Newspaper Page Text
TAMING MISS ABIGAIL
By George Munson.
"Votes, for women?" inquired my
friend the fisherman, Gutting off a
1 generous slice of". chewing tobacco
from a black stick of plug. "Sure I
.believe in 'em. But you can't change
nature by no such means as that. A
'woman that has a vote will be, more
or less, the. same as a woman with
out one. Some women with the vote
.will be angels, just the' same as if
. they . hadn't, , and some will . be the
Went Around. Pricking Every Cow
' Under the Ear.
other" thing' whether they have the
vote or not,
"Now, there's that Miss Abigail
Perkins you saw up here last sum
mer. Spinster, age uncertain, tem
per unsafe, home, Boston. Thought
she was filled with the love of hu
manity, when it was plain, ordinary
well, youH 'what it was later. No,,
it didn't develop until you had gone
home. She stayed up here all last
winter, you know. Fact is, she's stay
ing here now, but she's changed
greatly changed.
"Well, sir, Tobias never prided it
self on being anything but just an or
dinary village. No rich men, no poor,
and them that's got the most money
earned it honestly. Decent fishermen,
for the most part, trying to make a
fair living and give their wives and
families the best they can. Along
comes Miss Perkins, wanting to re
form Tobias.
"You remember last August it was
the flies that bothered her. Said flies
was a disgrace to san-i-tation and
civili-zatjon and wanted to wipe 'em
out "before the spring come along.
Went round about the back doors
pouring kerosene on the flower beds.
Ruined two dollars' worth of bulbs
I'd set out and spoiled a half ton of
fertilizer in my stable. Did I say any
thing? No. I believe in people's mo
tives and Miss Abigail's was all right,
only the strings got twisted,
"Started a crusade against the
cows along about Christmas. Said
the curse of the country was the
Great White Plague, coming from
cows. Got a' tub full of some doctor's
stuff and went round pricking every
cow' under the ear. Few days later,
said cow would naturally go off her
feed, having all that stuff put into her
system. Miss Abigail says that's a
sign of tuber tuber tubers. Want
ed 'em killed. Tobias set up a holler
and we saved our cows.
"You remember Hiram Bliss, who
wanted to charge the artists a com
mission for letting 'em paint his scen
ery? Meanest man in Tobias, most
people thought. Hard old skinflint,
grasping, and always ready to take
advantage of his neighbor. Well, sir,
when Miss Abigail got the cow craze
it hit him pretty liard. He was the in
strument of diir saving our cows, be
cause he had twenty-sjx, and Miss
Abigail had got into "his pasture and
pricked every cow lie had and they
all developed tubers. Well, as I was
