Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1909 — The Old Speckled Hen. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Old Speckled Hen.

By M. QUAD.

The Thompsons and the Browns, farmers, had been neighbors for ten yean, when in the same year Abel Thompson was left a widowef and Aunt Martha Brown a widow. Plenty of people said it would be only natural for the two to marry after a year or so, but what the principals in the case thought of it did not come out for over two years. T|ie farmer and the widow saw each other every day during this timfc. She continued to run her farm by the help of k hired man, but he was more or less interested. They sat together pt evenings and talked of everything but vHiat other people were talking about. It was one evening in winter after the farmer had imbibed a quart of elder and eaten three or four apples and realized the loneliness of his own home that he hitched around on his chair for awhile and then said: “Widder, there was a windmill man along today. He wants to put up a mill for me in the spring.” “Yes, windmill men come long about once in so often,” she replied. “He ’pears to have a purty good mill.” “Yes?’ “And the price is purty reasonable." “Yes?” “We wasn’t talkin’ about windmills all the time,” continued Abel as he motioned for another glass of cider. “We was talkin’ about other things.” “They are great folks to gab. I’ve known ’em to hang around all day and do nothin’ but talk.” “That windmill man said folks was

wonderin' why I didn’t git married agin.” "What Impudence!” "He said folks was a-sayln’ that It was my duty to.” “Humph!” “And he said folks was wonderin’ why you didn’t git married ag’ln.” "Just as If It Was anybody’s business 1” snapped Aunt Martha. “He said folks said it was your duty.” "Well, if folks will attend to their own business IH attend to my duty. I’ll tell ’em so if they come talkin’ to me. I hope you didn’t encourage him to keep on gabbln’!” "N-o-o. I hadn’t much to say, though after he’d gone I did considerable thlnkln*. Pm a lonely man, Aunt Martha.” “You orter git a fiddle and learn to play on it” “Sho! I haln’t talkin’ about fiddles. Fm a-sayln* that if I had a wife around the house things would be different. Just another swaller of that cider, please. I’m thinkin’ you’ve got the beat cider in the neighborhood. Yes, Aunt Martha, things would be different” “Well, why don’t you go and git married then?’ "Gosh hang it, I will. That’s what I come over here this evenin’ for. Aunt Martha, we haye known each other a long time. I know you are a mighty good woman, and you know I’m a purty good man. Oup farms jlne, and I can run two farms as well as one. You must be lonesome too. .There must be times when you’d like to have a man around the house to manage things. You’ve got twenty-eight hogs, and if the cholera breaks out among ’em what on earth you goln’ to do? I was a-thlnkln’ to myself last night”— “Abel, stop right there,” said the widow, kindly, but emphatically. “I know you to be a good man, but I haln’t In love with you? You haven’t teched my heart yet. Until you do I don’t want to talk about marriage. You jest go right along bein’ good and fteelln’ lonesome, and if I find my love bein’ aroused I’ll tell you so.” "That’s only fair,” said the suitor as he rose up to go. “I haln’t one to drive a woman Into marriage as one drives hogs. TH keep right on and take your word for It, and if you find you can’t love me TH staf stagle all the rest of • ", • ■ ' I »' . ’’ »’•■■■ *•

my days. Pm kinder sot on you. you' see, and I don’t want nobody else." During the next month things went along as usual, and there was no further reference to matrimony. Then Abel was sent for, and as he reached the widow’s house she said: “Abel, my sister, over at Tompkinsville, is sick and has sent for me. I’m goln’ over and may be gone three or four days.” “Well, I’ll run things the best I can while you’re gone,” he replied. ‘‘What I want you to look out for in particular Is that old speckled hen. You know I’ve had her for/the last ten years, and I’ve learned to think a good deal of her. She haln’t well 'tall jest now, and I hate to go away and leave her. She’s got signs of the pip, and if I should come back and find her dead it would almost break my heart. Abel, I want you to be kind to her. I want you to sympathize with her. I want you to doctor and nurse her." *•1’11 do It, Aunt Martha. I’ll jest put in all my time nursin’ her up. I’ll be jest as kind to her as I would be to a baby." “That’s good of you. She’s only a critter, but when one gits use to a critter he can even love an old speckled hen. She ain't laid an egg for these fiveiyears past, but she's got a hold on my affections for the eggs she used to lay. Why, she's laid over a hundred with double yolks, and one time she fit and licked a chicken hawk." “You go right on, widder, and leave it all to me,” said the farmer. “I’ll do Jest as much for that old hen as I would for a brother. I hain't sot up a night for the last twenty years, but if she’s taken bad I shan’t close my eyes till you git back.” The widow departed, and half on hour later Abel was carrying the old hen home under his arm. The three days went past, and the widow returned. She had only entered her house when the farmer appeared with the hen in a basket. He had her wrapped in red woolen cloths. She smelled of camphor and various linimepts. Her toes had been trimmed and greased, and he had applied salve to her comb. With deliberateness be removed wrap after wrap and finally reached the last end and set the hen down on the floor with: “There she is, Aunt Martha, and jest as good as she was five years ago. I’ve worked over her for three days, and I’m tellln' you there hain’t a hen in the hull county can come up to her,” “How splendid of you, Abel—how splendid!” gasped the widow, and as if to corroborate her words the hen raised her head, swelled out her breast and tried to give utterance to a crow. “See that—hear that, widder?” asked Abel. “Yes, I do, and, oh, Abel”— “Is your heart teched, widder?” “It is, and—and”— “And you'll be mine?’ That was in March, and they were married in May, and the old speckled hen was alive at last accounts and making efforts to return to her duty.

“THERE MUST BE TIMES WHEN YOU’D LIKE TO HAVE A MAN ABOUND.”