The Red Cloud chief., 1875-10-07
REDEEMED.

REDEEMED.
The fact If, We were both too young
to marry. She was eighteen, l was
barely in my majority; but she was a
poor, desolate little orphan, sent out into
the cold world to do the bert she could
for herself as a governess; / was madly
in love with her, and l was my "
master: We had no wiser heads to ad-
wise us and no more experienced hands
10 guide $3.50 we took our " way, as
was but natural, and married on my
clerkship of three hundred a year. l
need scarcely say We were happy. For
the first two years indeed it seemed to
me as if l had really never lived until
now. Our pretty little home at Kilburn
was bright and cheerful. Edith was
always affec,ionste, always good tenn
pered, and like Annsbel Lee, seemed to
live with no other thought than to love
and he loved by me-" My work sat on
me easily, and being young people OF
moderate tastes, We had money enough
for all We wanted. There was not a flaw
anywhere, and the days were scarcely
long enorgh for the joys that filed
them with sunshine from beginning to
end.
All this continued for two years, and
then my wife became a mother.
This was the first break in our man
ner of life, the first shadow cast over the
brightness of our happy love. 1t
changed the whole order of things, and
the changes told heavily against me.
Edith was no longer my companion as
she had been. The baby was delicate,
and her health also gave way. &c was
obliged to go to BE- " room quite
early in rs evening, sometimes at seven
O'Clock or 30, and even when she was
we'll. she was up in the morning with
the child, and the evenings hung on me
heavily and long. I was no student in
those days. I wss social, and # not in
ordinately yet undoubtedly fond Of
amusement; hence, sitting alone for all
these hours after my solitary dinner-for
Edith dined early by the doctors orders
was dreary work for me, and l grew
daily more fretted, by the dulness OF
my once sunshiny home.
tell the story just as it was; not to
excuse myself, but to explain.
Also, too, the desire for more expert
ence natural to my age began to make
itself felt and more than once l found
myself c~onfessing I'VE married too
young.n Yet I did not wish for dissi-
patton; l wa not conscious of a reserve
of wild oats that l was longing to SOW.
but I did want q little change from the
dead monotony of my spoiled home. 1
was yearning for the society of men of
my own age and standing, and naturally
the boy, though I loved him we'll enough
for all that I thought him the ugliest
and oldest little imp I Lad ever seen
was not to me what he was to his mother.
To her indeed he was everything. The
mother had superseded the wife, and the
husband was nowhere in comparison
with the child. Edith was angry, too,
that I did not. as she phrased it, ''take
to him more" and I was angry that she
took to him so much. May be that I
was jealous. On looking back I should
say that I VA.
Just when Berthe va three months
old q fellow In our Office introduced me
tc Jack Langhorne. Handsome, we'll
hammered. rich, gay, good tempered,
generous Jack was just the nan to
fascinate q comparatively raw lad, as I
still Wa. He knew everything, being
one of the kind who start at seventeen
q men, and "see life" systematically
from that time. There was not an &C.
complainant in which he was not q
proficient; not q game he could not play,
giving long odds and winning. He was
lavish of his money, and q gambler by
inbred instinct. He was always stalking
his fate on chance, and hitherto cnance
had been his friend. He used often to
cay that he had been too lucky, and that
he should have to pay for it before he
had done. Nevertheless, the day If pay
ment had no sign of dawning, and Jack
went on stalking and landing. backing
the right color and the winning horse. ss
If he had . private Nastrodamus at his
elbow, and could read the future as
other men could read the past.
/ dare sAy many Of my readers will
laugh It me for the confession, but I had
never sen . roe unul Jack LAnghorne
took ne dovA 70 the Derby on his drag.
Il wasGsa9 both Of great enjoyment
andeMst excitsneat 10 me for under
Asmpsess I sstssd atty pounds. and I
ualli6naire. ! v0 wild with
plaaauve; psn1apa, too. the cham
pens eo1sAs1 1br sansthiag in my hill