The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-10-01

days now gone, pleasure and all. But
Miss Why believed in silence on such
matters, and held her peace; now it
was too late to break it. Nor was
'Tenty disposed to tell her anything +;
for it occurred for the first time to
her innocent soul that she had moth
ing to tell. So they both went on
their way, with secret pity and still
endurance.
After a brief illness of three DAYS,
poor old Doctor Parker's weary soul
and body gave out; he died on a
Thursday afternoon, and, in country
fashion, it was proposed to bury him
on Sunday, from the church. Sunday
came, cold and raw and clustering.
'Tenty took her usual seat in the gal
lery, but took it early, that she might
see the "mourners" come in and fill
the front pews kept for them. She
wiped away the tears from her eyes,
and looked on with a feeling of half
envy, thinking Of the son to whom no
funeral honors should ever now be
paid, slumbering in the cruel seas
that break and roar about the Horn.
She counted the bearers, all known
faces; she watched Parson Goodyear
into the pulpit she saw Mrs. Parker
on her brothers arm. But there was
one other yelled femalefgure, shroud-
ed also in black, whose presence she
could no way account for; and when
Parson Goodyear made his first long
prayer, and sent up an earnest peti-
'tion for the doubly bereaved woman
before him, what did he mean by ad-
ding,-"And Thine other handmade,
in the bloom Of her years bereaved of
hope and promise,-her whom Thou
hast afflicted from afar off, and made
widow before Thee?" What did it
mean? ? 'Tenty's breath fluttered, and
she turned cold. Just at that mo-
ment, one of her neighbors murmured
under her bonnet,-"That's Hammer
Ann, next to Miss Parker; only to
think how sly she's KEEP it a hull
year ! And she engaged to Ed'ard
all that time! I wouldn't never ha'
believed it, eff she hadn't had his let
ters to show fort, an gold watch
he gin her; an Miss Parker says she's
knowed it all the time"
Little more did 'Tenty know Of
psalm or sermon; some whirling
sounds passed her, and then rush Of
people. She was last to leave the
church and when she got home, and
went to make Miss why's tea, as she
tilted the long well-sweep down and
up to draw her pail of water, she look
ed earnestly down the depths of crys'
tai as if to see what lay below, then
quietly opened her left hand above
it;-something bright fell, dashed the
clear drops from fern that grew
halfway down, tinkled against a pro-
jecting stone, made a little splash, and
was gone. 'Tenty took up her pail
and went into the shed: and Ned
Parker's locket lies at the bottom o1
the we'll, for all I know, to this day,
Thenceforth 'Tenty cried no more
though for many weeksshe was grave
wretched, pining.
Winter set in with furious storms
and heavy SHOWS, but, strange to say
Aunt Why grew better; she could
sit up; at length could move about
and at last, one night when she sat by
the fire knitting, suddenly looked uI
at 'Tenty and said,-
"You haven't seen Miss Parker
lately, have you, Content ?"
'Tenty shivered a little.
"No, I have not, Aunt Why"
"Well, it appears as though 20,
should 60 and see her; she's a weakly
woman, but she can set her back VI
dreadful against the Lords doings
and I don't know but what such kim
Of people need comfortin' more 7
others. It's world full O gales, thi
is, and everybody hasn't learnt th'
grass's lesson, to bend when the wine
blows,'
"The Lord sends the wind, Aun
Why"
"The Lord sends everything, onl,
folks don't allow it; they'd ruther la,
it to the door of man, SOS to feel fire
to worry. But the worst thing H
ever does send to people is their owl
way, 'Tenty; and you'll knowit befor
you die"
'Tenty turned away to her work
hardly convinced by Miss Why
wisdom, and inwardly thinking sh
should like to try her own way for al
that. However, 'Tenty suffered ia
less than she might have done, for in
dignation helped her; the feeling tha
Ned Parker had deliberately amuse
himself with her, while she was i
mortal earnest, had lowered him not
little from his height. Then Aun
Why's care diverted her sad thought
from herself, by sending her upo
daily errands to the poor and tn
sick, SO that 'Tenty's pleasant face an
voice became the hope of the hour t
more than one poverty-stricken or dy
ing woman; and so her own grie
measured by theirs shrank and will
drew itself day by day, and becam
something she could now and the
forget. And more than all, her ma
urally sweet temperament and hea
thy organization helped her to r