The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-09-29


q her husband sat, wholly absorbed
in porting over day-books and ledgers.
"Those tiresome accounts STILL" she
exclaimed. "Will you never find time
for anything but business, Ralph? Have
you no taste for anything beyond fig
ures?"
"Margaret;" but the sadness in the
tone was UNDECIDED, as she continued:
awe had such charming evening at
Mrs. C.'s. Captain Hill related many
interesting incidents Of his residence in
Egypt, and Mr.. Warren, tho famous
young poet, read Maud and some Of
the most beautiful passages in aurora
Leigh I must read to you some Of
Romney's Great Thoughts on Duty"
She went hastily to her chamber for
the volume. When she returned, her
quiet entrance was unhcard by her hus-
band, whose pen was rapidly moving over
the almost interminable columns of fig
ures. With an expression of impotence,
almost of scorn, resting upon her face,
she hastily turned away.
"And this is the end of all my dreams
of marriage" said she, as she reached her
room. He has taste for drudgery.
His pursuits and tastes are all common
place, and must go from home to find
the sympathy [ need, to find those who
will appreciate, with me, the books love,
and the beautiful in art, for which he has
neither eye nor ear. Why did he not
marry woman who had neither heart
nor mind to be continually unsati,fed 2"
In the room she had left, Ralph Hale
sat, hour. after hour, till his brain was
weary and eyelids dropped. Then, lay
ing aside his books, he remained long
time in deep thought.
God bless my Margaret" he prayed,
"and give me strength to bear all things.
Give me power to make her happy"
Putting away all thoughts of her hus-
bands real nobleness of character, ieal-
ously preserving the memory of every
slight difference in their tastes and pur-
suits, Margaret cherished the spirit of
discomfort till it embittered every hour of
her lie, and sent suffering, she had never
dreamed of, to the heart of her husband,
who would gladly have sacrificed every
earthly good for her happiness.
A sudden and severe illness came to
her while Ralph was in distant city.
One day during her slow recovery, the
aged minister, who had baptized her in
her infancy, was sitting by her side.
Margaret" he said, after steadfastly
watchdog her troubled face, "you are I'M
happy. l have seen it n long time. 1
should recognize in you my once cheerful,
happy child. May l not know what
great sorrow has come to you? p"
Then, with sobs and tears, she told him
all her unhappiness.
After short silence, the old man
spoke again, and there was sadness, al
most steruness, in his voice. "Years
ago, Margaret, wealthy New York mer-
chant became involved in a speculation,
whose failure suddenly took from him
the accumulated wealth of his years of
commercial enterprise. There were
few years of weary, vain struggling to
regain what he had lost; then deep des-
pondency, dist ase and death. His wife
and four children were left penniless.
The eldest child, boy of sixteen, had
finished his preparatory studies, and was
about to enter college. BY this stroke,
he found his prospects for the future
clouded; but with noble selfforgetful-
ness, he turned cheerfully into the way
marked out for him, and walked reso-
lutely in it.
"He obtained situation with a mer-
chant, who had known his father, where
his faithfulness and untiring devotion TO
his dut 'es, won the confidence of all who
knew him. During the first years of her
widowhood, his mother had taught a pri-
waite school for the young; and it was the
boys highest ambition to relieve her of
this necessity, and give her the rest her
feeble health required. eanaot tell you
all his privations, his willing sacrifice of
every recreation, his continued self-denial
that he might tighten the burdens of those
SO dear to him.
Year after year, success crowned his
efforts. In the village where his mother
had passed the years of her childhood and
the first years of her married life, he pur-
chased pleasant residence for her, and