The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1874-01-09
CHE Uribnuf.



It was Christmas eve. The old farm |
house away up on the Berkshire Hills |
showed its sharp black outlines against |
The western sky, in which the faint gold
Of twilight was fading into steel gray.
Rather grand outlines it made. too. ex-
cept that slight spinal curvature mark
ed the main roof The great chimneys,
che dark gables, the we'll sweep, the tall
stiff porlaxs silnouetted themselves
against the clear heavens with striki az
effect, and when the candles were Ii <btcd
ih the kitchen, and from It's TWO narrow
windows, two rosy quiyerias r.ys shot
out across the snow drifts of the fore
ground, the picture Was omplete.
1t you were stranger. End stranger
Of decently poetical imagination, you
would Fave looked at til is picture as you
foiled up the mountain road and fancied
that you could see gathered around the
great kitchen fireplace circle Of happy
people from the f,ald.headed grandsile
down to the late,st bald headed grand
baby-met Their. together to celebrate
this most beau iiful festival oS the year.
IF you were II acquainted in those parts.
you would b.. pretty sure to know that
only two pc ople were sitting there in the
splendid g. leEght-two old, weather beat
en-, life-V farped people,-husband and
wife, sit ing silent and solitary in the
rosy ligf It. hardly thinking of Christmas,
much less feeling at all festive over it.
Even the deg,-a heavy old sheperd-as
he 10 beFore the FIRE Blinking, medita-
nng add occassionaiay nodding, had an
air ~of having triamphed over all the
FIR ivoiittes of life, and Of having come to
regard ats joys solely Through the pensive
Anedium of snemory-
T'ney we're not bad faces, the faces Of
that cid couple. The old man s. eyes still
had persistent twinkle, as if an eternal
boyhcod of the seni fingered behind
them but his mouth shut together
4nuesa like a steel trap. so hard and firm
1t looked You couldn't help but think
that it didn't wear that look once, that
some bitter experience had made it so.
The old wife's face was gentle one !;
Hothiag of steel and iron in her eyes or
mouth. but an abiding tender sadness
much at variance with the vivacious play
of the knitting kneedles in her energetic
Singers.
Such old hearts are apt TO sit in ST.
hence They have grown SO accustomed
to each other that conversation is much
AiLe sna.tino oInr,d To Golf The
wife voice sounded like that when it
in upon the ticking of the great
clock and the soft roar and craokle of the
fire
Thirteen years ago to- night, since
Johnny went away ~ she said.
Like a fool p added the steel-trap
mouth with a snap.
Then there was another long silence.
"Like wild boy, father" pleaded the
soft voice.
Like darned fool, | say |" almost
biting the stem of his clay pipe in twain.
''He set the world by her, John; and
don't you remember ho~ you set the
world by me, once - with coquettish
shake of her snowy cap ruff1es.
''IIumphl" said the steel trap but
the old fellow bent forward and CALAMITY
restored the gray ball of yarn that had
--rolled to his feet, and the twinkle in his
eyes increased.
L.
Indignantly, as If fearful of having com
--mitted himself in that twinkle. IF he
-4nust run away, he might ha run de-
Gently, like a man; | wo"ld' mt ha stole
my fathers horse to run off unh the
Queen of Shelby herself And Cor him
TO go and put off with that miserable,
little, cItiGed, shiftless' voice sub.
sided into a growl, as if simple adjec-
tfyes were becoming too weak for the oc
easion.
Thereupon ensued the old discussio2,
she mother all clemency and regret, the
father all indignation aad vengeance
over the sorrowful affair of thirteen
years ago. The prohibited love match,
and the secret and shameful runaway of
this only child They seldom mentioned
it in these later years. They knew that
the infatuated, desperate, law defying
young people had gone Tout west; and
that was pretty much the same as if chey
had dropped into their graves. Once, to
lzbe sure, constrained letter had arrived
from San Francisco. enclosing money
enough to purchase much more valua-
BILE horse tkan that which had spirited