Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

“ The entertaining became very brisk; Zenith was evidently in the throes of a social season, such as it had never known before, and Miss Polk received enough attention to turn her head, a result which Mrs. Thomas declared had been achieved. "I talked Willie Barker up to her as good as the best," said that lady aggrievedly, "an' what did I get?"
"'Oh,' she says, tossin' her head 'I couldn't think of lettin' anything interfere with my c'reer.'"
"What's a c'reer?" asked Mrs. Nitschkan.
"It seems to be some kind of dinky work you're doin' when you ain't got no show to get married," responded Mrs. ”

“ This hard-working, old-young, neglected creature had blossomed under the sunshine of masculine approbation, into a maturity far more attractive than her starved, sharp-angled, disappointed youth had ever been. ”

“ Nitschkan's tones were more robust than usual, "Willie Barker? Why, she's got her pick of the whole camp. They're hers at bargain prices. She kin take 'em or leave 'em as she chooses."
Mrs. Thomas twisted pettishly in her chair. "The boys in this camp are clear gone crazy." Then with cutting emphasis, "I guess. Mis' Evans, you've gone too far—I guess you've done more'n you bargained for this time. A woman's place is the home, but you can't never be contented with your speere. You're always tryin' to play Gawd." ”

“ Tabor," with nonchalant assurance. "He's got a nice drug store there, an' if he marries a dressy wife that's fond of spendin', he'll get that bee outen his bonnet that's always a-buzzin' to him to start a branch store here in Zenith."
"There ain't a man goin' to look at her," scoffed Mrs. Thomas, secure in her own opulent attractions, "a pinched-up wrinkled piece of scrawniness. Leastways," with a pouting expression of mutiny, "I don't think you've any call to hit on Willie Barker. ”

“ I'm ready to make my bow and get out, but I guess my standin' 's such that folks here know I'm no faker."
But in spite of a stiff upper lip, she was considerably perturbed in spirit. She knew her Zenith, as the little village far up in the Rockies was called, and Zenith was but an epitome of the fickle world, which lavishes its adulation upon the unfortunate objects of its interest only to cast them heedlessly upon the rocks or into the lions' den when a new favorite captures its attention. ”

“ I ain't got no time fer peddlin' pills. I jus' accommodate a few of my friends with 'Vitina,' the best remedy fer man an' beast applied internal and external that ever was invented."
A certain shrewd sparkle suddenly shone in Miss Polk's eyes and there was a slight squaring of the jaw beneath her good-natured smile.
"Well, it's my work an' I like it," she affirmed, "but bein' as it's jus' play to you I'd like to rent your horse and cart for the summer. There's such a demand for my pills that I just can't get around to folks fast enough." ”

“ Thomas cautiously, as one not sure of her ground. "You talk a lot about it, an' how you wouldn't give it up for nothin'."
"There's a lot in the askin'," said Mrs. Evans sententiously. "Things certainly is goin' well; but I mos' wish I'd been born a atheist. They can go round an' enjoy themselves with no thought of their responsibilities or the Judgment Day; but for a Christian an' a perfesser it's different. You got to manage things fer folks an' bear their burdens till the cows come home."
"You certainly are a manager, Evans," admired Mrs. Nitschkan. ”

“ She gathered up her scarlet and white skirts and paused a moment in the doorway. "I will say, Mis' Evans, if there was more folks like you, always trying to help others an' make things pleasant for 'em. this world would be a better an' a happier place." ”

“ Take a girl, she shows her preferences right off. 'I'm fer Jack,' says she, 'the rest kin go hang.' But you take a old thing like this one, an' she's the same to all, to Harry that's flat broke, an' to Dick that's got the best showin' of ore in the camp; but all the time she's doin' some tall thinkin'. ”

“ Evans with superior scorn. "Well, it's plain to be seen that she's not on to the newest thing in medicine, and," with some heat, "if anybody's goin' to get out of this game, it ain't me, an' you can tell her so with my compliments. It's a matter of principle with me. I know I got a good thing in 'Vitina,' an' something that the folks here needs. That's the only reason that I took the agency fer it. It's the best medicine fer man an' beast that ever was put up. You girls know what a way we got to live here. ”

“ Evans.
"Nor to Jack in the Gold Bug?" from Mrs. Nitschkan.
"Oh, Land, no! Get your men folks out of your heads fer onc't. It's just this," fluttered Mrs. Thomas, "I seen Rufe Hayes, that drives the hack up from the station, an' he says that a lady peddler's jus' come up on the train. Rufe says she was peart as could be, talkin' to every one on the hack an' offerin' 'em free samples of medicine." ”