Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-10-08

Motherv
| say just what | mean Not a single
cup OF tea have yet tasted in your house
that was fit to drink I don't know how
you can put up with such stuff You
wouldn't have it done at my table, L IN very
sure
Please mother, don't talk so any more
| about Ida ! can't bear to hear it.
You can bear to hear the truth. Edward
| speak for Ida's good and your own too.
She's wife now not a mere sweetheart.
And she's your housekceper besides, with
something more to do and care for, than
dress, music, party going and enjoyment.
L must say, as | said a little while AGO,
that | am disappointed in her What are
girls thinking about when they get mar
rled P? Surely, not of their husbands
household comforts
LII you please, mother, we will change
the subject said the young man, who was
exceedingly panied by the strong language
he had heard. He speke so firmly that the
matter was dropped, and not again alluded
to at the time
We have, now, al explanation of the
change in the young husbands state of
mind. There were some truths in what
his mother said, and this made it so much
harder to bear. The first shadow had fall
len, that dimmed the brightness of his new
and happy life
Still the defects in Ida-very small to
his eyes, even after they were pointed out
by his mother-were things of no moment.
lie had not intended her for household
drudge. Was she not loving-hearted, ac
complished and beautiful? What more
could he ask?
True, he had intended her for the presi-
ding genius of his home and there were
sober, matter-offact things to be done in
all homes. But her devotion to these
would come in good time. How Edward
came to speak as he did about the tea and
toast, was almost on the instant that he
had given utterancc to his words, mystery
to himself. He started with the start that
he gave his young wife, and trembled for
the effect of his unkindly uttered words.
lie would have given much could he have
recalled them. But they were said be-
yond any power of unsaying.
The reference of his mother to the in
different tea with which she had been SER
we'd at his table, had not only mortified
him, but made some things distinct in his
memory, which, before, were only seen
dlmly, and as matters of Indifference
Where all was SO bright, why should he
turn his eyes upon a few fragments of
clouds skirting the far horizon? He would
not have done 50 if left to himself. The
clouds might have spread until very much
larger than mans hand, before their
murky aspect would have drawn his happy
vision from the all-prevailing brightness
Ida's hand, which was raising cup to
her lips, fell almost as suddenly as if pal
sled; a paleness overspread her countc-
nance; her lips had a motion between
quiver and spasm. From her eyes which
seemed bound, as by spell, to her hus-
bands face, tears rolled out and fell in
large drops over her checks.
Never before, since Edward had looked
upon that dear young face, had he seen its
brightness SO yeiled. Never before, had
word of his been answered by anything
but smiles and love responses.
I'm sorry, Edward How the sad
tremulous voice of Ida rebukcd the young
husbands unkindncss. 'It shall not be SO
again
And she kept her word Suddenly he
had awakened her from bright dreamy
illusion. She had been in kind of fairy
land. The hard, everyday working world,
with its common working-day wants, by an
unlooked-for shifting of scenery, had struck
with an unlovely aspect upon her startled
vision; the jagged edges of the real wound
ing painfully her soft ideal. But, once
awakened, she never slept again. 1t was
the first shadow that fell dimly and coldly
upon her married heart-the first, and to
the life experienced, We need not say the
last.
Burnt toast and bad tea! To think that
common things like these should have
power to shadow young heart basking in
the sunlight of lovel Ida had thought of
her husband as almost Indifferent to the
vulgar wants his words made manifest
She saw clearer now. He was but flesh
and blood like the rest.
Very, very tenderly spoken were all the
words of Edward to his young wife, during
the shadowed evening that followed this
first dimming of their home light. And
Ida, who felt the kindness of his heart,
tried to smile and seem as of old. But,
somehow, she could not force into existence
the smiles she wished to send out as tokens
of forgiveness. Thoughts of the bad tea
and burnt toast, the usuaP-and there lay
the smart tl-entertainment she had provi-
f! ded; or, rather, suffered to be provided by
unskilful hands-were her own any more
skilful? for her returning husband haunt
ed her all the while.
1t shall not be so againp Not idly
uttered were these words All the even
ing she kept repeating them to herself,
c4oo.l,lxr a, 4 :,