Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-06-11
THE GRASS WIDOW.

| LIE UhhbO WIDOUs
.s BY MAReABET BIIoNT. ~
IT was pleasant-looking old kitchen,
that of the red farmhouse on the hill
| the house Just shaded by the encircling
arms of four great maple trees. ..s.,.
A pleasant kitchen, clean and orderly
and neat, as kitchen should always be
in The house where mistress and not a
servant-maid is the presiding genius of
the scene. The floor was painted yellow
and was clean enough to "eat off Of" as
the country people say. The walls were
] papered with a pretty pattern, crimson
roses on deep buff ground, that gave a
home.l like, cosy look to the room, a acd7m
look, moreover, that was decidedly agree
able, now that the cold nights of Novem-
| Der were just about drawing in.e
a great cooking stove stood in one cor
ner of the room, opposite a cupboard,
whose glass doors displayed q goodly
store of delf and china, ono set of
which appeared to be very valuable, for
it was evidently of foreign manufacture.
| 1t was curiosity in its way. Red rose
buds on a translucently white ground,
with the initials ct. s. NJ" flourished all
over each cup and plate and saucer in
twining tendrils of true lovers knot.
young sailor, Tom Parke, to his wife
Mary on their wedding day; and he had
brought it over from Canton, where
it was made, through many an
ocean storm, to place it on the
teatable of their farm house home upon
that wedding night. Each piece of
porcelain had its own particular story to
| tell, its own peculiar remembrance to
evoke. And therefore Mrs. Parke never
used it now and turned her eyes toward
the glass cupboard that held it as seldom
as she could. The pleasant kitchen was
her own favorite sitting-room, and she
would have moved the Canton china out
of that cupboard into another in the
"square room" if she had only dared.
But some strange feeling, of which she
was more than half ashamed, seemed to
stay her hand, 1t was Tom who had
| first plaCedthe cups and saucers there;
| Tom who had spent an hour or more on
the morning after their wedding in de-
Gliding where each particular dish should
stand. They had been taken down and
used now and then, and washed and
wiped and put carefully back in the
same places during the ten years of her
married life. For five years she had
lbeen what her neighbors called grass
widow" and the cups and saucers stood
| there yet. If ever she thought seriously
of moving them handsome, grave face
seemed to rise up suddenly before her,
and pair of deep blue eyes looked into
herRvery Fsoul-the eyes, the faces of
/ TOIns Parke as her lover-husband twenty
| years agof Was it any wonder that the
Canton china remained theresstill nn-
touched?
On the night of which write Mrs
| Parke sat alone in her kitchen, listening
to the signing and " soughing" of the
rising wind among the maple-trees and
the orchard on the garden side. There
was no firem the great cooking stove,
bnt on the broad brick, hearth bright
DlaZe snapped and cracked, much to the
content and pleasure of the old tabby
cat curled up in heap before it, with
her kitten for pillow. The freight
danced and flickered in every nook and
corner of the room, showing the china
behind the glass doors of the cupboard ;
the six Windsor chairs and the oaken
dining-table. with its cloth and tray
neatly folded on the top; it sparkled on
the open work-boX that stood on the lit
tie sewing-stand by the widows side, and
gilded the red peppers hanging in strings
above the chimney-piece.
More than all, it shone fairly and
broadly on the widow herself as she sat
looking thoughtfully into the blaze, and
showed a woman of thirty-five, fair,
buXom and comely, with deep gray eyes
and soft brown HAIR, a bcaming, good
| tempered look, and yet "a mouth that
closed somewhat firmly in spite of the
ripe red lips and their fresh color. Not
a bad.loolling dame, by any means, was
Mrs. Parke; and when you remember
that the farm of seventy acres was all her
1 own, gtogetherw withthe cpmfortable house
and alt its plenishing, You will not be
surprised to hear that If Tom Parke had
but been taken to the spirit world sultors
| without end would have appliedto take
the land and all things else Of value at
the halves" provided the good-looking
mistress of the house was included in the
bargain.
Everyone said and thought that 1t was
O great pity Tom Parke could not " step
Eout" and give his wife u rplance to try
her Tuck again. Did Mrs. Parke think
so too? No one knew. No one had ever
heard her-say. v.-,
|. Tom Pafke chad been,a handsome, care,
| less sailof when he narfied her and he
grew more handsome and more careless
as the days and yearsiwent by Whose
fault it was none but the married paiT
could really say, but the new home was
notlong happy one, and, as no children
came to bind them nearer together, hus'
band and wife feih, farther and farther
dparb and Al last Separated BY mutual
consent Tom P6fke went to sea once
more, and cruised here, there and every
where, as his fancy led him. Mrs. ParkC
/ stayed quietly on at the farm, and viii
the help of her uncle, who lived In the
house with her, managed things so ad
mirably that She grew quite rich. AnC
five years went by without a word or line
from Tom. No one knew certainly tina
he was alive. No one could swear tha
J he was dead. Two more years and hi
wife, or widow, might legally suppose
him gone to "Davy Jones locker" ant
, marry again if she chose to do So"
; Wpuld this be her choice? Even he
/ old uncle could not tell. Her husband'
: name was never mentioned by her. M
allusion 70 linn. wae ever made in an,
way in athouse, which had once beel
= his happy home.
n r And YET, on this night, as the widoy
: sat alone, her face was grave and sad
7 and,her soft, gray eyes had an absent
i far'away look in them as they gaEed int
the depths Of the hre, Tom PRrke hRl