Newspapers / Siler City Leader (Siler … / Jan. 29, 1887, edition 1 / Page 6
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FRIENDSHIP, As the day declines to even, Fallinz in the arras of nisht. ' One by one th3 stars of heaven i Shed on earth their constant light. So when life's bright sun is hidden ; i By the heavy gloom cf woe, ' fi True friends like the ..stars, unbidden, i Ore by one their lustre show. Bavry Lyndon, in the Chicago Current. LOUIE AND L BY HARRIET TIIESCOTT SPOFFORD. i If I had been the least bit pretty I shouldn't have been, surprised at it all; or if I had even bien bright and witty; but such a little simpleton as I! : I never in all raj life had the least ex pectation of lovers, or of any sort of ad miringglanccs; and I never had any4 And sometimes mother Used to say she guessed it was just as wellj for if she had had to dress txyo girls out for their pretty looks, as she did one, it would have beggared her. Mother only had a little money, just barely enough! to live on, and some of the principal going every year, but it "wouldn't have been in human nature, having a daughter! so pretty, as Louie, not to want her to have the best that would set oS. I herj peach-bloom beauty ; and, for my part, I never grudged Louie a rcsc or a ribbon. I couldn't have worn them if I had had them, for I was far too proud to try; to do what Nature hadn't, or to pretend I thought such things became me; and I liked my print dresses and plain collars better for my self. .- - But when Louie was dressed in her mus lins till she looked like one of the old fashioned blush roses, so white without and so delicately flushed within, her lovely yellow hair breakhfg out in s ;uny curls all over her head, and she all radi ant, as you might say, with her skin, her smites, her teeth, her great blue, beam ing eyes then I used to like to look at her as much as any pf ber lovers did; to look at her as I would look at any lovely picture; and she always turned from her" gayest scene the dear, l.ttle person to give her sweetest s.nilc to me. v 80 when. Dennis began all at once to come to our hbuseas if he had just seen Louie for the: fir.-t time in his life, I was only delighted. For every one who knew him loved and honored Dennis Heed, who was the soul of all integrity: and if he wasn't a beauty himself, he wa3 a stalwart son of Saul, and had the nicest l.ttle place in the region a cottage up a lane, over looking the river, and with a wood be hind, its orchard and across the railway cut, to keep off the east wind if the east wind could ever blow in that sunny nook with a garden spat made and blooming in every cranny of the rocks around it. He married her, and took her away; and a happier nest of singing birds than that in the little cottage among the rocks and flowers could nowhere have been found, unless it were in my own heart, at the sight of tb? happiness there. 1 But then rather fell sick, and it took all my time to care for her ; ad I couldn't go up to Louie's very often ; for I had evervtllinor tftfln nt Vinmu nnrl -orcia f5i-rl out by nightfall,- and often up half the night 1 esides. Louie couldn't very well come down ofte t; and if she had some, she would n't have known what to do. Poor mother! Once I remember, she said to me, "I don't know but it's more satisfactory to have one daughter plain, than anything else.7' And it made my heart bound.!; And then I reproached my selfishness in caring to have her say that over Louie's head, as it were; but I remembered it long afterward, and some times it used! to give me a throb of joy when everything was dreary, and I V Formother died presently. And then ; said. 'Mtkiliea her.' bo I tooK: him into it turned out that she had been living oh . my own room, an i cuddled him close to her little u roper ty more than we had my heart every night, and every morning dreamed, aivt Louie's outfit and her awoke me with his laughing and gur own lonff illness and its bills had u5ed ; glinS and crowing, playing with the up nioncv. And when everything was - shadows of the dancing leaves across the paid, the'v had onlv enough left for me bca aad he had Louie's yel ow hair and to hire one room as a sort of refuue when : 10SJ cheeks and perfect features her I came homeHat night from working at my trade; for I had quite a knack at dress ressmaking.! I did not put on mourn- ag ; for L was clad that mother was out in of pain, and I was -lad