The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1875-03-18
REDEEMED.

$3.50
The fact is, we were both too you
TO marry. She was eighteen, / W
barely in my majority but she was
poor deSolate little orphan sent ont in
the cold world to do the best she cou
for herself rs a governess; / was mad
IN love with her, and [ was my oV
master; w had no wiser heads to adyi
M and no nor experienced hands
gnide us-sO we took our own way,
was but natural, and married on IL
clcrkahip Of three hundred u year.
need scarcely say We vera happy. FL
the first two years, indeed, it seemed l
me as if ] bad never really lived mt
now. Our pretty little home ut XII
burn was bright md cheerful. Edit
was always afcctionate, always good
tempered, and, like AnnabGi Ire, seem
cd to live with no other Thought thai
to love and be loved by mo-" MY wori
sat on me easily; and being young poo
pie Of moderate tastes, we had money
enough for all we wanted. There was
not a flaw anywhere, and the days were
scarcely long enough for the Joy that
filed them with sunshine from begin
ming to end.
All this continued for two years, and
then my wife became a mother,
This was the first break in cur man.
Icr of life-the first shadow cast over
The brightness of onr hnppy ioyo. II
changed the whole order of things, and
the change told heavily against me.
Edith was 10 longer my companion as
she had been, The baby was delicate,
aud her health also gave way. Sho was
obliged to 90 to her own Don quite
early in tho evening, sometimesa ut seven
o'clock or 80, and even when she was
well she was up in the morning with
the child, and the evenings hung ON me
heavy and long. | was 40 student in
those dayp. i VAS social, and If not in
ordinately, yet undoubtedly fond of
amusement; hence, sitting alone for al
these hours after my solitary dinner
for Filth dined early by the doctors
ordew-wal weary work for me, and |
grew daily more fretted by the dizziness
OF my once sunshiny home.
| tell the story Just as 1t was not to
excuse myself, but to explain.
Also, too, the desire for more eIpe-
riencs natural to my age began to make
itself felt, and more than once / found
myself confossing, eve married too
Jouug.' Yet I did not wish for diasi-
/ was not consciouso Of a reserve
pf wild oats that was longing to SOW,
but ] did want n little change from The
'u%onotony of my spoiled home. ] waa
yearning for the society Of men Of my
own age and standing, and naturally
the boy, though | loved him well
enough-for all that thought him the
ugl,est and Oldest little imp | had ever
seen-was not to me what he was to his
mother. 10 her, indeed, he was svery-
thing. The mother had superseded tho
wife, and the husband was nowhere in
comparison, with the child Edith was
angry too that | did not, NJ she phrased
it. "take to him more" and / was
angry that she took to him SO much.
May be that | was jealous. On looking
back / should say that | was.
Just when BERTHE was three months
old n fellow in our office introduced me
to Jack Langhorne. Handsome, welt
hammered, rich, gay, good tempered,
generous, Jack was just the mar to fas-
climate a comparatively raw lad, as ]
sill was. He knew everything, being
i of the kind who start at seventeen
as men, and "lee life systematically
from that time. There was not M ao.
cJmplishment in which he was not a pro,
ticitnt not d game he could no. play,
giving long odds and winning. He was
lavish of his money, and II gambler by
inbred instinct. He was always stalking
his fate o chance, and hitherto chance
had been his friend. He used often to
say that he had been too lucky, and that
he should have to pay for it before he
had done. Nevertheless the day of pay
ment gave 10 sign of dawning, and Jack
vent oil stalking aud lending, backing
the right color and the Winning horse
M if he had Il private Nostrodamus Mt
his elbow, and could read the future as
other men conld read the past.
L dare say many Of my readers will
laugh at me for the confe ssiOn, bat |
had never seen n race until Jack Long
horne took me doSn to the Derby on
his drag. II was "a day both of great
enjoyment and great excitement to me,
for under his auspices / was wild WITH
pleasure (; perhaps, too, the champagne
counted for something in my hilarity,
rs | took home TO Edith a sixth Of my
yearly income, made in fewer hours
tban it took me to card my paltry dur.
nal guinea. Visions Of fortune, golden
and bright, pissed b for my eyes, and
olrcads I saw Edith queeniug it in the
park with her high.stapDlDg bays md
faultless turnout. She should have
everything money could %comnahd.
Whatever else my visions showed me
she was always foremost in my thoughts
and highest Ia my hopes.
Blu, when I gave her the money she
turned away from me coldly, and u min
nte after had buried her face in the
pillow OF the sofa where she was lying
snd was sobbing. / was a good deal
surprised, a little shocked, aud greatly
burt had better uso the harshsr
word aud say v.xed at this %ou,nurst.
1 did not see the Potd Of 1T, aud | did
not understand II. Besides, it chills a
man so painfully to be received with
GOODNESS and tears after such a day as !