Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1910 — “WELL, AS I WAS SAYING.” [ARTICLE]

“WELL, AS I WAS SAYING.”

John took the seat behind hie friend, Mies Wilson, in the txolley ear. He wore a bored expression, and after a few casual remarks on the weather, the cause of his disgust was revealed. “When women have a thing to say,” he began, “why can’t they say it and get done? More physical and moral force is wasted in the reiteration of feminine conversation than could be used up in a long time of effectual action. Women’s conversation consists largely of circular buzz-saws with nothing to work on. My wife has a sister staying with her.” His friend saw there was something coming and listened patiently. “This morning she mislaid some letters she had Intended to give me to post. You wouldn’t think it would take long to tell about such a circumstance, now would you?” “Why, no,” said Miss Wilson. “Well, it took all breakfast time. She began when she came to the table. Said she: “ T had two letters and a postal card which I thought John would post for me on his way down town. I stamped the letters and laid them between the leaves of a magazine—there were two letters and a postal card —and I laid the book on the stairs, thinking I would give the letters and the card to John, so he might mall them on his way down town, and 1 can’t find them anywhere. I’ve hunted high and low. and I can’t imagine what has become of them. “ ‘There were two letters—all stamped —and a postal card, and I remember laying them right between the leaves of the book, and putting it on the stairs, so that it would be handy to give to John, fey I was very particular that they should go this morning, and I knew he would just as soon post them on his way down town. “‘I can't think where they have disappeared to, for I remember distinctly placing them in the.book—two letters and a postal—and saying to myself— ’ and so on. "Well, that went on and on, and round and round, without getting anywhere, and the last thing I heard as I shut the front door was, ‘Two letters all stamped, and a postal card.' Do you wonder J’m tired with that for breakfast?” Just then a masculine voice asserted itself from (he seat behind. One man was plating something to another so emphatically that there was nothing to do but listen. “Sca’t? Well, I guess I was sca’t. I never was so sca’t in my life. I ain’t usually sca’t of thunder —been lots ,of times right out in the open when it was thundering and lightning hard, and ain’t minded it at all, but this time I was sca’t most to death. “You see. our house sets something like that one out there, not very far from the next one. Well, we were all sitting out on thf / front porch in the evening and I was sitting on the step neat the walk; the others were sitting back, but I was on the lower step near the walk, see? “Well, we were sitting there, and all of a sudden there came this thunder and lightning. * “It was fierce! The lightning just filled in all that space between the

houses —they’re set near together, you know—and I thought I was struck for Sure. It seemed to come right down all around me —you see I was sitting right on the step—and I thought sure I was struck. It seemed to kind of make me numb. “I never was so sca’t in my life. You see the others were further back, ‘but I was right out on the lower step, and the lightning seemed to come right down between the two houses. “Well, when I could think, I looked at my wife. She was sitting back on the porch by the door, quite a ways from me, because I was on the step, but she was white as chalk. I never see any one so white in my life before. “She was so sca’t; and I was so sca’t to see her so white—why. she didn’t have a mite of color. "Well, I tell you, I never minded thunder storms before, but that time I was sca’t. You see, I was sitting—” Here the car stopped and the two friends got out. John was gazing out of the window in an absorbed fashion. For some little time nothing was said; but Miss Wilson, being a woman, took advantage of her prerogative. “Speaking, about buzz-saws —” “Excuse me,” said John/ hurriedly, “I get out here.”—Youth’s Companion.