South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-10-06
VOLUME 1.
HOWeHOTHER DID IT,
BY J. R. HApERNANN

tegan tO Lt0s Charlie and got marie
that yesr,-is of considerable imrortanC
to myself and to somebody else. The tw
decades forming the interim hetwee
those years constitute my Dark Age,
which Lteethed and messled and whooi
ing-coughees and went to school, ard woi
my hair in two long pig-taiis, and love
molasses candy, and regarded q schoo
room as purgstory, q ballroom as heave
when I sang and danced and grew as th
birds and grasshoppers and flowers sin
and dance and grow, because they hsYin
nothing else to do.
Then came my Golden Age. Ths
means, then came Charlie into my lif,
when fels for the first time that ther
was music in the birds voices and pel
fume in the aOwers-that there was ligh
in the heavens shove aud on the earth be
meath, for God was in heaven and Charli
was on earth-when /, who had all alon,
been hardly more than human grasshor
per, became the happiest OF happy womel
so much happier, I thought, than 1 de
served. For who was /, and what grea
thing had ever done, that l should b
crowned with such crown of glory as
Charlies why should 1, Insignificant 1, b,
so best among women as to be taken +
wife by ChaTlieS
was insanely sentimental enough tC
rather resent the fact that Charlie wa,
prosaically we'll off: his circumstance:
were distressingly easy. 1t would hav,
been so much nicer, so deliciously TO
mantle if there had been an oppor unity
afforded me to show how ready, nay
esger, was to sacrifice friends, home
and country for his dear sake. But
Charlie didn't want me to sacrifice nv
friends; nor did it require any great
amount of heroism to exchange my
modestly comfortable home tor his decid
edly luxurious one; and as for country
nothing on earth could have induced
Charlie to leave his own country, much
less his own parish, much less his own
planta ion. So we were married without
any talk of sacrifice on either side, and
moved quietly enough from fathers small
plantation to Charles large one.
There was but one dra back to the per-
fectness of my happiness; there was so
little hope of my ever having an opportu-
nifty to air those magDanimous traits of
character upon the possession of which
go plumed myself / felt sure that could
meet the most adverse circumstances with
the most smiling patience, but circum-
stances obstinately refused to be adverse.
was inwarjly conscious that the most
trying emergency could not shake my
heroic but purely feminine fortitude; but
alas my forSitude was likely to rust while
waiting for the emergency. Injury and
wrong should be met with sublime dig
nifty. but the most wildly speculative i'm
sginatiOn could not look upon Charles
placidly handsome face and convert him
into possible tyrant.
To tell how the longed-for opportunity
to exercise my powers of endurance, and
my dignity, and all the rest of it, did
finally come about, and to tell how bore
the test, is the object of this paper.
For the lrst six months of our married
life Charlie and Iwere simply ridiculously
happy selfshly happy, too. We re-
sented neighbor's visit as sn act of bar
barous invasion, and the necessity of re-
turning such visits was Acknowledged
with sublimity of resignation worthy of
pictorial representation in that exquisite
parlor manual, Fox's Book Of Martyrs. If
Chsrlie left the house for an hour or two,
[ looked upon his enforced absence IS a
cruel dispensation of Providence, which ]
lid not bear with ''fortitude and sublime
iignity," but pouted over like the Iidieu-
ous baby was. Bare coniugal civility
required that on leaving the house Charlie
should kiss me three times, and on re-
turning six times; anything short of that
should have considered premonitory
symptom of approaching separation. If
Charlie mad ever been SO savage as to call
ne plain Lulie," should have felt he
vas sick and tired of me, and was repent
ng of having married me in
tead of that specialized bas-bleu,
Hiss Minerva Henshaw, who read Buckle
md talked dictionary. believe 1 was in
oxicated with my own happiness, and
vas little nonsensical because l was so
lsppy. >A
Fortunately for the comfort of both
Jbarlie and myself, his domestic cabinet
consisted ofa marvelously welltrained set
# servants, who were simply perfect-as
'erfect in their way as Charlie was in his. |
They had been trained by Charles |
mother, who had been the head of affairs |
a his house up to the time of her death
n event which had occurred some dozen
ears before my first meeting with |
,harlie. Everybody said she had been |
Celebrated housekeeper, and Charles de-
oiion to her had been the talk of the |
ountTy-side. There were people malic- |
JUS enough to say that if Charles mother
ad never died he would never have mar
led; but take the liberty of resenting
1ch an assertion as a personal insult; for,
thought don't doubt the dear old lady /
Tas a perfect jewel in her way, yet, look
lg at the portrait Of her which hangs
yer our parlor mantelpiece, see the face
{ a hard, determined looking woman
18th COLI gray eyes and rigidly set mouth,
/ a funny-looking black dress, neither
igh-necked nor low-necked, having g
.archy white rutf1e round the edge, in
lvid white contrast to the yellow skin;
18th grizzly, iron-gray curls peeping out
ON under cap that is fearfully and won
erfully made, with a hue ruf-
ed border radisting in a circum-
renee Of several feet, while its
80 black-and-white gauze ribbon
rings lie in rigid exactness over
er two rigidly exact shoulders.
ooking on this portrait, l do not thank
1ybody for saying that it was only be-
suse death chose that shining mark that
had found favor in ChaIlie's eyes.
We hs6 been married. l suppose, about
K months, when, sitting one evening
yer coy wood-fire in our cezy little
a-lor, just under the work of art have
sscribed at such length, Charlie commit
d his first matrimonial solecism. He
swned, actually gaped-an open mouthed,
ndeniable yswnl r-..
Glancilg up at him from my work
which consisted of the inevitable worked
ippers without which no woman consid-
8 her wiiehood absolutely asssrled), 1
IUght him in the act. "Are you tired,
hsrliei !" asked in accents of wifely
lxigty.
Tired Poor fellowl he ought to have
i've been, for he had ridden all over the
antssion that day, had written two bust.
,ss letters, and smoked there's no telling
~ many cigars, and had only taken one
tile ca nap after dinner. ----
he was leaning back in his arm chair,
18th his eyes fixed in mournful meditation
pom his mothers portrait lat least I
lought sol, when I asked him if he was
red, and fancied he was thinking sad
loughts Of the mother who had not
zen dead so very long as never 10
ou5le the thoughts of the living SO.
ying down my slippers, crossed the
g ana perched myself on Charlie's
nee. --- go.
Talk TO me about her, Charlie DEAR
About whom, little one," asked Char
:, turning his eyes toward ms with a
tile Icy look of inquiry.