Jedadiah's Mail Order Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

to talk.
     
    After finishing with her school responsibilities the next day, she walked to Martha's house.  Over a cup of hot tea, she told Martha what she had done.
     
    "You what?" screamed Martha.  "I don't believe you.  You made that up.  You couldn't be that stupid."
     
    "I knew you would react this way," Sarah said.  “I had to talk to someone and you're the only one I have.  Please, Martha.  Listen to me.  Mother has started asking old fat men to dinner so they can court me.  She had Mr. Stilwell from the bank over the other day.  She spent the entire dinner telling me what security he could bring to me along with vague hints about my age.  He said Father had agreed to his courting me.  The very thought of that old man touching me makes me ill to my stomach."
     
    "My goodness," Martha said.  "I had no idea they were doing this.  What did you say to him?” 
     
    “I told him he was as old as Father and it would be unseemly of him to call on me and I wouldn't have it."
     
    "You told him he was as old as Father?" Martha giggled.  "What did he do?"
     
    "He huffed and puffed and turned really red in the face.  I thought he was going to have apoplexy.  It was mean of me but I had to stop it."
     
    "So tell me just what you did."
     
    "Well," Sarah said, “there is a newspaper called The Matrimonial News where men or women can place ads describing the type of person in whom they might have an interest.  No names are used.  Each ad is assigned a number.  My ad was number 412.  Also, I answered ad number 378.  Your answers are sent to the paper and your information is given to the person that replies, along with your number.  No names or addresses are divulged until the editor is notified it is all right.  I got an answer from number 378 yesterday.  Would you like to read it?  Please?"
     
    "Absolutely.  I want to see what in the world my big sister is up to."
     
    "Okay," Sarah said.  "First, here is his ad and here is mine.  She handed the first to Martha, who read it, and then gave it back.  "This next one is a letter I received from number  378 yesterday.  You notice, there are no names. Because I haven't given permission yet.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I wrote and gave the editor permission yesterday".
     
    She handed the letter to Martha and sat back watching her face intently as she read the letter.  When Martha read it and handed it back, she said, "He sure sounds nicer than Mr. Stilwell, I have to admit."
     
    "It is a nice letter, isn't it?" Sarah asked.
     
    "Yes, it is.  You have no idea where he lives?"
     
    "Yes, I do.  In his ad, he mentioned he lives near Laramie in the Wyoming Territory."
     
    "MY God, Sarah, that's on the other side of the country."
     
    "Yes, I know.  I went to the library and looked it up," Sarah said.
     
    "What are you going to do?" Martha asked.
     
    "Right now, I'm going to correspond and if I feel comfortable or if Mother invites Mr Stilwell back, I'll meet him."
     
    "When are you going to tell Mother?" asked Martha.  Both girls knew who the boss was in the Harding family.
     
    "Probably in the note I write when I leave," Sarah said.  Both girls giggled at this thought.
     
    "Why Sarah, how could you do this to us and what you said to that nice Mr. Stillwell," Martha said mockingly, sounding just like their mother.  The girls convulsed in giggles.  "Sarah, you tell me if there is anything I can do to help," Martha said.
     
    "I might want to tell them I am going to spend the night with you, to give me a head start," said Sarah.
     
    "You have but to ask," Martha said.
     
    "I knew I could count on you, sis," Sarah said.
     
    * * *
     
    Sarah responded to the letter the same day.  She gave the editor permission to reveal her name and address to the correspondent.  Her return letter followed the format of the one she had received, telling how the love of her life, some five years older than she was had been killed at the Battle