Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/201

1894.] "No; it burned down 'bout a year ago,—folks says Betty set it on fire to git the insurance, an' I 'low 't is true; fer ever' one knowed the house an' ranch was worth more sep'rate than together. Betty she married agin 'fore three months was over."

"Did she get a good husband?" asked the cruiser, with a side wink at us.

'Waal, speakin' o' thet, I 'low I 'll hev to own up thet I ruther slandered Prov'dence at the fust, fer it did take another turn to the side o' justice in this case. The feller she married turned out a reg'lar blackleg, mean, an' ugly an' jealous into the bargain. They say he would n't so much as let 'er speak to any other man, or hardly let 'em look at 'er; an' ef Betty can't have men-folks to admire 'er she might 's well be dead an' buried, fer all the (pleasure she gits out o' life. They say she 's 'fraid as death of 'im, an' thet he 's spent all 'er money, an' led 'er sich a life thet her beauty 's all faded out, plumb gone. No, I did n't give Prov'dence no fair show, fer a fact. But don't you forgit what I said in startin' out, young feller. Ef yer goin' to marry, don't yer no-ways go back on hered'ty." Ella Beecher Gittings.