The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-02-18
A RAINY DAY.

Hannah and Matilda Knight lived in
little court in the by-ways of a great
city the house had been the homestead
for generations before the city grew up
around it and stretched out its hundred
arms to embrace the outlying country,
and climbed the neighboring hills, leaV-
ing the house in the purlieus, so to
speak even now it might have been
made quite figure in that quarter if
there had only been little ready mon
ey to lay out upon it now and then; if
the leak in the roof had been stopped
in season; il the glazier had been called
in betimes; if deliFiOus gales had not
torn off a clapboard here and there, till
it looked az If some cutaneous eruption
had appeared on the surface. Inside,
the rats were every bit as much at home
as the Misses Knight they had been
known to carry off an entire candle
overnight-the candle for though there
had been timeswhen every window in
the house shone with Examinations, the
present supply was invariably small and
well economical; but, plainly, the rats
did not enter into. this arrangement
with that enthusiasm that might have
been expected, and, as members of the
family, were bent upon having their
share. But to return to the mansion it.
self, we beg leave to aver that the floors
and woodwork were now innocent of
paint, and all manner of malicious
draughts were lying in ambush beneath
the doors and windows, ready to per-
senate fevers and influenzas, while the
staircases were growing suspicious, and
the flne had given warning. But still
these two forlorn women chung to the
old shell, and boiled their tea-kettle on
the crane, and baked their johnny-cake
before the open fire, after the good old
superannuated fashion for every room
was a haunted room to them, sweetened
by beloved memories, echoing to be-
loved voices. Here in the great kitchen
they had had their candy-scrapes,"
and dreadful scrapes they had made of
it; many a plum-loaf had the pantry
boarded, many plump turkey had
turned here on the spit. They used to
enjoy to sit over their weak tea and I'M
buttered bread, and speak of those
bountiful times to each other; it lent a
sort of flavor to the fare before them,
which very much needed something of
that nature-an aroma of better days.
Here, too, in the best room, their moth
er had held her quilting parties-here
the Ladies' Charitable society had met
and talked over the affairs of the COM
munity, while hot coffee and cakes were
dispensed, and the eagerly watched for
dusk brought fathers and sons to swell
the merry-making, when work gave
way to games, till every one in the room
had been to Rome on a forfeit. Were
they, Hannah and Matilda, with their
gray hairs, the same beings who hunted
the slipper among the crowd of shad-
ows, and laughed and loved and lived
in the old house, so many years ago
Was 1t in this same room that Hannah's
one lover had found her? Was it here
he had sat and gazed into her eyes
Was this the mirror that had reflected
his face This the window out of which
he had looked? Had he walked about
here like q son of the house, and yet
left nothing of himself but a memory
in the heart of one poor woman? Han
nah did not often allow herself to think
of this episode now; other things had
interfered, other sorrows had obscured
this, but had been incapable of obliter-
ating; care and poverty had left little
space for romance and poetry; and yet
there were moments when she did think
| of it, when that thirty-years-old pain
| stirred in her soul and stang her to
tears; when it seemed as if her whole
life had been misapplied, as if there
were still vacant, aching niche for hus-
band and child, energies unexpended,
| love unspent. If Cousin DeliIah had
not defrauded her heart, she and Matil-
da would not be struggling on alone,
| single-handed and miserable. There
was picture of this Delilah in the desk
up stairs, put away among old bills and
receipts, as thing of no account, yet
too significant to destroy; once, not
long ago, she had happened upon it ac-
cldentally, and she had been tempted to
toss it behind the backlog; she never
looked at it after that; there was no
need to refresh her memory concerning
those shallow eyes, the expression OF
defiance and triumph that looked out,
notwithstanding the mere flesh and
blood beauty of the original; the fixed
shadow of one who had connseled Han
nah to resent some thoughtless jest OF
her lover, who had widened the breach
by word and act, and had then stepped
into it, bodily, taking advantage of his
pique and anger to marry him out OF
hand. Hannah had never laid eyes on
him since she had never cared to only
sometimes the pain still gnawed. Ev-
cry year, when those days came round
she lived them all over again, suffered
and gave no sign. But he was dead
now; and, since he was no ones hus-
band, she seemed to have the right tC
linger a little over the time when he
had wished to be hers.
When the winter weather set in, and
the snow piled its white magnificenct
against their shattered house, Hannah
would put on a pair of stout shoes and
warm mittens and sally out to dig the
regulation path demanded by the city
laws. But Matilda had been down with
influenza during one such storm, anc
Hannah had sprained her wrist; there
fore they decided to defy the laws fol
the nonce and take the consequence; SO
for a whnla dau the rnannfffd annu