The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-10-11
EBENSBURG, PA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER II, |

comfortable tor MIN as nanQS could mahc
it, and had he offered the light return OF
praise or commendation Had he ever
told her of the satisfaction he had known,
or the comfort experienced? He was not
able to recall the time or occasion. AS he
thought thus, Mrs. Lee came in from the
kitchen, and taking her work-basket from
closet, placed it on the table, and sitting
down without speaking, began to sew
Mr.. Lee glanced almost stealthily at the
work in her hands, and saw that it was
the bosom of a shirt, which she was stitch
ing neatly. He knew that it was for him
that she was at work.
"Praise your wife" The words were
before the eyes of his mind, and he could
not look away from them. But he was
not ready for this yet. He still felt
moody and tintorgiving. The expression
of his wife's face he interpreted to mean
ill-nature, and with i'll nature he had no
patience. His eyes fell upon the news
paper that lay spread out before him, and
he read the sentence:
"a kind, cheerful word: spoken in a
gloomy home, is the little rift in cloud
! that lets the sunshine through"
Lee struggled with himself while
longer. His own ill-nature had to be
conquered first his moody, accusing spirit
had to oe subdued. But he was coming
right, and at last got right, as to will
Next came the question as to how he
should begin. He thought of many things
to say, yet feared to say them lest his
| wife should meet his advances with q
cold rebuff. At last, leaning towards her,
IL 6 -
which she was at work, he said in voice
| carefully modulated with kindness
"You are doing that work very beauti-
fully, Mary"
Mrs Lee made no reply. But her
| husband did not fail to observe that she
lost, almost instantly, that rigid erectness
| with which she had been sitting, nor that
the motion of her needle had ceased.
"My shirts are better made, and whittier
! than those of any other man in the shop"
said Lee, encouraged to go on.
care they ?" Mrs. Lees voice was
low, and had in it slight huskiness. She
| did not turn her face, but her husband
saw that she leaned little toward him
He had broken through the ice of reserve,
aud all was easy now. His hand was
among the clouds, and few feeble rays
were already struggling through the ritt
| it had made.
"Yes, Mary" he answered softly; s'and
I've heard it said more than once, what a
good wife Andrew Lee must have"
Mrs. Lee turned her face towards her
husband. There was light in it, and
| light in her eye. But there was some
thing in the expression of her counten-
ance that little puzzled him.
"Do you think SO z" she asked quite
soberly.
"What question !" calculated Andrew
Lee, starting up, aad going around to
the side of the table where his wife was
sitting. "What a question, Mary !" he
repeated, as he stood before her.
| ado you ?" It was all she said.
eyes, darling" was his warmly-spoken
answer, and he stopped down and kissed
her. Chow strange that you should ask
me such question p
off you would only tell me so now and
then, Andrew, it will do me good" And
Mrs. Lee arose, and leaning her face
against the tianly breast of her husband;
stood and wept.
What strong light broke in upon the
mind of Andrew Lee He had never
given to his wife even the small reward
of praise for all the loving interest she
had manifested daily, until doubt oe his
love had entered her soul, and made the
| light around her thick darkness No
wonder that her face grew clouded, nor
that what he considered moodiness and
ill-nature, took possession of her spirit.
"You are good and true, Mary, my own
dear wife. l am proud of you-I love
you-and iny first desire is for your happi-
ness. 0, if I could always see your face
in sunshine, my home would be the dear
est place on earth"
"How precious to me are your words of
love and praise, Andrew" said Mrs. Lee,
smiling up through her tears into his
face. "With them in my ears, my heart
can never lie in shadow"
How easy had been the work for An
drew Lee. He had swept his hand across
the cloudy horizon of his home, and now
the bright sunshine was streaming down
and flooding that home with joy and
beauty.