The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-08-17

| LIZ Oob Vic CuIl 1IOII III utdQ WIFI
his penknife, and looked at me as if he
was half tempted to do me further
butchery; and God knows / didn't care
then if he had drawn the knife across
my throat; | should not have resisted
him. -
Don't go, Jack!' l cried out at last,
holding the edge of his coat. "Don' t
go, anyway so far as China; if you do, l
shall commence to dig hole when you
get there. They say that China is right
under us, and FL begin with little pick
and shovel as soon as we get news of your
arrival. Then you can begin on your
side and we II meeteaeh other half way"
| He flung me from him with something
like an oath. You would joke and
laugh over my grave" he said, and went
away, not to come back again.
Who would have believed it possible?
That the years would come and go, the
sweet summers bloom and fade, the
heart of the roses lose strength and fail
and fall away, to come again as strong,
as fresh as ever, and Jack, my Jack.
never come back to me? Yet he was not
dead-nor wed. That was one good
thing. And he was out there among
| those women with narrow eyes and stint
ed feet, and he didn' as yet know a word
of the language. He was growing fat,
he wrote home to his people next door,
and bald, which didn' matter on the top
of his head so long as he could keep enough
to cultivate pigtail. This was necessary,
as he meant to set up for a Chinese man
DARN, and was already embroidering a
| gown Tor the purpose on spare nights.
And | felt, when they read me the letter,
that 1t was Jacks turn now to make
merry, when other hearts were sick and
sad.
| If he had only sent me one little line
He showered gifts upon other people
chests of tea and parcels of silk, lovely
bits of decorated china, big soft beauti-
full shawls of Grape. He sent gewgaws
and gold to 50 many others if he had
only given one little word
They must have told him / had been
sorely punished; that my mischieveus
gayety lie had whitfield out like the fame
of a candle; that even the beauty of
which he had been so proud and fond
was gone-every bit of it gone. Sleep
less nights and useless repinings, long,
wearisome days, endless years filed with
wild yearning for that which seemed for
ever hopeless, had robbed me of all.
The old bloom of the heart took with it.
the crimson cheek, the laughing eye, and
the light, elastic step. Even my hair
fell out. Alas! poor me, the flesh fell
from my bones. As | limited before, it
was not q very alluring object that greet
ed me in the glass on the morning of my
twenty seventh birthday. ''Aroint thee,
witch cried, and wiped away with
the hand towel some salt tears that fell
upon the dimity bureau cover, and upon
| put on my ugly brown dress, and the
hideous bonnet to match, and went off
to the church, pausing at the portal to
look longingly at the cool, quiet graves
of our old neighbors. a soft wind stir
red the long grass there; a few birds
hoped lightly and fearlessly about.
How How calmly, calmly smile the dead
Who do NOT therefore grievel"
"The Yea of heaven is Yea" said, and
went on into the church where the la
ladies were grouped around the straw
berries that had just arrived. L took
possession of whole crate of these, send
ing the young and pretty maidens home
to recruit for the evening.
There were few faint, polite remon-
strances when l declined to take any ac-
tive part in the evening entertainments
a" We must leave that part TO the young
and attractive" l said, and there was a
general buzz of acquiesence. had the
consolation of hearing several remarks
upon my extraordinary good sense and
practical capability.
| was graciously allowed, after / had
hulled a whole crate of strawberries, to
hold step-ladder and some nails for
Mrs. Smith, the apothecary's wife, while
she hung some gorgeous drapery, and
otherwise deformed the cool gray walls
of our little chapel, so that / was pretty
well tired when | went home at night
fail. Mamma met me at the gate, and
looked at me so dolefully that | burst out
laughing.
"Never mind, mamma. said I, 81
won't look so cadavorous after Pm rested
and dressed for the evening"
But Pm afraid | was rather painful
object for the gaze of doting and once
ambitious mother when | had donned my
black silk, and was ready for the evening
My hair was neither crimped nor curled.
You see, | had depended upon the
switch, which was bought for purposes
of that kind, and it failed me ignomini-
ously at the last moment. NV head
ached, and | could not bear many hair
pins thrust into my scalp; in no other
way would the obstinate thing be in
duced to stay ON. Mamma was heart
broken, and | was peryerse at times. |
thought perhaps the switch was grieving
over beloved and lost head of which it
was once part and parcel, and | forgave
it, and left 1t to its perverseness from
that time onward.
When | reached the church | was i'm
mediately seized upon for something
they called the grocery counter-an in
novation brought about by, the advent
of well-to-do grocer in our midst,
widower, stock raiser, and man af-
1icted with many maladies, of which he
loved to talk. He had generously sent
down from the city, in pound packages
and tin cans, samples of his available
goods, and proposed this grocery corner
to the young ladies, which they de-
spised and would have none of, The
grocer himself found favor in their light
They fitted about him, filled his button
holes with bouquets, his pockets with
bonbons; they looked up in his face,
and tried to talk to him, poor children
as best they could. But they appealed
to me to take the ugly counter, with its
sordid pound packages for home neces-
sity, and / took it with an ill-concealed
avidity. The truth was, a kind of heart
sickness seized me when | thought that
the evening must be passed in making