The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1877-10-05


pretty tea-dispenscr, slyly putting some
Jumps Of sugar In the Captains saucer.
In place Of those he had unconsciously
eaten. But what do you want q
themP-to point the moral or adorn the
taleP"
"Both." replied the Captain, with a
smile and bow that brought into
Mary's face look which made II the
most charming interrogation point he
had ever seen. ~ want to start
them right and keep them right.
But married folks are such nm
reasonable creatures" he continued
1--WE take each other for better or worse,
and then lament or rebel because il
isn't all better We don't half Of Us
respect other peoples individuality,
simply because we have married them.
Suppose after the first month Of the
years honeymoon with my Mary, when
l could manage 10 look ut the dear girl
without kissing her-or wanting toll
had said:
"'Mary, my darling, observe that
your eyes are darker ut some times than
at others. II you love me, do try to
maintain more uniformity. And your
nose ,Dny jewel, has little tendency
the very slightest-upward. love you
to distraction just as ii is, but il you
could only straighten it cut a tribe you
don't know what an improvement it
would be-
"sAbsurd, you say. And yet 1 have
known of talk not less so. Some peo-
pie never seem to comprehend that cold
temperaments can not be always warm;
that moods can not be kept on one level,
like the sea; but ebb and flow like its
tides; that tastes inherited from a
mother, and tendencies from q grand
father, can't be made to conform, in a
day or a year, TO some other mothers
or grandfather's tendencies and ways.
The iron bedstead is bad bit of furni-
ture for the marriage chamber!- said
the Captain, with an energetic thump
on the table that made the dishes rattle.
Robert had followed the Captains
earnest discourse with puzzled look
at first, and then serious one, which
in turn gave way 10 something very like
a sunrise from behind low lying clouds.
Mary's womanly intuitions, swifter than
any clumsy process which we men know
as Thought, flew to the end Of the
speakers homily before his tongue
reached it, and she saw the dear old
souls fatherly purpose rs plainly as
though he had set them on stools and
read them lecture
The Captain ssate and ram that
evening, after goodnight adieu more
than usually tender and kind. He
wouldn't whip hoy and stay 10 watch
him smart, nor plant good seed and
then stand on Il 50 that it could not
sprout. His genius for going at the
right time was equal to his talent for
coming-gifts unfortunately not always
found together.
When he was gone there was q do
nestle scene" quite different from
what the little cottage had recently
witnessed. Robert sat down in the big
rocker, before the open CRATE, and
drawing his wondering wife into his
lap, pillowed her bright head in its
" own place. on his shoulder. He
kissed her hair, and brow, and eyes
her warm cheeks and waiting lips
more tenderly than before, and said
in voice low with emotion:
"I've been all wrong, dearie. For
give me. Ill throw the iron bedstead
out Of the window, and not try to stretch
you out or cut you of any more. love
you, want you, and need you just as
you are"
Mary was true woman, and so il isn't
necessary to report what she said. But
she said 1t SO eloqueetly, and illustrated
il in such ways, thas Robert began TO
wonder If there were not compensa-
ton enough to pay for having started
wrong.
They sent for the Captain to tea the
very next Sabbath, and rs he read be-
tween the lines Of tie impulsivc and af-
fectionate note he chuckled to himself,
with glad moisture in his eyes:
"Ah ha! Barometer way up! Clear
ing weather! South winds, scented
with roses. Thermometer at so deg.
again. Well, well. Bless the Lord
This Is what comes Of having an Old
Prob. that knows his business"
When the Captain entered Woodbinc
Cottage in the peaceful hours Of the
early Sabbath evening, he saw the old
love-light in the welcoming faces Of his
happy friends before they could run TO
greet him. As Robert took his hands
in his own, Mary put her arms around
them both. and pressed the lips into
which the dimpled corners had returned
against the Captains bronzed cheek, in
kisses 81 50 close and kind /" that the old
gray-beard felt the unaccustomed thrill
confessed by Tennyson's Talking Oak
and had this advantage Of the tree. that
be could pay in kind, which he did in
genuine gusto.
"It's all right" said Robert, with q
beaming face, I" am not trying 70 do
the Lords work over after him any
more -
"And l." said Mary, in sweet con-