The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-01-26


fretful. Her cheerfulness and kindness,
especially TO my invalid mother, her
gentleness, and, more than all, her ex-
ecutiveness, are something wonderful,
and challenge my highest admiration
and respect. All! admiration and re-
spect! A man should not stop at those
words when speaking of his wife. But
what can l say? Am so much an an
imal that because d woman makes good
coffee, because she can cook potatoes To
the very point of perfection, because she
gives me the sweetest aud lightest OF
bread, my whole soul must go out to
her in a gush of unutterable affection
Because she darns my stockings, sews
on my buttons, and does up my white
shirts, must | bestow upon her the rich
est treasures of an ardent, loving heart?
[ should scOrn myself if it were so
crave something higher and nObler.
What are mere bodily comforts, if the
mind must hunger and thirst for CON-
paniOnship? How l could luXuriate OH
sour bread, frowsy butter, and muddy
coffee, if Matte were only capable of
appreciating subjects and ideas above
the humdrum walk of common, every
lay life a.! How l could reyel in button
less shirts, limp collars, and coats out at
the elbows, if only she could go with
me into realms of ethical and scientific
truth; strive with me to lay hold upon
ideas grand and worthy; to investigate
new and important Observation-Disclosures
and ideas which tend to make our lives
uObler, broader, truer, and more beauti-
full, blessing not only ourselves, but Odr
children aud our kind. 1t is the knowl-
edge that | must struggle on through all
my mortal life, thus alone, without
sympathy for my strivings for the true
and the beautiful that | must ever be
hampered and bound down to the vul-
gar details of farm life, in my hours OF
both toll and relaxation; il is the kuowl-
edge that this must ever be so, that fills
my days with sadness and streWs my
pillow with thorns."
There, there, there Let US stop
Don't let us read farther!
''Is the man fool" do you say ?
Undoubtedly, aud there are others like
him, and women, too. Men and women
who, as an Irishman would say, cannot
he happy unless they are miserable
about something; and so, if they have
nothing real to make them so, they i'm
agine something.
Now, Ralph Wallingford's days were
not filled with sadness, and there were
no thorns in his pillow-uOt q thorn
His digestion was good, he went whist
ling about his work, and he SnOred in
his sleep at night! What more could
the happiest man do?
l will tell you, now, just what did all
him, or what he thought allied him.
But | must do it in my own way, and
fear that | am already, like Mrs. Wilfer,
"a little wearing" 1t had been theiI
practice, his and Mattie's, till within
the last three or four years, to spend
their evenings in reading together
usually Raj ph read while Matte ''8pun, -
/. e., sewed or knit. Books, magazines,
ewspapers-travels, theology, ethics,
fiction and science were in turn read,
eud enjoyed by them both. AS the time
went on, and Mattie's cares and duties
Increased, Ralph beca NE the sole reader,
and Matte was almost entirely depend
ent upon him for everything in the way
nf literary pabulum that she obtained.
Unfortunately,a about this time, Ralph
fell in with the writings of Augustt
COmpte, and of some other social re-
formers in our own country. He be-
came greatly interested in them, and
brought them home to read to Matte
She listened to them for two or thret
evenings, and then told him she feared
1t was time and trouble wasted, will
her, for she was positive she should
never understand "Compte's Positive
Ism," and that much of the stuff that
the other authors said about 'socia
freedom" and "soul affinities,n and the
higher law of marriage,n ETC., seemed
to her the merest trash, to call it by nc
worse name; and that, for her pant, sht
had so little time to devote to menta
culture, she should prefer to hear hin
read something else. Ralph endeavOreC
TO explain what she did not understand
and to combat her opinion in regard tC
the rest; but she insisted that there wa,
50 much that she could comprehend ant
appreciate, and which would do hel
good, that it did not seem worth hel
while to puzzle her brain over ideas anC
SpeculatiOns which she felt would make
her neither better nor happier
After this there vas gradual falling
away from their habitual evening read
ings, until they were at last entirely
discontinued, for Ralph became so in
terested in his "PositiVeism" and kin
dred subjects, that he gave up other lit
erature almost entirely; and, besides
about that time, too, he took to writing
for the papers, and had less time TO
reading, he said. Of course this wa
not quite pleasant for Matte; she re
gretted the loss of Ter reading, and sh,
regretted more Ralph's being led ava,
by strange doctrines; but she had within
her such well-spring of hope and faitI
yes, and charity, tool may as wei
! give her the whole three-that she coult
not be gloomy over it, even if she ha,
wished to, which she did not. She saiC
it was perfectly natural that an ardent
enthusiastic mind, like Ralph's, cage
TO investigate and acquire, should gathe
in some tares with the wheat; but tha
he would be able to distinguish whicl
was which in time-trust him for that
| He was a noble fellow at heart, an,
wouldn't go wrong always.
And so she "tOiled, and spun," AM
nursed, and petted, and cheered the ia
valid mother, and read snatches of Mrs
Browning, and George Elliot, DIR. Hol
land, and Mrs. Whitney, while she pile,
the churn-dasher or put the baby t
sleep, and amongst it all she kept everv
thing so bright, and cosy, and sunny
that Ralph found it almost impossibl
TO be even deceDtly miserable. Onl,
over his journal. Over that he coul,
pour out woes by the hour! Woes q
which he WAS happily ignorant unit
made aware of their existence through
the suggestions of his favOrite writers
With these suggestions to assist him
nothing could be easier than to max
out for himself genuine case of uncou
genial marriage relation.
"He had married Young, before h