Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1904 — SARAH’S STRATEGY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SARAH’S STRATEGY

By C. B. LEWIS

Copi/rioht, 1904, by C. B. Lewi*

Sarah Pendergast was not to blame that she bad lived to the age of thirtythree without being married. When she looked back over the long road she couldn’t see where It was her fault, and as for other people they said: “What, Sarah Pendergast, the old maid? Why, she’s been trying her very best for the last fifteen years to catch a man, and she’d give all her old shoes even to say yes to a. widower eighty years old." Indeed, it was no one’s fault. It was simply one of those things that occur now and then in every community. A girl gets left out for no particular reason, and the first thing she knows she’s being called aunt anu looked up to with respect due to old age. Sarah had a brother William for whom she kept house. William was an old bachejor and inclined to silence, but now and then he had a way of making the sister feel that her mission had been left unaccomplished. On the night of her thirty-third birthday the spirit moved him to say: “Sarah, I’ve lived a single life for forty years, and I don’t intend to change it, but if I were you I’d get a husband if I had to chase him from here to Bebee’s Corners.” “I could have married ten times over if I had wanted to leave you,’’ she replied. “Well, don’t let me stand in the way any longer. I ain’t blaming you altogether, but folks are giggling and poking fun at you all over the county. Why don’t you get out and hustle like Other girls?” Sarah defended her position with spirit, but that night after she got to bed she lay awake for two hours and then came to a decision. For the first time since she was old enough to marry she made up her mind to go on a man hunt and show Brother William and the rest of Temple county that she could get married as well as other folks. A thing that helped her to reach this decision just at the time was the fact that young Enos Johnson, son of Farmer Johnson, had been paying her attention. That is, he had called at

the house now and then of an evening to eat apples and popcorn in her company and to talk weather and crops with her fanner brother. Sarah had aimed far higher than Enos, who was a whole souled fellow, but knew more about rutabagas than the spelling book. But Enos would do at a pinch, and the pinch seemed to have come. Thirtythree years old she was by the record in the family Bible, and even Brother William had begun to be sarcastic and impatient over it. The innocent Enos didn’t know what was in store for him and therefore came over the next evening to tell how the old spotted cow had a sore back and one of the hogs had a swelling on its jaw. If be hadn’t been so busy eating Spitzenburg apples and cracking black walnuts he might have noticed that Sarah was more affectionate than nsnal and that Brother William went off to bed half an hour ahead of his usual time. But Enos had no guile and didn’t expect it in others. * Before he left for home he had agreed ta go sliding on the pond with Sarah the next evening, and that night she lay awake aga(p to do a little more planning. Next morning, as soon as the bachelor brother had taken his departure for the woods, she hunted up an old ax and waded through the snow to a pond in the old wheat field to cut a good sized hole in the ice. Had the pond been on a gentleman’s farm it would have been called a lake Had it been nearer the barnyard It would have been referred to as a horse pond. It was only about an acre in extent and four feet deep, and at that season of the year, being midwinter, the few bullheads who roamed its waters In summer had gone down into the mud to hibernate until the frogs croaked again. When evening came again behold Brother William nursing a sore heel before the kitchen fire, and Sarah and Enos cantering about the pond like two children given a holiday. The No. 10 boots worn by Enos soon made a sliding place, and, of course, the coy Sarah— Enos bad never seen her so coy I before—managed to slip down at every ' slide and be set on her feet again by Ibis strong arms. Gradually, as she I grew more coy and artless, and as

linos galloped about with more vigor and began to wonder if be wasn’t a good deal of a feller after all, she managed things as to approach nearer and nearer the bole cut in the ice that morning. By and by she got a warning, and later on another, but she smiled and said she had a hero at hand to save her. Then came the climax of her planning. There was a quick run dowqhill, a long slide and a fall and a scream, and into the hole she went. It was no matter that her feet could touch the cold mud and make the bullheads wonder what was going on or. that she could have pulled herself out as fast as she got in had she so minded. She had a part to play, and she played it. At her first scream Enos started for the house, yelling “Police!” at the top of his voice. At her second he turned back and grabbed a fence rail aud shoved it at her so vigorously that he came near breaking her ribs with the end of it. It was not until scream the fifth had risen on the night air to make the stars turn pale and shudder that Enos flung down his hat, yanked off his overcoat aud blue yarn mittens and showed himself the hero that he was. After trying to push Sarah a foot farther down into the mud and water he suddenly realized that the right way was to pull instead.of push, and with a heave and a grunt he flopped her out on the ice. He had heard that half drowned people ought to be rolled on a barrel. There was no barrel handy, and so he rolled Sarah over and over in the snow. When he believed that he had recalled the flame of life he picked her up like a bag of potatoes aud flung her over his shoulder and started for the house, and there was no mistaking his feelings when he said: “If Sarah dies of this I hope our old muley cow will kick my head off!” In wading through the snowdrifts and climbing rail fences Sarah was dropped three or four times, and each time she faintly protested that she was able to walk, but the hero had been roused to action and nothing could stop him. Up went Sarah again, her shoes leaking mud and water and her wet arms clinging around Enos’ neck and shoulders, and at last he arrived at the kitchen door and kicked it open and laid his burden on the floor. “Gee whiz, but what is it?” gasped Brother William as ho got his sore heel under his chair and faced about. “Sarah’s fell in the pond!” “No!” “And I’ve fell in love with Sarah!” “It can't be!” “Enos, darling, kiss me!” came from the soppy bundle on the floor. “Durned if I don’t, and right off now, with Bill lookin’ on!” Next morning at breakfast, after a long period of silence, Brother William queried: “Sarah, who cut that hole in the ice?” “I did,” she promptly answered/ “When are you and Enos to be married?” “The first of May.” “I'm! I see. Sarah, you are no old maid!”

HE GRABBED A FENCE RAIL AND SHOVED IT AT HER.