttle I found It necessary to stop at Lucy Finch's gate several mornings and bring up some new argument that had occurred to him, only to be effectually squelched by Lucy's wit and wisdom. And from that it became necessary for him to drop In of evenings once or twice a week to continue the discussion. discus-sion. And, propinquity and acquaintance acquaint-ance each having their effect, It was not long until he. with a man's foresight, fore-sight, saw that this debate could not be ended for years, so he proposed "to Lucy. Now, when a man proposes to a woman he has his ears set for Just one word and that Is "Yes." Therefore Imagine Hiram Tuttle's TIwiksvira and L6vQ by)WilburD-NesbH i-- 1 s T WAS no spasmodic love 2 TT . I affair, this of Hiram Tut-I Tut-I F J1 I tie and Lucy Finch. That I jj, I it was no highly romantic jsrtJ affair you may infer from tne names of the prlncl-ll prlncl-ll pals. If I were drawing I RTfl I uPn my imagination and ( KJLt" writing a real love story. one that would make the justly celebrated affair of Paris and Helen seem like a business transaction transac-tion In comparison, then their names would be Hector Montmorency de Beauville and Imogene Tereversham, or something to that effect. But thi6 Is simply a little story caught in real life just such an affair as is going on right under your nose and in your own town at this moment. So if you prefer the rhetorical wooing of Hector Montmorency de Beauville and the no less rhapsodical counter-wooing counter-wooing of Imogene Tereversham. dear reader, read no further. There were Hiram Tuttle, Lucy Finch, a turkey and a suffrage question ques-tion Three of these were tangible In the beginning, although Hector and Lucy were a great deal older than the turkey at the start. The suffrage question, I know, is as old as the hills and bids fair to become as everlasting. everlast-ing. In due time the woman's suffrage propaganda reached Millville. Several prominent suffragists descended upon the town in an automobile, and made speeches from that vehicle right In the middle of the public square of a Saturday afternoon. Ten years ago all the women In Millville would have said that those speakers were mannish, man-nish, now they said they were exactly right Ten years ago all the men in Millville, bulwarked behind their . chews . of plug tobacco, would have denounced those Invaders as unworn- anly and have classed them with Dr. . Mary Walker and Belva Lockwood. Now the men Just chuckled to themselves them-selves and said the women ought to have the ballot if they could get It. While these women were speaking, Hiram Tuttle, having came down town to lay in his Sunday supply of bacon, eggs, coffee, flour and other bachelor provender, found himself listening to them and right beside him stood Lucy Finch. Now, do not gather the notion that Hiram was a crabbed od bachelor nor that Lucy was a wizened wiz-ened old maid. Lucy was more than 30 but nowadays a woman who has passed 30 Is Just beginning to be good looking Hiram wasn't crabbed at all; he was pleasant enough but the way he dressed himself was enough to make any woman wish she had a chance to take hold of him and spruce him up. It Is all nonsense to say that woman Is Impressed and Influenced by Therefore Imagine Hiram Tuttle's Surprise Sur-prise and Astonishment When Lucy Told Him "No." surprise and astonishment when Lucy told him "No." And naturally, he asked her why she wouldn't marry him. Men always do that. As If a woman could hare a reason! By the time a man learns that a woman's "No" is merely a preliminary pre-liminary of her "Yes," he Is too old to be Interested In the matter. Also, when a man gets the proposal habit he cannot shake It or break It So Hiram grew to going around to Lucy's and asking her to marry him, every Wednesday and Sunday evening. even-ing. Lucy enjoyed this. "I've got a 14-pound turkey for my Thanksgiving dinner," Hiram told Lucy on the Sunday evening before the day set apart by the governor to be thankful if you could think of anything any-thing to justify . such a state of mind. "Fourteen pounds!" Lucy exclaim ed. "Why, whatever in the world will you do with all that turkey?" "I thought I'd fry it and eat it," Hiram Hi-ram answered. "Fry It! Fry a turkey? Well, of all things!" "Yes, I laid out to fry It and hare " it Wr It with some fried potatoes and a pumpkin pie and some baked cranberries cranber-ries for my Thanksgiving dinner." "Baked cranberries! If that isn't Just like a man! Who cooked your Thanksgiving Thanks-giving dinner last year?" "I did. I had pork chops and boiled turnips." "You poor man!" Artful Hiram! He knew what pity Is akin to. Having failed of all other avenues to her heart, he was taking the pity route. The 14-pound turkey was a fiction; so were the pork chops. Had Lucy exercised her memory she would have recalled that Hiram always al-ways went to visit his Aunt Sarah over Thanksgiving. But she could think of only the one thing. So she said: "Hiram, I'll come up to your house Thursday morning and bake that turkey tur-key "for you." s Lucy couldn't have done a thing like that where you and I live. That would have been scandalous. But in .Millville .Mill-ville they are not so fashionable as to confound nelghborllness with suspicious suspi-cious conduct. So on Thanksgiving morning Lucy proceeded to concoct for Hiram one of those Thanksgiving dinners din-ners ypu read poems about And when the turkey was done brown and oozing and filling the air with a glorious-perfume, she .called Hiram to the kitchen kitch-en and asked him if It didn't look good. "It does that," he answered. "Um-m-m!" "Well,"' she said, firmly shutting the oven door and planting herself before be-fore it. "in four minutes that turkey will be burned to a crisp. Unless you agree right now that women should have the vote I leave the turkey there and ruin it." Hiram pondered for Just 30 seconds. sec-onds. "I'll agree that woman shall have the right to vote," he offered, "If you'll agree to marry me." "Wel-1-1," she sighed, "of course it Is lor the great cause." But it was the heat of the oven that made her face so red. It must have been ten minutes later that Hiram Hi-ram released her from his arms and anxiously said that the turkey would be burned after all. "The fire was out before I called you In," she confessed. "It won't burn." "Well," Hiram laughed, "I don't have to make all the rest of the men agree that women shall vote, do I?" "Humph!" Sniffed Lucy, "And What i Was Paul, Anyway? A Crusty Old ! Bachelor That Had to Be Struck by Lightning Before He Would Go to Churchl" a man's appearance. What attracts I her nine times out of ten is the pos- sibillty of improving his appearance. So it happened that Hiram and Lucy walked away from the speaking together, to-gether, and Hiram found himself, for the first time in five years, talking with a woman. 1 mean carrying on a conversation. He had spoken with plenty of them, but there's a difference. differ-ence. And all the way up the hill toward to-ward Lucy's home the argument on suffrage grew warmer and warmer, until by the time they parted they were dear enemies on the subject Hiram Hi-ram was absolutely against woman's suffrage, and as a crushing argument he cited some word3 of the apostle Paul about woman's place in ihe Bcheme of things. "Humph!" sniffed Lucy. "And what vas Paul, anyway? A crusty old bachelor that had to be struck by lightning before he would go to . 'hurch!" . "Well, he knew a thing or two about ofiien," Hiram argued, stoutly. He didn't know anything about .hem!" Lucy replied, briskly, "if he yaad known anything about them he f ould have known that It would be women who kept the churches going, ; and did all the work, and . that they were a great deal better than the men ever dared to be. And besides. |