The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-03-31
CHAPTER XVI.

Mrs. Andrews lay moaning upon the
bed, as helpless as the tiny babe that
nestled in her bosom. The excitement
induced by Madge's sudden disappear
ance had thrown her into a raging
fever, and a merciful delirium en-
wrapped her senses in its gloomy clouds.
Mrs. Perkins, now that the response
bility of the household rested upon her
shoulders, bent resolutely to her tasks,
and by dint of much ordering and coax
ing, so adjusted the housekeeping ma
chinery that her hitherto idle grand
children rendered effective service in
preparing dinner for horde of hungry
harvesters.
After the first excitement was over,
all thought of searching for Madge was
abandoned. The marriage mania was
raging fearfully throughout the Terri
tory, and there being no license law, or
other regulation, to prevent any girl
who was old enough to go through with
the marriage ceremony from taking
upon herself the most solemn, lifelong
connubial obligations, the epidemic
gave no signs of speedy abatement.
The disappearance of anybody's daugh-
ter from her paternal roof occasioned
little surprise, and Madge, being we'll
grown for her age, and very industrious
and capable, was considered a special
catch by calculating wife-hunters in
need of women whom they might "pro-
tect" with roof and eatables, in return
for lifelong servitude without wages.
1t is only the mother, whose senses
are guided by the lamp of bitter expert
ence, and whose love for her daughters
is equaled by her solicitude, while both
love and solicitude are enhanced by
knowledge-she, only, cannot forget,
because she cannot shut from her senses
the well-known blistering paths that
her child's tender, untaught feet must
travel, nor can she hide from her
thoughts the heavy burdens that her
untried shoulders must bear.
In her delirium Mrs. Andrews fancied
that the tiny feet of the nesting infant
on her bosom were. Madge's own, and
the wee pink and white fingers that
played unconsciously with the velvety
face against which they rested, seemed
to her to be already bearing a woman's
burdens, from which she was powerless
to shield her.
For two days Madge remained pris-
Oner in the house of the minister,
closely guarded by her legal head.
But for the enforced restraint to
which she was thus subjected, and the
consciousness that in wronging her
mother she was herself being wronged,
she might have been supremely happy.
But the intense love which she had
brought to the nuptial altar, to lay it as
q willing sacrifice upon the shrine OF
wifely duty, had received a shock which
turned the well-springs of her love into
wormwood; and ere twenty-four hours
of welded life had been her portion, she
inwardly, and in spite of herself, de-
spised the man whom she had vowed to
love, honor, and obey till death.
Yet what was she' to do? AS the
reader knows, she was not ignorant oi
the legal force of the obligation she had
taken; and now that the possession oi
her idol had enabled her to more clearly
perceive the dross in him that she be.
fore had dimly suspected, the glamol
and the excitement alike deserted her
and she was almost desperate. But th'
spiteful rawlings to which she had a.
first unwisely yielded gave way a
length to stolid calmness that wa
even more unsatisfactory to her hus
band than her exhibitions of bad tempe
had been.
The morning of the second day afte
her marriage had dawned, and the min
lister and husband were alike jubilant
'rYou have managed your matrimo
nial affairs exceedingly well, my dea
sir" said the former, in his usual deep
sonorous bass, as he rubbed his soft whit
hands exultantly. as Mrs. Hanson
not coming out to breakfast?" be added
as his pale, puny wife dropped wearil.
in a chair, and cast look of morrifica
tion upon the scraggy-looking frie,
eggs and dirty table-cloth, while sh
sighed inwardly because physically un
able to keep up with her Housekeeping
and keep boarders and other company
in addition to taking care of sickl,
babe, which she knew to be habituall,
neglected, badly as she yearned to do
mothers whole duty.
''My wife is sulking this morning, ;
answered the bridegroom, as he helpe
himself to mullins and eggs, of whicl
he partook heartily.
'Isn't she coming out ?D asked tn
sickly hostess, whose secret soul rebeIIe,
against the violated contract betweel
the bride and groom, to which she ha
been an unwilling witness.
''She said she didn't want any break
fast" answered the husband.
rs she sick ?"
''Oh, no. Only sulking."
''She'll come out of that" remarke
the minister, with a smile. "Wome
always need breaking inn
The wife, who was evidently we
fthroxen in % If one co1ld iud0a nv he