The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1877-02-01
From Harper's Magazine for February.
Romance Of a Barn-yard.

cept those of us that were swinging in thu
hammocEs among the trees; the sea wind
was blowing over lis. the birds were dart
ing low here and there, and the bantam:
and the spring chickens and the big blacl
Cochrs were clucking and picking in the
grass. watched over by the old kins
Charles, who redeemed us from yulgarity
and it was scene OF domestic comfort a;
Aunt Helen said Aunt Helen blythe way
became a very pleasant addition to the
comfortable appearance of the scene, as
she said it. She was Just as plump as q
woman ought to be when her next birth
day is maybe her torteth She had soft
flush on her cheek, where the dmple was
yet as fresh as when she was girl, and
the flush deepened sometimes into Il real
| damaSk her teeth were like rows of seed
corn for whteness, and her eyes were just
as brown as brook water; only her hair
that was quite white. Lovely hair,
though, for all that; she parted it evenly
over her low level forehead and above the
yet black eyebrows; and we all declared,
every day OF our lives, that Aunt Helen
was 4 beauty. Il used to be-" she had re-
Piled; "but that's all gone now | have
put my youth behind me-
Il maps Sllt llttO I'ul VIC Nptti pCUPlC
used to think differently when we saw Mr.
Thornton coming up the road, and Aunt
Helen's eyes resolutely bent Oh her work,
but her color mounting and mounting, till
the reddest rose that ever burned in the
sunshine was not so rich. Mr.. Thornton
saw it too, no doubt, for he always looked
and looked intently all the way by. But
! the truth was-I shall have to tell you all
about it if | tell you any-that when Aunt
Helen was twenty years younger. she and
Mr.. Thornton were lovers. AS they had
been lovers ever since they could remem-
ber They had built their house at last,
and her wedding dress was made. If she
was a beauty he was every inch her mate
i know he was, because he is to-day
one OF the men it does you good to see,
who look as if they could hold up the
world if need be. and inspire you with
confidence in their power. Now what in
the world do you suppose that, with their
house furnished, and the cake baked and
a dozen years OF intimate affection to bind
them, Aunt Helen and Mr.. Thornton found
to quarrel about She declared she would
not keep hens! And he declared that then
he wouldn't keep house That was the
whole Of it, to cOndense the statement j;
one word led 10 another, and another led
to more, and finally, in a towering pas
sion himself, he told Aunt Helen that she
had better learn ~ control her temper if
she didn't want to he a vixen entirely, and
Aunt Helen took the ring off her finger
and laid it on the table without a word,
and sailed out OF the room, and refused to
see him when he called in the morning,
aDI hapl- Iiir of
cut the wedding cake and put some OF it
on the tea table and sent the rest to the
tair Perhaps, on the whole, Mr.. Thorn
ton might have been RIGHT Exactly one
veal f.e-,, .l.e>t .,'f5ht Mr. Thnrnton wne
married to Mary Mayhem, an lnotlenslVe
little body who would have married any
body that asked her, and she Went into
the house that had been furnished accord
ing to Aunt llelen's taste; and lmmedi
ately aittrWard a hen-hou>e Of the most
ianciiul description Of architecture, with
olded vanes and scarlet chandeliers bris-
Ting ali over it, rose on the hill behind
his house, tull OF fancy fowl, and the lit
tie lawn all alive with ts overflow. and
you couldn't 90 by the place without
ridge Cochin, or white Leghorn, or black
Spanish, flying up on each separate piece
OF fence to crow ont Mr.. Thornton's tri-
nmph-reversing the old tradition of the
grower, and crying, "No women rule
here ~
They say Nh Thornton grew very old
in q few wears. His inotlensive little thing
OF wife turned ont to be a smart terma-
giant, who led him a pretty dance. Per-
haps she was dissatisfied with her piece of
heart; but then she knew that was all
when she took it. He treated her always
gently-perhaps feeling he had done her
some wrong in marrying her-and graft
fed her every wish. although. having
cared nothing for her in the beginning. it
is doubtful if he cared any more for her in
the end The end came after eighteen
years, when Mrs. Thornton was killed in
a railroad collision, and her husband was
left with four children on his hands. rude,
noisy, ill-faring cubs. as all the neighbors
said. If Mr. Thornton had ever impatient
ly chanced to think that his punishment
had lasted long enough, he thought now
it was Just beginning, when he found him.
self alone with those children. He Won
dered that his wife had had any temper
lett at all He grew more bent, more
vexed and worried every day, and one
would hardly have recognized, people
said the dark and splendid Stephen Thorn
ton of his youth in this middle aged. gray
haired man; and yet. to our eyes, he was
still quite a remarkable-looking person
perhaps more SO from our associating him
with the poetry in Aunt Helen's life. and
making him an object of wonder as to
whether or not they would ever come to-
gether again.
But there was little chance of that We
had met Mr.. Thornton elsewhere, but he
had never come across our threshold since
the day he went out with his brides ring
And Aunt Helen's peculiarity was that she
never forgot. Could she, then, forget the
words he spoke to her in his anger? CoulG
she ever forget his marrying another wo-
man in less than a week 1t had been il
that week and few following that hel
hair had turned white She had suffered
inexpressibly she had never slept night
but she kept up gay face. Perhaps she
would have suffered longer if it had moi
been Tor our growing up about her. He.
life was thus filled, every moment of it
she had but very little time to be lonely
to brood. or mourn. She forgot herself II
us. 1t gave her quiet happiness, an,
|
proud: whenever the thought thrust up it,
head, she shut the lid down, as you may
say. and sat on it.
But one day-after the time when thu
doctor had said Harry was hopeless Grip
pie, and must lie on his back the rest o
his life-Aunt Helen brought home a lit
tie basket from the country fair. and tool
from the wool within it two of the Gun
) ningest mites of chickens you ever laij
your eyes on. 81 hate them." said she
'they make me crawl; but they will
amuse the dear child. They're African
bantams." And so they did amuse and de
light him, as he lay on his lounge in tn
bay-window and watched them growing
up, full of business. And that was the wa,
by-the-way, that we came to have chick
} ems round the front piazzas. One night, :
year afterward, when the bantams wer
quite grown people, somebody dropped
over the fence pair of big black Cochins
that stalked about as if the earth were to-
good to tread on, or as if they were afrai,