Page 6 - MailOrderBrideFlipBook

outdone by Whitman’s tale and had to come up with one better. He and Whitman started to swap tales about the tough times they had lived through. Eli knew these tales well - Jim and Whitman often exchanged them, each trying to outdo the other. He also knew that each time he heard them, the tales seemed to get bigger and more exaggerated. Eventually, they would get so exaggerated that Eli wasn’t sure any of it was true at all. Eli stood patiently, trying not to interrupt, but, by the time they got to the “great snowstorm”, he could feel his tension beginning to rise. “...and we had to all gather in the town hall to keep warm,” Jim reminisced. “All we had to eat was chili, day after day. Why, no one dared light a match for fear they would blow us all to Halifax!” Finally, Eli could stand it no longer. “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! We didn’t gather here to talk about toilet paper or chili or any other matter of a worldly nature. We were talking about my future wife! My fiancée is coming today!” “Your fiancée?” Whitman asked. “Oh, you know,” Jim groaned, “the young lady he put on hold to come to America.” “I didn’t put her on hold,” Eli said. “With the recession hitting in 1920, I couldn’t find work, and we just didn’t have enough money for both of us to come. We just...” “...just decided I would go ahead and earn the money to bring her over,” Jim said sarcastically, finishing the sentence for him. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it a thousand times. But it’s just like I always said, ‘Absence makes the 3