Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-11-23

expense with sChoOl.furniture this year;
next year all will be clear gain. II we
seek till we find, then We don't lose our
labor"
So Eleanor won her way again, and the
school opened so prosperously that she
was obliged to get an assistant teacher.
Having one stranger in the house, IL
seemed to be as we'll TO fill all the rooms
with boarding scholars, and these ncces-
Stated an extra cook and housemaid.
Six or eight noisy young ladies and
French teacher did not improve Georges
home. 1t was not to his taste any night,
but on reception evenings he was quite
sure to have business either in his office
or in the hotels till midnight.
He came home after one of these de.
tentions with very grave face. " Mel.
lie," he said, do you remember Mr..
! Smith"
"Myra's husbandS"
"The same"
81 think not, George. Nobody ever
saw him"
" Nobody ever will again, am afraid
| went to Smiths hotel tonight to get
from Decatur man the upset price of
| 10000 bushels of wheat, and found the
whole place full of his disappearance
He left the yard last night at SIX o'clock
No one has seen him since"
Had he any money on his person?"
"Only trifling balance of his own
salary"
Perhaps he fell into the river. It is
a shame to have the North Bridge turn
in the rapid manner it does. If he was
on 1t, and it was dark, this is possible
Kate's sister was drowned in that way
last winter"
"The river froze last night; If so, his
body will not be found till spring"
Well, it might have been worse.
Mrs. Smith has always taken care of her
self and him too the boarders used to
call him Mr.. Myra Smith"
F" hope no one will try to call me Mr..
Eleanor Wright"
George, what an idea! Circumstances
alter cases. Does not everyone know
that George Wright is the cleverest
grain dealer on Water streetY"
Such remarks as these were by no
means uncommon, and they had their
effect. A feeling quite undefnable, but
to which Eleanor was keenly sensitive,
stood like wall of mist between George
and her. say wall of mist, because
1t exactly expresses the cold, depressing
strata, that she now so seldom had either
the will or power to smile away.
For, to tell the truth, the worry and
fatigue of the second year had been very
great. The French teacher had been
constant source of trouble; the boarders
had kept her in night and day anxiety;
the children had both been ailing all
winter; George had been dull and un-
sympathetic, and staid more and more
away from home; she had been cheated
out of one or two bills, and found diff.
Guilty in collecting others. The spring
found her looking eagerly forward to the
close of the session.
About the beginning of May George
had to 90 to New York on business, and
when he bid her good-by her weary,
pale, anxious face touched him into an
expression of real tenderness. "Dear,
sweet Nellie" he said, holding her to his
heart, "when come back that dreadful
school will be dismissed, and we can
have a month or two of real old time
happiness, my darling"
The words haunted her all day. She
heard them through the jingling of
pianos, the murmur of recitations, and
the formalities of the dinner table and
the evening reception. When she went
to the nursery that night both the chill
dren had high fever. The doctor was
sent for. He feared it was scarlet fever,
and at once accused the nurse of having
taken the little girls into an infected
quarter of the city.
Eleanor sat up with her sick babies
that night, and during those lonely, mid
night hours asked herself some very
solemn questions. In the morning she
informed her scholars of her children's
sickness, and its probable dangers, dis
missed the day school sine die, helped
the boarders to pack their trunks, and
went with them one by one to the trains
or boats which were to convey them
home. The teacher received her full
years salary and left for an hotel, and
three of the servants went at the same
time.
By nightfall she breathed more freely
than she had done for two years. Now
she could give her whole time to the
sick; and they repaid it. The next day
every unfavorable symptom had disap-
peared. That was well, for she had
much to do ere George returned. The
neighbors soon began to wonder at her
frequent absences, and the number of
strange people that went to the well.
known brick house; but their wonder
was still greater, when one morning she
left it with both her children and half a.
dozen trunks.
If they had followed the carriage they
would have seen it drive to little cot
tage, hid in grove of Towering trees,
and furnished with simple and exquisite
taste. There Eleanor fitted up and
down, putting up pictures, arranging
flowers, and laying with her own hands
the dajntiest of dinner-tables. For
George was coming and the soup and
roast'beef, and strawberry pate that she
had taken such pains with must have all
the additional flavor that a picturesque
room, snowy damask and china, clearest
crystal and freshest flowers could give.
Oh, how pretty she looked, in her
pretty toilet, with her two pretty little
daugters by her side. George coming
up the lilac-shaded walk, full of wonder
and curiosity, could scarcely believe
that it was the same weary, fretful wo-
man, he had left month ago.
"Oh, Nellie, darling, what fairy
bower! What a cozy, comfortable, cool,
clean nest Of home! Now tell me how
find you in itf"
" George, your last words haunted me
all day-o perhaps it was your voice or
look. Then when Alice and Lucy were
sick, sat up with them; and as | watched
their panied and trouble faces, asked
myself these and few more questions:
Whether motherlove or money was
best for them?
Whether had right to sacrifice
your peace, comfort and home for
money!
Whether you, or the children, or /,
had got any happiness out of my expert.
menty
Whether we were any richer, in any
way for itg
Whether could expect God to bless
me and my house and my self.imposed
duties. when NEGLECTED the duties Hehad