The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-10-07
VOL. V.---NO. 4.

my mothers life wasted TO Its END 1ast
told you how she died. But, Persis,
hear this: my father was intoxicated while
ny mother lay in the house unburiedF
A shiyer crept over me which was not
raused by the cold or the dampness OF the
SOON. Emily leaned heavily upon me, and
I could feel the nervous tremor with which
she was telling her story. l tried to DIS
suAde her from talking further, but she
would 90 on. She told me how her fathers
property had wasted away, how she kept
house for him in fear and loneliness until
where was no house to keep, and then how
she went out sewing, giving music lessons
ANYTHING for living. She told me now
she had suffered, both for herself and for
him, and how grief and shame ana poverty
wore upon her health.
n was after a Fourth of July, when she
had seen her father reeling through the
village streets. followed by q score of raga-
muffin bows throwing frecrackers in his
face and pockets, and had found all her
efforts 10 protect him uDayaiiing, that hope
and courage died within her, and she left
him.
81 could not do anything more for him,
Persis. / tried to cover up the shame and
tske care of him as long as he would lei
me. and then came off down here where
fewer people know it; but on such stormy
nights as this see again those dreadful
things tina. used to happen before mother
died. and hear terrible sounds. L think
of what nv father was long ago, and Of
what he is now, and, as l said to you, Per
sis IL seems to me that can't bear my
trouble and live"
Emily's seif-command gave way entire y
when sbe said that, and she laid her head
back in my lap sobbing. She is smaller and
LIGHTER than /, and / reached down and
drew her up In my lap. L pulled the shawl
aside to give her head r place upon my
shoulder, and then drew the fine soft
ulaid tightly around us both. She sobbed
there SO hard, SO much like tired, home
sick child, that touched her fine hair with
INV fingers. to make sure that it was the
brave little woman who sat SO patiently,
day after day, teaching stupid classes
mathematics. / tried to soothe her as
would have comforted one of the school
children. Then said over to her that beau
tiful hymn of Whittier's commencing:
Immortal love, forever full,
Forever flowing free;
Forever shared; forever whole;
nevsr-sbbing sea,
not because thought 1t particularly aP-
propriate, but because it often runs IN my
mind Sabbath evenings, sad because there
ia that in the hymn which seems to me
soothing for any trouble. Emily listened
and grew TO be like herself. We sat there
rocking, not saying much for some minu-
tes.
A shark of fire that had lain hidden some
where in our stove, started into newness of
Iite and our fire, which neither entreaties
nor threats had moved, burned of its own
free will. energetieally. Perhaps that made
me feel more cheerful
After we lighted the lamp, before retir-
ing. Emily brought me two pictures OF her
fafber The first was an ambrotype in an
4 old fashioned blue velvet case, a clear PIC
ture of fine-looking man. The face BEAM
ed with kindling; the mouth bore the evil
dence of refinement and culture. The deep
ewes we're full of the poetry of feeling; and
looking at the forehead l understood at
once from whence Emily had taken her IN
teIlectzl Tigor. The other picture was
one of the kind photographers call lntypes
Then the face was bloated, sensual, hide
GUS. Scarcely any traces OF refinement OF
intellect could be discerned in it. 1t was
such lace as that of any man who allows
his appetite TO usurp his reason may be,
come should have been surprised nao
/ not before learned that men like Enlly
father are the men whose capacities allow
them to sink the lowest.
| / turned away from the last picture as
quickly as could, and not betray my re
luugnance to Emily; but the two iaces ms
ing up before me in contrast, haunted al
nv sleep that night,
Every one remembers the next Gay, MON
day, how the rain fell in continuous sheet
which the wind tapped about and struci
against an umbrella, or dashed INTO tnou
sands Of drops against the WlndoTf; nov
rain dripped from the branches otthe trees
from the fences, from the clap-boards, ant
poured out of the water-spouts; now l
dashed en- the walks, and beat ON the sand
roads, until they were harder Than th'
walks. Rivers, lakes, gulfs, bays ant
straits appeared where before there ha'
been only dry land. Our schoo[hous
yard was like pond, when at nine cloc
Emily and picked our way across II.
| The auti-room, where the scholars lei
I their wrnps. was hung with Water-prooff
cloaks. coats and limp hats. Umbrella
we're stacked in the four corners of tn
room, and four streams of dark-colore
! iouid. which drained from them, wer
running ON the floor to meet each other
India,rubber overshoes were ranged aroun
) the room. The recitation rooms had bee
all tracked over by wet feet.
"Dear me, what dismal looking place,
said Emily, as we entered. The doom
the desks, the books, everything stuck {
: our fingers that day. The rooms wer
damn and uncomfortable, but the heat
5 the firelwe built to dry them was nsuf1el
: able. The wind and rain beat IN aroun
tie windows SO that We had to chang
; many of the seats
Once 1 remember the east door OF th
1 anti.room blew open, and the hats an
light garments, flying of their hooks, cam
: into me school-room. 1 went out to shr
the door; but before Icould secure 1t N
3 hair and face were covered with the spral
: and nv dress was thoroughly wet from co
lar to hem, while puddle In the mlddl
3 of the floor united the four dark colore
riIls that came down from the umbrellas.
/; Emily and preferred losing our dinn'
4 to going home in the rain, and we sat U
D pether during the intermission, wonderin
: at the storm, as people always wonder oyt
Q ANYTHING unusual, and comparing 1t wit
s ali the storms that had ever come With
j our experience, as weather-wise grandam'
> might have done.
q IL had cleared off before weolosed scho
Z in the afternoon, and when We come on
q deep blue sky and bits OF white neeC
4 clouds that might have belonged to a di
? in June we're overh' ad- The sun shoI
s around corner of the building and glls
Q ened on the little pools of water That stoC
= here and there In the brown grayely var
The green grass beyond where the boys M
d loved to lounge in summer recesses, W
n freshly tinted and fecked with gold by Il
/ sun; and the incardine leaves OF the III
I of NAPLES Just within the fence glowed I:
ter their baptism like things OF life. v
u could hear beyond us the roar of the lit
g stream which hal swollen to river, al
q catch the glRneing OF it's water through 4
j trees. Emily WAS IN rGptures over q
@ beauty of the scene.
, .sHow good dear old earth, and Sun, Gl
+ sky look after the deluger' said she, takil
J of her hat, and swinging it around like
d schoolgirl 'I feel as if it had rain
IT forty days and forty nights, and l had be
shut up in the ark all that time with
, manners of beasts aud birds, and creepll
D things.
, More than that, II seemed to me that
'e felt in part; as the young women, Noal
81 daughter r's-in-law, might have done al
u tho waters subsidized, and they walked Q
70 TO enjoy the sunshine on Mount Ararat,
70 When we walked out the next morniI
A. H..