The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1855-10-04
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Judging from Appearances.
BY ALICE CARY.

Moses Wolfe was man of forty five
years Of age at the time our story be-
gins but, judging from appearances
you would have said he was tifty-6ve, for
be had worked hard ever since he was
big enough TO work, and, for some rea.
son he had had fewer holidays than
most men who in this free country live
to be forty five years old His eyes
we're half shut With the wrinkles at the
corners, and his complexion bronzed
and hardened by the continual exposure
to the sun, and rain and bitter cold, of
all the long and drudging years through
which he had passed.
His head was bald at the top, and his
hair thin and gray on the temples his
hands large and clumsy, with veins swol-
len and knotty as they could be his
neck was lean and long and his should
ers bent, merely because he had not en-
ergy enough to hold himself up, as peo
pie said and in his face there was a
wo- -begone expression that made some
people smile and others sigh. 1t was a
foolish fashion Moses Wolfe had got in
to, bis neighbors thought, and if they
we're disposed they could pat or just
such a miserable look; and if they per-
sisted in wearing it, they supposed they
would find it just as difficult to lay aside
as be did. But mixed with the wo-be-
gone expression, or struggling to get
through it, there was one Of patience, of
resignation, and of hopo or rather of
what would have been hope, if Moses
Wolfe could have known any hope !;
why he could not know and judging
from appearances, he would not, and
that was all. No one ever thought of
plying him, or of looking any further
than the appearances about him and -,
standing mile or two away from his
house, and all the tireless help and love
that should have been there, it was not
easy to tell why the man should have
been regarded by any as an object of
pity. ....
BY degrees he had lost the respect of
people, for, the truth is, he did not re-
spect himself. He did not present him
self on election day with shaven face
and clean shirt to make his vote count
on what he thought the right side -
Poor Moses he did not know there
was any right side-everything was
crooked and dismal to him and as for
his vote, why it wouldn't make much
difference.
His house had been getting out of re-
pair for years and years the roof
leaked, and the porch floor was decayed
and broken in the kitchen hearth was
burned into holes and hollows the plas-
tering was fallen of in some places q
number of the windows were broken and
you could not tell what color the paint
had originally been. One or two old
and unpruned trees stood in the yard,
their tangled tops full Of spiders webs,
neigbbored by dozens of young trees that
:, t,n. :" :" time had been planted, all
,IU% dsad, and ready :: - De rlucled % up by BY
the roots many Of them nse'ng -
their bark gnawed away by hungry colts,
and some Of them having died Of thirst,
for Moses always forgot to pour little
water about their roots, no matter how
drv and hot the weather after their plant
ing perhaps that be had been 50 little
used to the dew Of life himself. But We
will not anticipate.
There was frolic at Mrs. Fundy's--
a quilting party-and all the farmers
wives and daughters for two miles around, ],
were there; the wives in black gowns
and the daughters in white ones the
elder ladies talking Of soap-making and
supsr-makipg, and the young ones OF
new bopnets aud their lovers, Mrs
Fundy made the room warmer than the
sunshine with her smiles The quilting
was ooinc on nicely; and though she