The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-07-18

UutCu0rys anu OOU KNOWS L UlUu CssI0
then if he had drawn the knife across
my throat; l should not have resisted
him.
Don't go, Jackr' l cried out at
last, holding the edge of his coat.
"Don't go anyway, SO far as China; If
you do, shall commence to dig hole
when you get there. They say that
China is right under US, and I'll begin
with little pick and shovel as soon as
we get news of your arrival. Then
you can begin on your side, and Wen
meet each other half way"
He flung me from him with some-
thing 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 possibleP
That the years could come and 20, the
sweet summers bloom and fade, the
heart of the roses lose strength and
fail and fall away, to come again as
sweet, 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 mar
row eyes and stinted feet; and he didn't
rs yet know q word of the language.
He was growing fat, he wrote home to
his people next door, and bald, which
didn't matter on the top of his head, 50
long as he could keep enough to Guilt
vate a pigtail. This was necessary, as
he meant to set up for . Chinese Man.
DARN, and was already embroidering
a gown for the purpose on spare nights.
And / felt, when they read me the let
ter, that it was Jacks turn now to
make merry, when other hearts were
sick and sad.
If he had only sent me one little lire!
He showered gifts upon other people
chests of tea and parcels of silk, love-
ly bits of decorated china, big soft
beautiful shawls of Grape. He sent
gew-gaws and gold to so many others;
il he had only given me one little word!
They must have told him l had been
sorely punished; that my mischievous
gaycty he had whitfield out like the
flame of a candle; that even the beauty
of which he had been so proud and
fond was gone-every bit Of it gone.
Sleepless nights and useless repinings,
long wearisOme days, endless years
filled with wild yearning for that which
seemed forever 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 very
allurlng object that greeted me in the
glass on the morning of my twenty
seventh birthday. "Aroint thee,
witchr' l cried, and wiped away with
the hand-towel some salt tears that fell
upon the dimity bureau cover, and
upon the grave of sad, sweet memories.
Then l put on nay ugly brown dress.
and the hideOus bonnet to match, and
went off to the church, pausing ut the
portal to look l0ngingly over at the
cool, quiet graves Of some of our old
neighbOrs. A soft wind stirred the long
grass there; few birds hoped lightly
and fearlessly about.
Nov Ws, calmly g. MI, calmly smile The dead
1.-The Yea of heaven is Yea,' said,
and went on into the church, where the
ladies were grouped around the straw
berries that had just arrived. l took
possession of a whole crate of these,
sending the young and pretty maidens
home to recruit for the evening.
There were few faint, polite re-
monstrances when I declined to take
any active part in the evenings enter
tainment. 1--WE must leave that part
to the young and attractive" said,
and there was general buzz of ac-
quiescence. had the consolation of
hearing several remarks upon my ex-
traordinary good sense and practical
capability.
l 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 we'll tired when l went home at
night-fall. Mamma metme at the gate,
and looked at me so dolefully that l
burst out laughing.
IS Never mind, mamma" said; IL
won't look SO cadaverOus after I'm
rested and dressed for the evening"
But I'm afraid was rather a painful
object for the gaze of a doting and once
ambitious mother even when l had
donned my black silk, and was ready
for the evening. My hair was neither
crimped nor curled. You see, I had
depended upon the switch, which was
bought for purposes of that kind, and
failed me ignominiously at the last
moment. My head ached, and could
not bear many hair-pins thrust into my
scalp: in no other way would the OBJ
stinate thing be induced to stay on.
Mamma was heart-broken, and was
disappointed; but even inanimate arti-
cles become perverse at times. 1
thought perhaps the switch was griev-
ing over beloved and lost head of
which it was once part and parcel, and
l forgave it, and left it to its perverse-
ness from that time onward.
When reached the church was i'm
mediately seized upon for something
they called " the grocery counter"-an
innovation brought about by the adj
vent of a well-to-do grocer in our
midst, widower, a stock-raiser, and
man afflicted with many maladies, of
which he loved to talk. He had gen.
er0usly sent down from the city, in
pound packages and tin cans, samples
of his available goods, and had pro-
posed this grocery counter to the
young ladies, which they despised and
would have none of. The grocer HIM
self found favor in their sight. They
fitted about him, filed his button-holes
with bouquets, his pockets with bon
hons; 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
sOr(lid pound packages for home neces-