Lum Mourns Loss of Widder

Originally Aired: February 2, 1940 Lum #252, "Lum Mourns Loss of Widder," In the Jot'em Down store, Lum is despondent over the disappearance of the Widow Beaumont, desperately trying to figure out where she's gone. He confides in Abner that he's been calling Nashville long distance with no luck. The irony of Lum's predicament becomes painfully clear: just weeks earlier, he had paid Squire Skimp twenty-five dollars to run the widow and her seven children out of Pine Ridge. But somewhere along the way, Lum fell in love with her, and when he finally decided to propose marriage, he discovered the Squire had already completed his job—posing as the chief of police and threatening to arrest her for vagrancy and put her children in an orphanage if she didn't leave town immediately. Now heartbroken, Lum vows to find the widow if he has to "burn the woods and sift the ashes" or "go to the end of the world," much to Abner's literal-minded confusion. Lum wants to horsewhip the Squire for scaring her away, but Abner keeps reminding him that he's the one who hired the Squire in the first place, making any revenge impossible. Despite Abner's practical advice to forget about her, Lum insists he'll carry this scar on his heart until his dying day.