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Show HE HAD GOT AWAY. Widow's Prey Chooses the Lesser of Two Evils. Where I had stopped to water my horse by a good-sized wayside pond an old woman was sitting with a determined deter-mined look on her lean .visage and a good-sized hickory club in her knotted hand; she hailed me as I was about to ride away, aitd I stopped to see what she wanted. "Stranger." said she. "how long kin a man kritter stay under water?" , "The average," replied I, "is about a minute, but exceptional cases have been known when they have stayed under longer." "Wall, this is one o' them there exceptional ex-ceptional cases." "The record, I believe, is four "minutes." "min-utes." ... "Not longer'n that?" . "No, certainly not longer. Why do you ask?" "Wall yen know Josh Birdsell?" "No, I don't believe I do." "Wall, Josh has be'n settin' up with me a-holdin' han's fer nigh on three years now. Stranger, wouldn't yeh 'low from that thet he had ser'ous intentions?" in-tentions?" "I certainly would." rhet s what I 'lowed, an' when he come over ter my house this mornin' an' 'lowed thet he was figgerin' on marryin the Widder Benson wall, thet's when it come off! He lit inter the road a-movin' an' with me jest clost enuff ter tech his coat-tails, but not clost enuff ter git a holt onto 'em. Thet's erbout all, 'ceptin' when he got this fur an could feel my breath onto his neck he duv inter the water yere, an' I ben waitin' fer him ever sence." "Why! He must be drowned!" "D'ye reckon?" "Why, he must be.' 'Then yeh don't reckon they's any use o' my waitin' any longer?" "I should think not!" 'Then I reckon I'll be Joggin' along. Nice day." Houston Post. |