Sweet Ermengarde Subtle Villainy

Squire Hardman got to thinking and he realized that he could just foreclose on the farm in order to get it and the gold that he knew was in the ground there. He went to the rough shack town and let Ermengarde go. He apologized to her and sent her home. He made plans to foreclose on the house.

Everyone was quite dejected over this. One day a hunter who had been hunting on the land found the gold and feigned a snakebite to go and speak with the Stubbes about it. Ermengarde answered the door and he vowed to marry her.

Observations

I do wonder about that, if you’re paying a mortgage on a piece of property and you find gold, can the person you owe the mortgage to claim a portion of the gold? They can certainly would try to get part of your life insurance if you died without paying off the mortgage, that’s why they ask if you have life insurance when you get a loan. Sometimes, financial institutions may even make you get a term life policy that covers the amount of the mortgage before they’ll give you the money.

Themes

Squire Hardman is starting to think with his head. I guess he didn’t want a woman that much after all, or maybe he just thought the woman was too much trouble. There are men like that, in fact, there is this entire movement of men that have decided that they want to abdicate the possibility of being responsible for a family. They’re called something like MGTOW or some other bullcrap. My ex-husband informed me of this movement because he admired them; I wish he would have taken the “go” part of their name to heart. Some of the premise of a group like this is not to have any worries or troubles associated with being partially responsible for another person in any manner. Maybe Squire Hardman just decided that he really didn’t want the responsibility of a wife.

By the way, while I was writing this, I stopped and had a long conversation with my boyfriend about MGTOW, that eventually led to other conversations. We agreed that there were legitimate reasons not to want to have kids and a family–not enough money, you were a terrible person and didn’t need kids or a family–but we also agreed that if that was your idea of life then you should be allowed to live it, but that you should not then go and spew hatred about everyone else who doesn’t live your way of life, like many of the supporters of MGTOW, or, in fact, any group that chooses to live a certain way and then goes out and hates on people who don’t live like them, or look like them, whatever the case may be.

So back to the story–if Squire Hardman did choose to be a bachelor of means for the rest of his life, that’s fine, but he should not then go out and start groups to rage against anyone else who wasn’t a bachelor of means. You live your life, everyone else lives their lives, win-win. I don’t really think this story is as complicated as all that, but whatever.

Overall

Well, this guy’s a jerk, but at least he’s not a jerk that’s getting married.

Weigh In

Who do you think should get to keep the gold?

What do you think of Squire Hardman?