Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-02-16

ueriOOt. anu lnerc L was a-laklng WHSLE
ing, and shaving early and late, TO be
kinder decent and forehanded, and him no
better'n than dead man on my nands, so
far as helping any was concerned. And so
/ told, time and again. lie worked just
about enough TO keep himself in drink.
He knew he couldn'tg get any Of my money
for that.
"But stood it all till about fortnight
ago. I'd been working hard all day help
ing Miss Barber clean house, and ii seemed
as if every bonelin my body ached, was
so tired. | came along home thinking
how good my cup of tea'd taste. The first
thing l see, when l opened the kitchen
door, was old Hank Slater setting there in
my rocking chair. lie and Josiah were
both drunk as-as hogs" said Nabby,
slandering an innocent animal in her haste
for n simle.
"Theyd tracked the mud all over my
clean floors. The cooking stove was jam
med full of wood, roaring like all possess
ed. | wonder they hadn't burned the
house up before I got there. And they'd
got my best teapot out to heat some water
and the water had all billed away and the
bottom came out. But the worst was tc .
see my husband a-consorting with such
scum of the earth as that miserable, low
/ lived Hank Slater | tell you squire, ]
was mad. | just flung that kitchen door
wide open, and sez /:
"Get out of this house, Josiah Gould,
and don't never let me see your face inside
ont again."
''Sez he as meek as Moses, Where shall
I go TO, Nabby?'
"Sez |, Il don't care where you go to, so
long as you don't come near me. I've al
ways been n respectable woman, and
don't want none of Hank Slater's friends
round my house,
"Well?" queried the squire, as Nabby's
narration came to pause.
"Well," said Nabby in rather a subdued
tone, "he went off. And he hain't come
back. And want divorce
"Now, Nabby," demonstrated the squire,
"yOu don't want a divorce. l know you
better than that. You are not the woman
to give Josiah up, and let him go to the
bad without n struggle. You feel a little
vcxed with him now, and don't blame
you. 1t is hard, very hard. But you know
you took him for better or for worse DO
you think, yourself, that it is quite right to
break your contract because it proves the
worse for you-because you are the strong
one and he the weak one of the two? That
don't strike me as good Bible doctrine,
Nabby. We that are strong ought to bear
the infirmitics of the weak, and not to
please ourselves, you know"
"Wcll, dunno" said Nabby, twisting
the corner of her shawl obviously. "I
hadn't thought on it in that light, must
say. It's so aggravating to have such Il
man for husband. Besides. I dunno's
he'd come back now if l wanted him to-"
"Hasn't he been back at all p
"Why, yes, he did come once, for pair
Of pantaloons. But didn't take no notice
of him.
"Now Nabby, you may depend upon it,
il wasn't the panisloons he was aflsr. Hs
wanted TO see If you wouldn't reent. If
he comes again, be little pleasant to him,
and I'll warrant he'll stay. Give him an
other chance, Nabby. Josiah isn't the
worst fellow in the world by any means.
He has his redeeming traits, after all. |
believe he will be better, if you try to help
him. You know Josiah is one that bears
a good deal of encouragement, Nabby."
"Well, squire, I'll think it over. Any
how, I'm obliged to you. You're your
mothers own son; just the same good
heart. Would You be able to eat some OF
my cheese, squre?'
"Try me, and see, Nabby," said the
squire smilingly, not impervious to Nab
by's compliments.
Nabby made her exit just as Mrs. Hos
ley rushed in, full of wifely indignation
that the squire had been allowed to see q
client.
Nabby's home was over at the Corners
three miles from the village. She walked
; rapidly a long in the fast thckening dark.
ness, with the steady, strong gait becoming
the strong woman that she was. Yet even
! her imaginative nature was not proc
: against the depressing influence of tn,
chilly, raw November evening. The win,
? whistled through the bare tree branches
= which creaked and groaned mournfuly
= and waved wildly up and down in the din
light overhead. The wind seemed to cher
ish special spite against Nabby. 1t blew
C her bonnet off and her hair into her eyes
struggled madly with her for her shawl
took her breath away, and firmly resiste.
: her every step. Finally, it began TO sent
spiteful dashes of cold ran-droTs in he
= iace-rain that seemed almost to freeze hel
e as it fell
- "Josah used to come after me with al
e umbrella when l was caught out in tn
< rain," thought Nabby. ale was alway
=. kind and good to me, after all. | dunno
4 he ever gave me a cross word in his life
= even when he had been drinking"
i Here the driving, sleety rain poure,
$ down upon Nabby with renewed fierce
!, ness, hustling her madly around in fiend
o ish glee.
"An awful night to be homeless, Nabby,
T. something seemed TO say.
:. 81 don't care" said Nabby to herself, be
!, ginning to feel cross again, and general
S il-used as she grew wetter and colder
- at served him right He's made his bed
c and he can lie in it,"
5 At the Corners, the light streamn
!, cheeriuly out into the night from othe
4 homes made Nabby's little house look pal
= ticularly gloomy and uninviting. Nabb
i fumbled under the mat for the door-key
@ fnmbled with stiflened fingers for the key
J. hole, and finally succeeding in unlockn
J. the door, felt her way through the It'll
entry.
- There is always something "uncanny
II about going alone at night into dark an
shut up house. Even people OF the hes
:, regulated minds experience a vague susp
k cion of something behind them, sense
y possible ghostly hands about to cutc
II them in the darkness. Nabby was a W.
n man. like Mrs. Edmund Sparkler, with y
G. nonsense about her but, nevertheless,
&c cheerful tale she had read yesterday in II
y Chronicle, about burglar and lone w
d man, kept coming into her head, and sl