Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1876-06-22
troubled, and she said it was a subject
that sbould not be ioked about.

! though he was bit reugn' "ouidn
take any notice of it /; and when at last
asked him to come and have bit Of
dinner with us, and said that Lizzy
would be glad if he'd come, and held
out my hand, he turned sharp round,
and looked me full in the face for few
moments, and then said he would come
Sunday came, and so did Dick Green ;
but somehow that dinner did not come
off as nicely as I should have liked. l
almost felt cross, for Lizzy was not as l
should have liked her to be; but when
we had our drop of ale and sat smoking
our pipes at the windows gazing out at
the glorious prospect, ten feet off, of a
gal nussin' baby at the opposite win
dow, things seemed to go little more
smoothly.
That did what / wanted, though.
Dick grew quite friendly, though not
10 the open way that | should have
liked-but set that down to my own
disagreeable way of looking at things !;
and last of all, I got to be sorry that [
had ever tried to be friends again, for
he took to coming much more often
than 1 wished and I can't say as /
liked finding him there twice when /
went home.
The last time, I couldn't help it, l
spoke to Lizzy about it when he'd gone,
and she laid her little hand on my
shoulder, and said she'd much rather I'd
ask him not to come when II kissed
her, and called myself disagreeable
brute for feeling as I'd done.
might have put a stop to Dicks
coming, or l might not-l can't say
but it was all put aside by the changes
going on at the works, for the very
next week Dick Green was amongst
the batch discharged, and that ended 1t
it-for the time.
said that l was all in trouble about
the changes going on and trembling
lest should be one Of the next; for
you see, instead of being well forward,
I was a little behind. Not that you
must think I was careless, for that
wasn't the case. 1t was the getting
married made me short, for we had
been buying furniture, and pots, and
pans and kettles every Saturday night,
till used to wonder how big van it
would take if ever we had to move.
never told Lizzy a word of what
was going on. for l says to myself,
what's the good of making her miser-
able But at last all that had expect
ed camel was paid off, one of the
very last too; and on the Monday
morning, when, like from regular Gus
tom. l walked round to the works,
hang me if the great, stupid, soft tears
didn't come into my eyes when saw
the gates closed, and the whole place
one great, black dreary desert. There
was no Kissing of steam, no whirring
of wheels no "thud, thud, thud" of
the great Nasmyths on red~hot iron
nothing but silence without so much
as puff of smoke from the great
furnace shafts. The fires were out
the works were closed!
hadn't told Lizzy-I never felt the
heart-all Saturday night and Sunday,
and l left her that morning singing as
blithe as lark. So 1 hung about till
breakfast time, and then went back to
break it to her, and break it l did.
'Lord bless you, there's nothing like
good wife to give a man strength, !
says doubles him directly And
then we lad our heads together to
fight the world and after bit of talk
we settled that it would be pity to
break up our little home, and though
we We're half heart. broken at having to
separate, there seemed to be nothing
else for it. You see, we had bit OF
credit where we were, and Mrs Chadds,
our landlady, was easy, and it seemed
like taking Lizzie away from home and
friends SO we settled it that she should
stay, and I was to go on tramp down
to the big towns nor Inward, to try and
get work.
1t never rains but it pours, men say,
and now it was as if the big, black
cloud had come with vengeance, and
I shivered as l stepped out into our
court on as black and dreary foggy
morning as ever made man miserable.
We'd got it over-that parting for
wouldn't let her come out upon the
stairs where the other dodgers could
see her. and my head seemed filled
with the picture of her sitting of a
heap-like upon the floor, and was
obliged, when l tore myself away, to
take her poor arms from round my
neck and run away.
If there's any one thing that will
take the respect out of man who is
willing, it is tramping from town to
town in search Of work. And after all,
perhaps no wonder, for one gets into a
queer, low way, specially if a man.
situated as / was, trembling for ever,
penny spent, as | thought of her sit
| tino WATCHING and waiting at home for