American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-11-09
CATER MANY DAYS"

-Harper's Monthly for Norem1cy
CATER MANY DAYS"
.sStir the fire, Tabitha.'' commanded
the old woman. ''Stir it as if there wa'
some life in your limbs. Listen how the
wind sOughs across the mOOrS.
Tabitha came to the crate and did rs SHE
was hidden. with her usual meek Obedi
cnce. but her head dropped Il trifle more
than usual tonight, and her listless move
ments reused her mothers anger. She
snatched the poker from the silent little
wOman's hands, and with single stroke
broke the huge s'cOb'' of coal which had
been smouldering and Pickering all the at
ternoon, and which now, falling to pieces
flashed up bright tongues OF darling flame
and flung light in every shadowy corner
of the long, dark room.
'sAre you wandering?- she said, in her
sharp, strong voice. s'Y on might be.
have no patience with your weak ways.
You are no Yorkshire woman, Tabitha
you are your father all over
1t was fact worthy of note, because
significant in itself. that Tabitha made no
reply. She was used to $! ch speeches
she had borne them all her life; she had
seen her father bear them day by day I'M
til he died. His finer nature withered she
had sometimes dared to fancy, under their
influence. There was scarcely a country
boor in the scattered moorland hamlet. or
even in the few wide-apart cottages on the
blue mOOrs themselves, who did not know
the mistress of the solitary farmhouse as
"a hard un." and who had not known
her as such from the time she came among
them as the young wife of the gentle
South Country man whose name she bore
Roger Dunn was mild even to the verge
of weakness, and was beloved in rough.
almost plying way by all the strong
warm-hearted Yorkshire men who knew
him. His wife L ad not tender impulse
in her nature, and was djsliked with all
tie uncOuth OpenneSS of a passionate I'M
couth people. She had stood out against
all advances from the first; she had defied
public opinion and set a. naught advice :;
and so it was that at last the inhabitants
of the oil stone farmhouse had been cut
off from the world and lived their une-
ventful lives alone.
1t was not a kindly school for solitary
girl to be brought up in; but the one
daughter of the family had been brought
up in it, and had never left it for more
than few hours from the day of her
birth. There were no friends for her :;
she had no share even in the rough coun-
try rejoicings or equally rough SORROW
ings. She had never been pretty girl,
or even an attractive one she had scarce
ly one redeeming feature, perhaps, and
was, in fact, in her freshest youth, moth
ing more than a silent, hOmely little body,
a
shrinking expression had a pithes of its
own. But the days of her youth were
over now, and she was a woman nearly
thirty years of age, and there We're shad-
owy lines Oh her face. and her small fig
ure had set into certain staitlness. and
her eyes were meek and sad. but withal
held far back in their depths u usefulness
which might have grown out of long
waiting and watching.
And it was out of long waiting and
watching that it had grown. The cohl-
monplace, uninteresting little woman had
lived through her small romance, after all.
unprOmising and ordinary a one rs il Ii ID
been. In her fathers day, by some strange
chance, there had come a lover. who found
in Tabitha what he fancietl he had not
found in other women. He was young
man, hale young Yorkshire farmer,
with a rough bit of sentiment in his hardy
nature, and somehow this little woman.
who had lived all her days in a solitary
farm house on the mOorlands, found the
way to his heart and touched it. So he
set about the task of winning her. 1t
was great wonder to her at first. a great
marvel, and it was long time before she
quietly cOmprehended the truth; but at
ter the slow Weakening TO it she was stirred
through every fibre of her ignorant. in
experienced heart; her whole teing was
permeated with light and warmth OF
which she had never dreamed. She had
never even read of such things as other
women had, so it was new to her from be-
ginning to end, and she loved in it in an
intense way not even this honest lover
ever understood. She had not learned
enough to be demOnstrative, SO he never
knew how wOndrous n bliss he had
brought to her-indeed, it is to be ques-
toned whether she knew enough about
the matter to call it bliss herself-but at
least he could see that he had not failed.
yva "a haiti 10 IN M.
fought The gentle, broken-spirited faith
er gave his consent with a readiness which
was almost eager. Perhaps he longed to
save the girl from years of such lire as
his own But the mother held out against
them with causeless bitterness. She had
taken one of her sudden. unaccOuntable
dIslikes To poor Lem Burt, and she
showed it in this exercise Of her power
against him.
"Girls are better at home" she said
'let rabitha stay where she is"
She was as unyielding as rock for
rash hot headed Lem dared to defy her
and then in the end she gave way with as
little reason and as much rigid sternness
as she had displayed in crossing them.
Let her CO." she said grizzly; ''she
will find it OUT
And SO Tabitha was married, and al
the fathers request the young hus-
abode at the farm house instead
of finding home for themselves. II
was a terrible mistake, as might have beer
expected. The strong, hot-headed Young
YOrkshireman had will of his own, az
well as 1.-THE Mistress and not many
months had passed before the two were
sworn enemies. between whom was car
riet on deadly feud. Roger and Ia
bitha bent before the blast of the daily
storms, but Lem never gave way an inch
He would have carried Tabitha elsew here
but the poor tender creature clung stead
lastly, though perhaps with mistaken
lovingness, to her father.
'.Let us wait a while, Lem" she would
say; think of poor father. He is no
long for the world. Better for us to stay
and bear with him a while, than go fol
our own sakes, and leave him to bear al
alone"
And though at first LENS warm hear
was touched by the appeal, the time came