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IN SEARCH OF A WIFE By ELMER B. WARRINGTON. (Copyright, 1914, by W. G. Chapman.) "Now, Ezra, remember, you are making a brand new start in life." 'Tes, ma'am," assented Ezra in his usual homely, old-fashioned way. He regarded his mother in a wistful manner. For the first time in his life she did not seem to him like his mother. The old familiar dimity gown had given place to a showy brocade. The iron-gray hair showed traces of walnut stain. There was eve? a sus picion of powder about the sunken faded cheeks. N Then, too, the meal on the table. Mrs. Rachel Tuttle had hired a serv ant girl only that week. "Now I'm going to enjoy life," she had declared with vim. "I never saw Niagara falls, nor the Whit? House, nor the ocean. I'm going on a tour, Ezra, and take in some relatives in New Hampshire and sort of spread myself on all the money I*m coing to get You say you don't vant to jine me, that you don't like rummaging around. All right, Ezra, you've been a good son and you shall have your own way. Make yourself* comfortable and have a good time. Here's some money, and spend it freely. I suppose when brother William's estate is set tled up there'll be a big plum for us. And now, Ezra, remember you're mak ing a start in lite. You won't be plain plodding Ezra Tuttle any more. You're a gentleman of means, now." "Yes, ma'am," said Ezra, more de pressed than ever, with a longing glance at his discarded homespun hanging on the clothesline. linmediaely upon hearing that she was an heiress, Mrs. Tottla had drawn a goodly amount from the bank and had planned out her "grand tour." ? "I'll have one grand breathing spell, after all my years of drudgery/' she declared, and Ezra was silent, but he mourned in spirit Three days of the slatternly r.ew cook had given him indigestion. Certainly his mother had been a model housekeeper. How he missed the homemade sausage and .buckwheat cakes, and neighborhood pure maple sirup, the nectarlike oof fee for breakfast. "I am lonesome and out of sorts," he ruminated, "and it will be an ex perience, anyhow, and if mother is going to wander about and break up the home, why not a wife? Maybe I'll find one in my travels-who caa 'tell?" and he smiled quaintly. Ezra was no clod, only homespun. He knew fully how to conduct himself in company and made a good impres sion with the Mantells. His Tumored fortune it ' was, however, that made -<a better one. He was eoon aware of this, judging' from the specious in quiries of Mr. and Mrs. Mantell. Then they threw Helena at his head. She was an only daughter, tall, stately, cold as ice. Amid her state liness, however, Ezra soon discerned that she was bent on capturing him. The family were truly aristocratic, that was their bent and- pose. They were selfish, skimping, sacrificing comfort to make a show. "Three days of these people was all I could stand," soliloquized Ezra as, gracefully as he could, he took his de parture, feeling that he was lucky to have escaped still a bachelor. Then Ezra tried the Moores. They had money and lived at a private ho tel. There were two girls here, one a blue stocking, the other a languish ing sentimentalist They played their arts alternately. The flimsy feeding at the table d'hote did the rest for Ezra. He made his adieux and struck off for a rural jaunt feeling free once more. Then came the crisis in Ezra's life. He was passing a field hedge when his quick ear caught a moaning sound. He brushed aside the osage orange bushes to locate a man lying exhaust ed to faintness. Beside him lay a scythe. It was dabbled with blood. Then Ezra saw that he must have stumbled, and one limb had fallen athwart of the keen blade. The man's eyes closed as Ezra sprang to his side. The latter saw at a glance that the victim of the acci dent was bleeding to death. It was a question of a speedy emergency service. Within a few minutes Ezra, had stanched the ebbing life tide, bound up the limb at the cost of his coat, and had the satisfaction of see ing the man come back to conscious ness. "Home," he just whispered, and pointed up a near rise. Ezra ran to its top to discover a handsome farm house a few hundred yards distant. He took up the man in his arms and proceeded towards it. "You saved my life," declared Rob ert Wadham that evening, as he and his daughter Elinor and Ezra sat In the comfortable best room. The daughter1-ah! there had come a revelation to Ezra. Perhaps her pretty gratitude had stirred him more deeply than common, or her tender de votion to her father. Four months later, a tired-out, dis appointed woman, Mrs. Tuttle got off the train to receive a royal welcome from her waiting son. "Oh, r, just to get back to the com forts of home! I'm tired of trapse ing!" she cried. "House all in disor der, I suppose?" "Neatest you ever saw it," her son responded. "Got a new housekeeper." "What!" "Yes, my wife." And Ezra told his mother how he had met, loved, wooed and wedded th* jewel, Elinor. Fertilizers ! Fi The Edgefield Mercantile Announces to the Public that it is now ready with ? Fertilizers with Potash as an I - Royster's, Armour's, Swift's and other Reliable Mac Call on Mr. R. C. Padgett or Mr. A. E. Padgett. C ft lr MARES HOME Qm SO HAPPY To lave A BANK ACCO .CosrrieM 1909. br C. E. Zimmerau Co.--No. 44 0 F all the unhappy homes, not one in a hundred has a bank account and not one home in a hundred who has a bank account is unhappy. It seems almost foolish to put it off any longer, when it is such a simple, easy matter to start a bank account. BANK OF EDGEFIELD OFFICERS : J. C. Sheppard, President; B. E. Nicholson, Vice-President; E. J. Mims, Cashier; J. H. Allen, Assistant Oashier. ^ DIRECTORS : J. C. Sheppard, Geo. W. Adams, Thos. H. Rainsford, John Ransford, B. E. Nicholson, A. S. 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It relievei ".ain and Heala at the snme time 25c,50c,<1.0' ?o Lonesome Women "?re yoa going to the meeting? Yes, TU be ready when yeo i Women living on farms and in rural districts haven't time to seek and enjoy social pleasures. Distances are too great-the work is too urgent? Women grow lonesome and listless when robbed of these pleasures. The Rural Telephone solves the problem. It enables women to talk with neigh bors and friends and keep alive to the news of the day Our free booklet tells how you can have a telephone in your home at small cost. Women living in the country should write for it Address ? Farmers Line Department SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY South Pryor SU Atlanta, Ga. Ford Automobiles We have accepted the agency for the . Ford Automobiles for Edgefield County, and will have constantly on hand a stock of Touring Cars and Run-Abouts. Shall be pleased to show them to those who contemplate buying a car. The Ford cars defy Edgefield's winter roads. 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DAVID SLUSKY' I j Phone 100. 1009 Broad Street