The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-04-22

: home when he WAS boy, to follow a
a travelling circus. II was glimpse of
fairy land 10 him; how he had come
{ home, pioNed and ,irJIdged for year
= or two. gone oil again with an timer
! ant potrait-painter: been artist, pho
- tOgrapher, musician by turns had
drank hard had lectured on temper
= ance: had married and settled down
! in neiglIbOring town for life now,
70 having been hopeful convert at the
last revival. The hectic flush and
glitter in his eye at the sound of the
DEVILS music alarmed both of his
: hearers. The Squire put his hand in
his pocket and eoughed.
ave came on business, Laurence"
, he said.
: Young Muller turned hastily with
scared, cOmical gesture, and began
some story of his old worldly expert
: ence. He was witty fellOv-wittier
/ than either of his hearers could COM
T prehend, but they laughed loud and
long. He was good mimic: whether
he told a story or prayed or sang, he
threw his whole soul and body into it:
there never was such good company.
: The Squire thrust back the will into
his pocket. He fancied when il was
read there would be all end to laugh
ter in that house. He would wait till
after supper.
. The supper was delicious, and after
Bart came, the Others had a chance to
talk, which was, after all, pleasanter.
, She brought out one or two of the
Squire's famous stories, and he told
them with great applause, and Sgd
ney found himself appreciated and
his most trifiing word listened to.
F Laurence had interrupted him, be-
fore, dozen times. Laurence was
not q good listener. But they all
\ were.sileiIt whenlIe spoke.
1t did not seem strange to Bertha
that even on this their wedding eve
Sydney should be absorbed by her
brother, and notice her only when she
came in his way by an affectionate
smile.
The idea of any mans compliment
ing or wOOing Bart Muller was absurd.
Other girls love to be conquered, but
honest Bart was TO her lover as she
was 60 all that knew her, down TO blind
JoeZa good thing, which they al
ready owned. Sydney Kirke married
her because he could not do without
her: and that was all.
IDdi llllo
Tonight She thought, when supper
was over, and the Squire, thOughtfully
smoking his pipe, sat at the table,
Laurence opposite him, still gulping
down long draughts of bitter black
coffee, that Sydney would have taken
her out 10 walk in the orchard in the
soft, warm sunset. She wanted, too,
TO show him the little store of linen |
for housekeeping which she had laid |
out ready to pack. She had been a |
long time at work on il, her heart, |
which had been born happy, full of a
new kind of happiness, giving to it |
the wOmanly bushes and fearful |
smiles with which another woman |
would have bent over the clothes that |
were to make herself more fair in the |
eyes of him who loved her. Bart's |
least trunk was filled with her clothes, |
and they were such as she wore every |
day-plain callicOes and ginghams.-l
When she was silly child she had |
| learned to dress without looking i'm |
the glass, morbidly trying to forget /
her hOmely face; now, she laughed
back at il with the same whOle-heart-
ed greeting which she gave to all
other faces of the friendly men and
women who filled the world, and
thought no more about it. But her
dress remained very plain.
Nobody had spoken to her for half
AN hour, but when she got up to 90
ont, they alllOoked annOyed and said,
"Where are you going Bart p"
al came on business" the Squire
added reluctantly. "But you are go
ing 10 feed Jour poultry, ell ~
She nodded, tied an apron about her
plump little waist '(there was some
thing snug and comfortable in all her
clothes, even to the aprOns), and took
out a basket Of shelled corn, blushing
rs Sydney sprang up and followed
her.
The room they left, with its white
walls, and brilliant dead birds, and
iitflfl music, was the proper framing
for Laurence, but the jolly farm-yard,
friendly, warm, full of plenty, was
the place for Bertha. She belonged
there. Sydney had vague notion of
this. There was ladder going up to
the stable-lOft, and he seated himself
on the lower rung, watching her.
The sunny orchard was on one side,
and the dark hickory woods on the
other, both very quiet in the waning
afternoon light. But there was gen-
eral waking up when Bart came. Red
cOmbed cocks and demure hens tumb-
led and scratched in from their fOray
under the apple-trees the snowy
pigeons fluttered down from their
cotes 4 gang of ducks, fresh coat of
mud on their yellow legs, came strad-
ding and quacking up; while Spot,
the sOrrel COW, sauntered across from
her lair in the grass OH the sunny side
of the woods, and looked over the
linchen-cOvered stone wall with mat
ronly approval of Bart and her hungry
brood.
Used rs Kirke was To her, he saw
that il was the brOwn-haired woman
in the midst, plump, sweet-breathed,
supple, with her cordial voice and
cordial eyes, that completed the
bright, homely scene, and gave il
meaning as Il song does its prelude.
She took out tile last grain finally,
laughing, cnaXing and scOlling them
all at once. The poor half-souled
Icreatures, bad all been. born under her
care, and it was the last time she
would feed them. She was thinking
of that all the time. "You'll let me
come back often To the old place,
Sydney" ~ she said, leaning on the
wall, strOking old Spot with both
nervous hands. laurence promise
me to make no change"
''IOu forget this will, Bertha. 1t
may reverse your division with your
brother. The place may be left to
you, after ALL"
1T must be Eaurence's,p eneFget-
ic;llly. at is Of more value than the
bonds, and he has a great love for it.
When we spoke of dividing the prop
eIty," lowering her voice, "he said.
Take all that is of value, Bart, but
leave me my home. My home = He
cried out these words, turning pale,
Sydney. 1t must belong to Laurence,
whatever the will says"
i''It is your home too, | fancy. But I
il does not matter TO me if he doesn't I
leave vOu penny" Sydney rejOined.
81 have you PART" holding out his
hands to her.
She put her own i'm them, her breast ,
heaving, her whole honest little body
shrinking and thrObbing in an
-iAstant now that the leYing words
hal come which she had been wait
iIfS for All day For it never had oc-
CURED TO her to hide the wonder and
gratitude with which she received !
Sydney Kirke's love. She knew what {
commonplace woman she was-hOW {
far the inferior OF other girls in per-
son or in brain. But she had loved
him so long beforeI 1t was like the {
good luck of all the rest of her life
Never a day began for her which in
some way WAS not warmer and bright
eF than the last.
"Iet us go down into the orchard"
said Sydney.
SO they crossed through the raspber- !
~ bushes TO the warm slope where the '
golden russets We're dropping quite
melIoWion the grass, and went down 5
la the side of the mill-dam. The sheet j
of water was red in the low sunlight, [
and beyond gray mist began to veil |
the valley; something deeper than the ]
beauty and quite touched Bart. Back {
yOnder the poor dumb things watched {
for her, and her brother waited for Q
her: i'm every one Of the farm houses 4
she saw OH the hills she had good 3
friends; beside her, her lover held her l
= n