Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-02-22

udFh anu Suub-up mousse. Even people
of the best-regulated minds experience
vague suspicion of something behind
them, a sense OF possible ghostly hands
about to clutch them in the darkness.
Nabby was a woman, like Mrs. Edmund
Sparkler, with s. no nonsense about
her :" but, nevertheless, cheerful tale
she had read only yesterday in the
Chronicle, about burglar lone wo-
men, kept coming into her head, and
she carefully avoided the thick black
ness of the corners and the pantry door
as she CROPPED around the kitchen for a
candle. OF course the fire had gone
out.
Two heads are better than one. if
one is a sleeps head,A Nabby might
have been heard muttering out in the
wood-house as she stopped painfully
down picking up chips by which or
acular utterance I suspect she was
thinking what good supply of kind
lings Josh always kept on hand for her,
ana how much more comfortable it was
in the old times, coming home to a
house bright with light and warmth
and 10 siah's welcome.
For josiah cherished the most pro-
found admiration for Nabby-an ad-
miration not unmingled with awe. He
thought her a most wonderful woman.
She was just as beautiful to him as in
the old counting days, before the
brightness and qmckness of the black
eyes had degenerated into sharpness,
before the smiling mouth had acquired
It's hard, firmly set expression, before
there were any wrinkles in the smooth
forehead. People thought Nabby had
done well in marrying Josiah Could
pleasant, good-natured young fellow
that every one liked; young mechanic,
net very rich yet, it was true; but with
a good trade and such wife as Nabby,
there seemed nothing to prevent his
figuring as zone OF our first citi-
zens."
Anybody can be somebody in this
country, il they are only determined
But that was exactly the trouble with
Josiah he never was determined about
anything. He fell into the habit of
drinking because he lacked sufficient
strength of will to avoid it. Then
Nabbys sharp words, and his own mis-
cradle sense of meanness and self-con-
tempt, OF utter discouragement and des-
pair, drove him lower and lower, and he
sank down supinely into the slough Of
despoud without effort or hope.
BY beautiful dispensation OF Provi-
dence, whenever poor, shiiless, good
tor-nothlng man is sent into our world,
some active, go-ahead little woman is
invariably fastened to him to tow him
along through, and keep his head above
water It's for the best, of course.
What would become Of the poor fellow
without herr At the same time she
sometimes finds it little hard
Nabby was ambitious and proud
spirited, willing to work, to save, to do
her part-anxious to get on in the
world and stand well among her neigh
bors. The fact gradually realized that
in her husband she had no help, no
support, only a drag and n burden, and
finally a disgrace, had been a disap-
pointment, emblttering her whole ma
ture To have husband that no one
respected, that even the boys around
town called "Si Could" was dreadful
to Nabby. Perhaps it was hardly
strange that she grew hard and bitter
Meantime Nabby had succeeded in
starting the fire, and, having changed
her dress, sat down to dry her feet while
the tea-kettle boiled. But even the
ruddy light and warmth with which the
kitchen now glowed could not fend eft
the dreariness of the night. The rain
tapped with ghostly hnger-tip upon
the window pane, and the wind howl
ed and walled around the house like
the spirits of the lost pleading to be
taken back into human life and warmth
Such a wind stirs even in the happiest
hearts a vague sense of loss, of change,
of all that goes to make up the unsat-
isfactoriness of life. Dead sorrows
creep forth from their graves on such
nights and stalk up and down the echo
ing chambers of the heart.
Nabby could not help wondering
where Josiah was tonight. 1t was so
lonely sitting there with no one to
speak to, listening to the mourning wind,
the crealing of the blinds, the loud
ticking of the clock.
And Thanksgivin' a-comin', "
thought Nabby. "A pretty Thanks
giyin' | shall have J.
Thewind walled and walled, and Nabby
thought. The very thought of having
Z" freed her mind to the squire had re
leved her long pent-up Indignation,
and now she felt more sad than angry.
Up before her seemed to rise picture
of her life; the youthful dreams and
hopes, the changes and disappoint-
ments, the love turned into wranghng.
She even thought of Josiah with pity.
For the first time she "put herself in
his place, and realized how almost i'm
possible it was for one of his weak
nature to resist, unaided, the temptation