The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-10-06
MAYS HOME.

LEARN, if in tropic LANDS you feel
Some poisoned sting, not far to fare;
Beside you, plants whose Juices heal:
The antidote grows near the i'll
In all Gods ordering, and still
Home cures are surest for home care.
"May Linton sweet May Linton" he
murmured, as he went home from his
business.
Home! 1t was only a dingy boarding.
house, ruled over by a dwarfed and
wizened landlady in purple worsted
shawl But May dwelt there-sweet
May, with her girlish grace and ready
laugh, and her braids twisted round a
high comb on the top of her little head.
She met him in the hall.
"I'm so glad to get homer he said
Her face flushed little, and her eyes
grew more full of light. 1t was so easy
to see why he was glad.
az only came in myself moment
SINCE" she returned, and stopped, en-
barrassed at having answered his mean
ing rather than his words.
But young men are less observing of
these little inner shades than young girls,
for they are not required to guard the
expression Of their feelings, and Harry
DShNSi was wv A4dPPJ w hOIlOS1 vi, IL uC
did, it sounded quite right.
They were drifting toward that hour
when some word or look would prove
the Open, sesame, to their untried hearts,
and then there would be silence full of
speech, into which kiss would come of
its own accord, 10 be remembered ever
after as the awakening from vague,
sweet dream into the sweetest reality on
earth
So the two were little shy with each
other now, and in their game of back
CANNON, if their hands touched by mis-
take, they would feel how very awkward
they were, and pretend to ignore their
awkwardness, and remember it with
dreamy smiles upon their pillows that
night.
1t all happened just so; and then there
were few happy weeks of extra work
and much planning of days. in store.
One morning, with light hearts and the
unspoken conviction that not even
moral earthquake could settle their we'll
secured happiness, Harry Bender and
sweet May Linton, accompanied by Mays
Aunt Dodo, went to church and were
married with the same ceremony which
the strange minister used for the
uniting of couples whom God or Nam
mon had joined together.
There was precious little Mammon in
this case. Nobody took any bridal tour
They never thought of the little expedi-
ent practiced by the steady young bust
ness man, who, seeing that his bride had
set her heart on conforming to the GUS
tom, sent her off alone for two or three
days, while he worked in the office as
usual.
Even had they thought of this ingen-
ious compromise they would only have
laughed at it. There was plenty of
laughing in the pretty room, all hung
with the incest spatter-work and chromos
and photographs which May had prac-
ticed upon in learning her little art.
How blonde the babies were which she
painted what rose-madder lips they had,
and sea-shell cheeks, and ultramarine
eyes!
II am always happy" exclaimed May,
when have baby to paint"
And then they both laughed, like two
happy young idiots as they were; for now
the year had crept away from them, and
May did not expect to paint babies much
longer.
The wizened landlady had hurt their
feelings by raising the rent of the room
prospectively.
"a family is great disadvantage"
she had said.
But Harry and May thought family
was just the incest thing in the world,
and, after their wrath had died down,
tried to pity the landlady for not seeing
the matter from their standpoint.
At last the family was born. 1t was a
very small one, and Harry addressed it
as c0uIeur de rose.