that she was gone before she knew that all thb prop- crty was gone, aiul she, with her proud spirit, would haves had to be dependent. But Louie did and oh ! what a beaut v she was, with her black crapes falling around her, so waxen, fa:r aud rosy and transparent ! I Of course she didn't miss mother the way I did. How could she. with Dennis waiting on her every wish? Ac -l sliz didn't scca lo waiit anybody - it Dennis, either; so I didn't see a great deal of her, only when sue had Aomething new to make ud, or some- thing old to alter over; and then, she and Dennis were out most of the time, strolling among the rocks or planting a new flower-garden, or she was going to meet him coming from his work, or run. ning into the next neighbor's, aero s the pasture, and I had almost nothing of her, except at trying-on times. I used to wonder at Louie then, a little, some times; not for not sitting at home sew ing and helping mc on the work, because you might as well have asked a hum ming bird to do that ; but for not taking more interest in the house and keeping things trier and tidy. And I used to be afraid that if I were Dennis, and there were hole in my socks, and half the but tons off my clothes, and my coat and hat never brushed, and I came home and found nothing for dinner not even the cloth laid and .my wife off enjoying herself somewhere else, and the dust everywhere so that I could write my name, that I shouldn't feel recompensed for all that by having my wife stroll round hanging on my arm, looking as prettv as a newj-blown rose. And jet al though the house must often have been thoroughly uncomfortable to Dennis, he never gave a sign that it was not paradise itself; ani I came to the conclusion that he didn't really mis3 those other things, and was satisfied with what he had. I used to go up into the Eden some times without beinjr sent for, and mend Up everything, and put the whole house straight; but I couldn't go so very often on account of rav work; and, beside, I had a sensation of intruding where two people wanted but each other. But at last the babies came ; and then I had to jo. And Louie was wild with delight, and insisted on having them laid on the pillow close to her cheek, and talked and laughed and cooed and cried to them with such glittering eyes and dazzling color in her face, and said it was all she wanted, even if she were in Heaven to-morrow ! "But your husband, Louie'" I ex claimed. "Oh! husbands are ajl very well," she said. "But I haven't been such an aw fully good wife. You'd have made Dennis a great deal better wife, dear, for the 1 matter of that. But my little sons ! Oh I I know I could be a good mother!" She was in Heaven to-morrow, the dear little innocent soul, and one of the babies went with her. 1 was glad that the little bady went too. For I remembered that she had said then she would have all she wanted; because it troubled me to think that, for all his grief to-day, Dennis wouldn't be like any other man in the world if he didn't marry to-morrow; and the other wife would have the long life with him, and become dearer and dearer, and Louie would fade into just a-beautiful dream; and when the next life came, it would be the dear wife of th3 long-continuing time that would be his , companion, and Louie would be all alone if ft wasn't for the baby, and she had said that the baby was enough. Of course all this was only a sort of flash through my consciousness, not any deliberate thought. Nobody could have thought about anything of the kind whoi saw Dennis s grief..-. He 1 was all beside himself. I don't lib I t(?u you what he said and did; I like to was would fall and destroy him; and then-pn again I was afraid that he would destroy himself. I don't know how we ever con trived to get him to let Louie be placed in her casket, and I thought he would jump into the very grave itself. But at last that agoni ing time every moment of which knows how to give a fresh stab was ever, and the worse time came, ' ot tne absence ana silence, ana wild, : vain bitter longing. And Dennis couldn't look at the babv. "Take it away 1" he great longing blue eyes, and Dennis's : "lack eyebrows, ana every day ne grew :idearer and dearer, and more inexpressi- bty dear and 1 said to myself that, much as 1 missca- poor Louie, here had been i raade UP t0.me 11 1 aaa Iauca 01 10 mY 5 nic' lor tnl5 ciuia was to taKc tue place to mc of mother and sister and