The Taming of Zenas Henry - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1920. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III AN UNBIDDEN PARTY marriage of Abbie and Zenas Henry A created unwonted excitement in Wilton. "Course it's all right 'nough for 'em to get married," admitted Captain Phineas Taylor, "but it's sudden. Zenas Henry ain't took anybody but Silas into the plan. Why, the town hasn't even been consulted, say nothin' of havin' time to talk it over. As for Abbie Howland--well, most of the women here have married some of the captains who've been washed ashore, an' we'd all planned she should." Indeed the village was quite justified in its disappointment. The couple had "just up and got married" without a word to anybody, and as Wilton was a community where the plans of its inhabitants were common property, naturally it considered itself cheated. Long ago it had been decreed that Zenas Henry should devote his life to his almanacs and his temper; and that Abbie should make a home for some one of the captains who, as Captain Phineas Taylor observed, had been washed ashore. Now it was not true that after a wreck Wilton beach was strewn with captains of different varieties, and a woman had but to wade into the surf, drag ashore the sort best pleasing her, resuscitate, and marry him; yet it was nevertheless a fact that many a vessel had been stranded on the sandbars outside the bay and more than one captain had been brought to land by the life-savers, had been nursed back to health, and had subsequently married and settled in the town which had befriended him. Captain Phineas Taylor himself had, in fact, found his way into Wilton in a breeches-buoy; so had Captain Jonas Baker and Captain Benjamin Todd. These three were Zenas Henry's particular cronies. All were past middle life and, whether from choice or from mischance, were still unmarried. They themselves declared ...