Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-07-17

tient man, he seldom complained But
would he have been justified if he had,
and was it to his credit that he did not ?
No, to both
There was an unusual amount of
work on hand this Saturday night, and
Mary Matthews glanced at the basket,
and then at the clock, and looked very
doubtful as to whether her task could
be accomplished in the given time, yet,
the manner in which she immediately
went to work indicated that she was re-
solved at least to make the endeavor.
And as this little woman seaOed, there
sprang up after her, little patches upon
garment-land, growing there as though
to be never uprooted. And where
baby's little toes had gone through his
socks and out into the wide, wide
world, the mother placed delicate wick
er-work to keep them in. Archie's lit
tie feet had backed out of his stockings
to boot, but Mary Matthews heezed the
gaping injury, and with her surgeon
Like needle skillfully united the raw
edges that modification could not result
therefrom. In the husbands hose, the
wife barred and cross barred all the I'M
lawful openings, till it would have been
difficult for light or cold to have entered
by those means again. Then Myrtle's
Sunday dress was taken down an inch or
two, that it might not feel so much
above her, and the waist to Sadie's
frock was eyed till it promised to never
finch from duty again. There were
only fifteen minutes ere the clock would
strike twelve, but in ten of them this
persevering woman liberated a dashing
little butterfly from brown silk chrysa-
lis, and in the remaining five folded up
the evenings work and laid it aside.
Then she looked up to John, who suit
near by, giving him smile of affection
requiring only one in return to
cause her heart, tired as it was with the
weeks hurry and worry, to bound for
very Joy. But stretch and yawn was
all that he sent back across the wave of
light that had flashed over at him. All,
had he but sent smile her woman
heart would have made so much of it
she would have seen in it more than his
nature could have possibly felt !; appre-
citation, sympathy, love-foryou remem-
Der she could make little go a great
way. Itwould have been to her sweet
blessing, she would have rested upon it
all the coming week, and have placed it
as compensation against every disap-
pointment- John smiled upon me-
John thinks of me-" John loves
me" But as it was, he only said he
was tired, and was glad she was through
for the night And the weary woman,
with an unsatisfed longing in her soul,
a craving i'll her heart for sympathy,
caught up her baby from the cradle,
and Rugged it tightly to her bosom,
kissing its fair face again and again.
Baby was asleep, but its clumsy fist
opened wide of a sudden, and the tiny
hand clasped itself around the mother
finger, and would not let go. 1t was
very little thing for baby to do, but it
cheered the lonely heart wonderfully
the haggard look left her countenance,
and warmer hue succeeded. You call
her foolish again, and say it was only an
accident-that no emotion stirred the
baby-heart of the slumberer. Perhaps
you are right, my friend, but love to
think that the God who has hidden
from the wise what he has revealed unto
babes, sent comfort to the mother
through the child. Any way, [ know
that his blessing rested upon them that.
Saturday night in the Long Ago.
CHAPTER II.
It was in the early winter Baby
Matthews was wrapped in his warmest
fannels, but somehow they did not keep
out the cold. At last, before night
came on, the little fellow vho had wor-
ried all the day, began to breathe very
hard, and gave palpable evidence that
he was sick. Mary Matthews feared her
boy was attacked with Group, and want
ed a physician summoned. But the
father of the child said he would bewel
over it by morning-it was nothing
and he didn't believe in doctors. He
was correct in the first particular, for
ere the struggling rays of light pene-
trated that little bedroom, baby
Matthews put up his little hands in great
pain, and the Savior looking down
upon the suffering child, had compass
sion upon it, and took it up in his arms
and healed it. Earthly eyes pronounced
it dead, after that, and so the treasure
was buried in the ground.
It would be doing injustice to John
Matthews to say he did not miss the
little thing, though I do not think he
mourned. He could labor all day and
never feel his loss till he entered his
home at night, but with Mary, his wife,
the case was different In all her work
had the little face been associated ::
kneading her bread she had watched
the baby on the floor, that no harm
might come near; in washing her
dishes she bad handled them gently that
the sleeper might slumber when baby
cried out from any cause, there had al
ways been song on her lips to quiet
him. Whether in her arms or out, the
care of the blessing had been in her
every thought. Was it strange then
that the mother-heart ached-that it
cried aloud in its grief, though there
were others yet left to be cared for :?
All, no, it was but natural, for none but
baby can fill the empty place in the
cradle. The little woman did not give
up, however. She toiled early and
late, and devoted herself still more to
the children that remained, praying
that God would spare them to her lone
ly heart.
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