husband and-child altogether. And the dearer he grew, the more angry I became with Dennis for his indifference; and one day, when the boy was about four months old, I said: . I think you had better let old IS ancy come in again and do your chores, the way she used to do, and I will go away and take the baby " ! "Take the babv?M "Certainly," l"said. "You can't.bear the sight of him, an J I Jove him. And then if ever you marry again"- "I shall never marry again," he said, the gloom settling in his eyes, i "I don't believe you will!" I ex claimed. "I don't believe there's the woman living who will ever take such an unnatural, wicked father, forherhus band ! Louie's own child, too, and the very image of her. I wonder what she'd think of you !" And I snatched the baby up out of the cradle and ran from the room, led; I should break out crying be fore his face. The next afternoon; when Dennis came in from his work, lie went and made himself all nice, and changed his clothes, and came down to where I stood in the side-door with the baby in my aims looking at the sunset And he stooped to take the child; and the little darling turned, with a low, frightened cry, and hid his face in my neck. And th.n, all at once the tears thatj I hadn't seen Den nis cry in all thi3 time, gushed out, and he put his arms around the child, who began to scream with terror; and as I half turned and maintained my own hold, he took him forcibly away from me. "Let go !' ' he -said, in his low, half smothered tone. "H;es my child !" "I suppose he is!" I cried. "By some wicked form of law, the cruel law t at men made for men. But you don t de serve him.r, I never was so angrv. I thought "I would take my things and go away that moment. But how couid I, leave the baby? nis little screams were torturing me then. I s?t dowri on the door-stone and flung my apron Over my head, and put my thumbs in nay ears, and wishe the baby and I wete dead along with Louie. j . 1 Perhaps it was an hour afterward when Hooked up, and there was Dennis coming through the' orchard with the babv, and the boy was crowinsr and jumping and catching at the bending boughs, and catching at his father's great mustache, and rubbing his little wet lips all over Dennis's face, chirrup ing and joyous; and I couldn't help it, I ran to meet them. ' : "You see," said Dxmnis, as he let me have him back, "blood is thicker than water, after anT' Oh! what a long journey I felt as if that baby had been on as I took him and could hardly have doine kissing him. "Come," said Dennis, laugh'ng, "leave something of him for me."' It was the first tinje he had laughed since that child was born. And the dar ling had gone a long journey a journey into the inhnite, depths of a father's heart. i I Well, after that, vDennis couldn't get home early enough iij the afternoon, and it seemed as if he hajted to go away m the morning, and Snijdays he had the baby in his arms f roni morning till night. And in the evenings,! when I sat sewing on the little clothes, jhe would come and sit opposite, or wher4 he could see how tne worK wencon; ana ne orougni, nome all sorts of little, impossible toys, and he talked and sang tp him, and walked with him; and the ba!by began to look out for his coming as khvich as I did. And all that, of course, helpsd meaffooddeal my wor aooui tne noue lor 1 Kepi i c? comb; only, with the baby to' tend and sec to, I sometimes had to sit up nights to do it. ' "I shall call h'in Louie, for his mother." said Dennis one niihtJ "Do yo.i think you can bear it?" asked. j "To hear him called Louie? Yes. He is Louie over again," said Dennis. ,Vnd I couldn't tel vou how pleasant life grew to be as we'watched the child crow, unfolding like! a rose. There was ab olutely a sort of rivalry between us presently as to who should discover his first tooth. AVhen betook his first step, -A 1 A T X 1 it was Deiwcen uennis s arm3 anu mine, ! as we both sat on the Coor. And when I he spoke his first w jd, how we listened t to learn if it were Hefnnis's name or mine The day wasn't long enough for us- x watch his dear loveliness in. And I.think ; Dennis was envious I of me for : bavin" ; -cim jnhts; but he cpuldn't help that, So time went on;, and I thought then ; it would not be easv to say how we could be happier; for even the memory of Louie was softened into something "that wa3 hardly a grief to us in our love of her boy. though some timies I used to