The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-10-04
A STORY OF A TRUE LOVER.

"He made love neither with roses, nor
with apples, nor with locks of hair" he
didn know the meaningof "serenade,"
nor did he ever in all his life write
love-verse. l do not know that he
thought Sarah's eyebrows any more
beautiful because they were dark and
fnely-arched, than if they had been
light and crooked and thin; and yet,
true lover, more chivalrous soul than
john Slocum never lived. All day in
the field, blowing or sowing or reaping,
his thought was of the happiness of the
fair, pale woman at home, who sat in the
ingle-nook, mending the family linen, or
walked painfully about on crutches at
tending to the duties allotted to her, and
patiently bearing the tempers of Johns
mother, in whose house she had lived
since she was little child.
Sarah Stenhouse was twenty-five
years old, and ten years before, while
yet the bound servant of Mrs. Slocum,
had met the fate that had made her
lame, and so shaken the foundations of
life that she could never know rugged
health again She had been wonder
fully sunny element in the Slocum
family, and John, who was five years
older than she, had never known, since
the first night she came, when he cracked
hickory-nuts for her by the kitchen fire,
what it was not to love her. In harvest
dances, no one tripped so lightly over the
old barn floor as Sarah. She rippled
over with mirth, and was never so happy
as when making others so. Not girl
of her age in all the county could spin as
many knots of yarn in day as she; and
her +" double-and-twisted was finer and
evener and more in demand at the stores,
where such home-products were "dick-
cred, )" than any other offered.
"Whoever got Sarah Stenhouse for
wife, the old women said, "would get
prizes" and more than one young man
had asked her, before her fifteenth
birthday, if she would marry him when
she should be of age and free to leave
Mrs. Slocum.
But Sarah always said, "There's time
enough for thinking of that when am
of age" and, notwithstanding Ma'a
Slocum's uneven temper and occasional
injustice, she had no idea of going away
when she was free of her bondage. She
knew well how good a home she had,
take it all in all, and she loved the
Slocums as if they had been mother and
brother.
The summer Sarah was fifteen years
old yielded noble harvest, and great re-
joicing was had among the farmers.
Thanks were given in the churches,
merry-makings held at the farm-houses,
and finally "harvest home" was held
at the Slocum barn, because it was the
largest in the township. When the
gayety was at its height, Sarah received
the hurt that made her lifelong
invalid. For many weeks she lay hover
ing between life and death, and finally
life overcame death by such small odds,
that, for long time, it seemed but
poor boon.
The neighbor people said, "Now, of
course, Sarah'll have togo on the county
Ma'am Slocum's queer, anyhow, and at
best it couldn't be expected that a
widow-woman like her should be bur-
dened with helpless thing like Sarah"
But when the matter was broached to
the widow, she answered tartly enough,
but with tears in her eyes, "Do YOU
take me for heather? Sarah's nv
daughter from this out. There wasn't
such a girl in the county as she, and I'd
look well putting her in the poor-house
because it has seemed good to the Lord
to lay his hand heavy on her. His hands
heavy enough on the child without any
of my help. Folks are mighty ready
with that sort of assistance"
So Sarah staid at the farmhouse, and
learned every day to know better and to
, love the sweet heart that lay beneath
the rough exterior of her adopted
mother, and had never-failing patience
with her frettings and seedlings and
manifold queer ways.
When some one spoke to Sarah of it,
she said, "Why shouldn't 1 be patient
with her queer ways. Wasn't it one of
her queer ways to keep me and love me
and make me her child, when l could
be but little better than a clog and a
burden?"
So the two grew together, a great
tenderness fostered in the woman's heart
and gratitude in the girls John was
always good son, but from the date Of
Sarah's misfortune he seemed to develoI
new excellences. He neglected no duty
about the farm, but at the same time he
made his presence felt in hundred new
ways in the house.
He's as deft as a woman" hi.
mother said, "and sometimes / seen
scarcely to Miss Sarah's help. dom
know how he finds time to do it. bu
John just takes the heft of the work of
from me-"