Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-09-14
MCCLELLAN Y.
The Pride of Lima Roberts, and its
Fall,

Some twenty years ago, Deacon Roberts
was accepted in the village Of NJ. as the
elimination of all excellence, pecuniary,
social and religions. Public opinion has
usually little truth in it; in this case il
had a good deal. The deacon really was
intelligent, upright and well-to-do. He
was also forty and bachelor: but he was
human, and he fell in love. OF course this
contingency bad been provided for, and
scheming mammas had any quantity of ae-
complished deacons' wives got up to order,
to meet the hoped-for demand. Not to his
order, however. He married beautiful
girl made by God and herself, without for
tune or so-called accomplishments. He
gave her the position of Mrs. Roberts, and
she glided gracefully into its duties, and
accepted her new hQnors with timid and
grateful heart
The baffled mammas congratulated her
with the lips they had bitten in yexation,
" and all went merry as marriage bell"
But marriage bells cannot ring forever, nor
do they invariably, as Tennyson has it,
"ring out the false, ring in the true" The
good people of M. acknowledged Mrs, Lima
as one of their supper ten." Qn this
case, the three ciphers usually supposed to
belong TO the mineral are nat understood.)
Fhe sisters of the deacon, all married and
members of The feminine decemvirate al
luded to above, were not, however, quite
cordial in their recognition: There could
be no doubt that the gentle girl was really
the wife of their brother, and entitled, as
such, to the most distinguished considera-
ton. Yet those who have stake in life
are naturally conservative, and the sisters
whispered TO each other their fears lest the
yn'aught rustic might prove unworthy Of
her new position. Perhaps they were
secretly conscious of another fear, thorough
ly feminine, and not without foundation.
They might have feared that her native re-
finement and artless grace would contrast
pnfavorably with the high-bred siolidity to
which it was allied. So far as the two low
ers were concerned, the marriage was a
happy one, but as regarded Temoter con-
nections. it was obviously unequal. So the
allied powers kept vigilant watch over mis-
tress Lima, criticized her shortcomings,
real or supposed, and whispered wariy in
their private conclaves that "pride would
have a fall.
The prediction was verified. The whole
of Mrs. Lina's pride was centered IN her
true, manly, affectionate husband. If 1t
was an error it was one severely punished,
for he fell Not morally, for he left a stain
less record it was only the physical man
that sank beneath an unexpected blow. He
sickennd and died, and the broken heart of
Lima beayed with convulsive sobs, and the
sorrowinp sisters robed themselves in lugu-
brious drapery, in mute acknowledgment
of the treasures they had lost. Their
brother was dear to them, and justly so !;
nor eoald they forget that, by what they
considered an iii-adyised marriage, he had
alienated FROM his personal relatives a re-
spectacle Portion pf bis estate: lie left a
will. in which he made ample provision for
I his widow. and gave substantial tokens OF
his regard to those WHO, for his sake and and
her own, still owed her the kindness OF
sister. Indeed, whatever might have been
their previous feelings, her present eondl-
ton appealed forcibly to Their soIpasslon
Originally fraiI. and exhausted by anxiety
and grief, her girlish beauty wasted to
shadow, and across the dial Of her Plishtea
lie that shadow p0ipiea toward the new
made grave.
Close to her tear-stained couch drew near
the nroyisent danes. As ravens gather
about a stricken deer, so gathered their ss-
bic forms about the bedside of the despair
ing Ina. They spoke of their fears that
she might soon rejoin the husband she had
lost. She replied that their tear vas her