wonder if the little fellow that went with her was as sweet as the one that staved j with us. , But when the dear child was ibout three years old there came a snake into -Eden. Asnake? A whole nest of them! It seemed as if every girl in the wholo village had just found out what a rare and charming person I was, and hw pleasant it was late afternoons up where I lived, and how nice it was to run up evenings to see mc. Ani sometimes Dennis would hve to go home with them then ; an"d sometimes he wouldn't, but just went out the other" way, and never came home till they'd gone; and somehow one thing was almost as un pleasant as the other, and I couldn't say why it worried me I .only knew it did. And I used to takc the boy and go off by myself and cry. , For. of course, sooner or later, Dennis would marry some one of those terrible girls; he couldn't help himse'f.; they wculun't.lct him help himself; it would corue about after awhile as naturally as water runs down hill. " And then there would be a itepmothcr for my boy, and Heaven alone knew what would beco:r.e of him. And what would become of me? And by this I gave out completely. I should have to go away. I should see Dennis no more. No more of that dear voice and presence, and cheery way of his. And all' at once it came over mo in a flash o'' horror and shame what was the matter with me; and then I felt that, bappeaWhat would, I really must go away. , But I couldn't go and leave the boy; and there I was. And I grew pile and coir.d eat nothing, and was stiller and stiller eyery day. I could as soon have talked Hebr w as have smiled. But One day I had the little fellow asleep in his morning nap, w hic h he had not quite outgrown, although it was get ting to be shoit and fitful; and, thinking that Dennis was there to see, or knowing he was, and thinking nothing. I went out by myself, down the re'd by the. railroad cut; for there was an apple tree there where I gathered the wind-falls, and Hiked, too, to sit on the bank and see the train dash by in the c it. I had my apron full of apples, and, as I came . back, I stood loitering a moment or so on the steep bank, hearing a train com ing, and lik'ng all the rush and roar and rattle that seemed to snat h me out of myself, as if it told of a way to same- r wher., sore distant regionwhere my trouble might be forgotten; 'and ail at once another scund from that of the ap proaching train caught my car, a glad, gay shouting and c rying. I turned and looked to r'ght and left, a little confused, for it was the childrs voice. And, turning back suddenly,' I saw him; and there, at the foot of the bauk, in the very center of the railwcy track, stood the little fellow, who had crept from his bed and ran after rac.and been begu'led down the sloj e by some blossoms that he saw there there, in the centre of the track he stood, waving his . little hands and shouting to the coming train. There was not a half minute, it seemed, but in less time I was down there, and was just ras;iii2: the child when my foot slipped, and I fell with 1 l.: . -i ! in my arms, and the thunder was ia "'j nut ua-am m mv b.i-, and I knew that was the end. Xo it was only the beginning of, the end- When I knew anything more, I . was tying on the lank m Dennis's arms, Ior naa come oounaing atrcr tne ioyt ,7" atw" , and roared and thundered bv, and he was holding me as if he would never let me And he never haslet mc go. "Dh!" he cried. "I found out in that second what' I life would be to me without you, dear;. something I couldn't bear a dav." And I a,u:mea io j h"ii see my face, too tired and weak to J llft. lU And So it is I that am the second wlfe and s mother And I sup- 1 l i a. i. : ., i . t lV wy surprise.! ; out no- ; was nan as i much ( i 4 A ! Discoursed at the Outset. A stranger who wa quittly looking over a water-power in a AVcsiern rillmre was "-ought out by the Mayr, w'.io -aid,: ."I hear you'think of starting a' factor vr" "Yes." "It's a good pla-c. asd you'll nd our people all right. We don't put-on a great amount of style, nor don't aim to. Here's a pair of suspc:nk-rs I hive worn for over fortv years, though I'm wosth .30,000." "Ah! I'm!" muttered the stranger, "bat it was a suspender f ict'ry I wn thinking to locate here." Wafl Ulrtet Xncs.
Siler City Leader (Siler City, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 29, 1887, edition 1
6
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