The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-09-01

and he struck her blow on the head
with so much force as to hurt hi:
thumb. air'-..
I could endure it no longer. Great
as was my reluctance to interfere ac
lively in the quarrels of a married
pair, felt constrained to give her Ger
tain advice. She said it was novel as
it was terrible to her Thoughts and
she at first felt extremely reluctant to
take it. made her promise me-
however, before we parted that she
would give it a trial.
Exulting in the license given to his
evil nature by the removal of the last
barrier to the free course of his tenn
per which duty and manly feeling had
imposed, he renewed his threats of IL
treatment on his return home that
night from a carouse, and the next
morning he commanded the trembling
woman, in a voice of thunder, to take
him up in her arms again that he
might finish the top panes. In vain
she suggested q pair of steps he was
inexorable, and told her to hold her
tongue. Unfortunately; it was inn
possible for her to control her eyes.
He was using the dry duster with
great energy to impart the final polish,
when he discovered ON it traces of a
tear which it had caught rs it lay in its
resting place on her shoulder. He
turned savagely aad was about to
strike her again, when she deliberate
ly let him fall; and in less than a
minute he came to the ground with a
terrible noise.
Half stunned as he was, however,
he was about to rise for retaliation, not
doubling that his punishment was ow-
ing to her inadvertence, when she
saved him tho effort by lifting him in
mid-air with one hand, in the same
way as one lifts Il favoritc cat, and
with the other belaboring him till the
dust flew out of his little coat. She
then although it was early in the day,
put him to bed, and ordered him not
to utter syllable for his life. He was
so much astonished and so much fright
ened that hitherto he had not been able
to speak but no sooner did he find
himself in temporary quiet than he
made an effort to regain his moral
supremacy by opening his mouth. But
his wife at once assumed determined
expression of countenance, and he
gave way. He hid his head beneath
the bed-clothcs, and lay quite still in
that position the-rcst of the day. 1t
was quite Il revelation to him that she
zcorrf,i hit so hard, and he reflected on
it with considerable profit.
AS for the gentle creature who had
administered the lesson to him, as soon
rs her first excitement was over, she
felt quite broken down, and she was
obliged to close the show for the day
Gin consequence of the indisposition OF
the proprietor" as the notice stated.
After she had done that, and placed Il
little rcfreshment on the chair by Min
nillin's bedside, she withdrew to her
own room, where she spent some time
weeping over an old love letter writ
ten on the back of a railroad ticket,
and little wisp of hair, which were
the sole memorials of affection sho had
ever received from her cruel lord.
She was sorry, and, if the truth
must be told, afraid, foc such was the
influence of habit that it was difficult
for her to divest herself of the belief
that Minnikin was physically as well
as morally the very embodiment of ir-
resistible force. She thought her pre-
sent victory over him was entirely due
to chance and her own wild tcmerity,
and she fully expected to feel the
weight of his vengeance on the NOR
row. At the very moment these re
Elections were passing through her
mini, Minnikin was asking himself in
a kind of sickening terror whether it
was likely she would beat him again
that day. So that each, as we see,
knowing nothing of the fright of the
other. was ready to give in, and vic
tory was only waiting to declare for
the first claimant.
Matters were in this state when I'm
mensikoff, with scarcely concealed ter
ror, entered the room where Minnikin
lay, in the morning, and began max
ing tie preparations for simple meal.
She carried the cups and saucers most
tenderly lest their rattle should wake
the terrible creature who, she hoped,
wa, as vet unconscious of her presence,
for she had not dared to look The
terrible creature, on his part was awake
enough, and was noiselessly shifting
about beneath his coverlet in order to
maintain the best possible position for
receiving what he did not doubt would
be the speedy visitation of that dread
ed hand. He had gradually advanc-
ed one eye beyond the coverlet, and
then the other, and finally had brought
his little nose to light. 1t was much
changed since yesterday. Anxiety
writes its record on this feature more
than any other. 1t was round at the
end, and flushed with insolence and
wine the morning before; but now you
could have picked up seed with it, it
was brought to such point, and all
its color had fled. 1t was ut the mo-
ment that the nose appeared that I'm
mensikoff, stealing a timid glance to-
wards the bed, bcheld it standing
sharply defined between the two eager
eyes. ..
Women are not always good physiog-
nomists. r. She thought the nose boded
fury and dire revenge, and all her lit
tie remnant of firmness gave way.
She ran hastily across the apartment,
and about to tender weak woman's
submission to authority on her knees,
when, to her inexpressible, surprise the
dwarf bounded from his bed with a yell
of terror, and throwing himself at her
feet implorcd mercy in the most abject
terms and promised repentance and