The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-07-30

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ing such a thing" when. without another
word, he walked quietly u of the shop,
leaving me worse than ever.
For that boy had never spoken to me
like that before, and L should have gone
after him feeling mad like, only some peo-
pie came in. and [ didn't see him again
till evening, and a good thing, too, for
I'm sure should have said all sorts of
things to the boy, that | should have been
sorry for after. And there | was fuming
and fretting about, savage with every
body, giving short answers, swapping at
the wife, and feeling Dis a man does feel
when he knows that he has been in the
wrong and hasn't the heart 10 go and own
it.
1t was about eight O'Clock that | was
sitting by the parlor fire, with the wife
working and very quiet, when Luke came
in from the workshop with a book under
his arm, for he had been tOtting up the
mems pieceWOrk, a I'd what was due TO
them and the sight of him made me feel
as If | must quarrel.
He saw it too. but he said nothing, only
put the accounts away and began to read.
The wife saw the storm brewing, and
she knew how put out | was, for L had
not lit my pipe, nor yet had my evening
tea. So she did what she knew SO well
how to dO-tilled my pipe, forced it into
my hand, and just as | was going to dash
it 10 pieces in the ashes, she gave me one
nt hnr old lnnt-S tiCcaf mo on tho tnrn-
head, as with one hand she pressed me
back into my chair, and then with the
other she lit a splint and held it to my to-
baccO.
| was done. She always gets over me
like that; and after smoking in silence for
half an hour. | was lying back, with my
eyes closed, dropping off to sleep, when
the wife said (what had gone before |
hadn't heard)-
eyes, he's asleep now"
That woke me up, of course, and if |
didn't lie there shamming and heard all
they said in a whisper.
How came You to make him more
veXed than he was. Luke" said the wife;
and he told her.
II couldn't do it, mother" ne said ex-
citcdly. ut was heait-breaking. She's
living in a wretched room there with her
daughter; and, mother, when | saw her
felt as it-there, | can't tell YOU"
go on. Luke" she said.
"They're half starved" he said, in a
husky way. "Oh, mother, it's horrible.
Such a sweet, beautiful girl, and the poor
woman herself dying almost with some
terrible disease
The wife sighed.
They told me-" he went on. show
hard they had tried to live by ordinary
needlework, and failed, and that as a
IaSt reSource they had tried to get the
machine"
Poor things" says the wife; ''but
are you sure the mother was a Lady,"
"A ~clergyman's widow" says Luke, |
hastily; There isn't a doubt about it.
Poor girl and they've got to learn to use |
it before it will be of any use."
Poor girl, Luke?" says the wife. soft
ly and | saw through my eyelashes that
she laid a hand upon his arm and was
looking ~curiously at him, when if he didn't
cover his face with his hands. rest his ell
bows Oh the table. and give a grOan! Then
the old woman got up, stood behind his
chair, and began playing with and caress-
ing his hair like the foolish old mother
would.
Mother" he says suddenly, will you
go and see them -
She didn answer for a minute, only
stood looking down at him, and then said
softly
"They paid you the first money!" 4
NO" he says. hOtly, 81 hadn't the
heart to take it,"
"Then that money you paid was yours,
Luke?"
Yes, MOTHER he says, simply; and
those two stopped looking one at the 9TH
er, till the wife bent down and kissed him,
holding his head afterwards for a few mo-
ments between her hands for she always
did worship that chap, Il only one; and
then | closed my eyes tight and went on
breathing heavy and thinking.
For something like a new revelation had
upon me. [ knew Luke wa five
and twenty and that [ was tifty-four, but
he always seemed like a boy to me, and
here | was waking up to the fact that he
was a grown man, and that he was think
ing and feeling as | first thought and felt
when saw his mother, nigh upon eight
and twenty years ago.
lay back, thinking and telling myself
| was very savage with him for deceiving
me, and that [ wouldn't nave him and his
mother laying plots together against me,
and that | wouldn't stand by and see him
make q fool of himself with the first nrottr