The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-03-28
The Story OF Maud Muller.

Maud Muller, as Whittier drew her,
was a comely young woman in a briar.
torn dress and ragged hat, innocent M to
shoes and stockings who helped her
father during the busy haying time,
hired help being scarce and high This
wa certainly commendablo in Maud !;
though, as she paused in her work, and,
leaning on the rake handle, glanced to
the far.oh town, she couldn't help wish
ing that Fate had cast her lot different
from a meadow lot, and that she was a
clerk in a ninety-nine cent store, or
something like that. She asked herself
whether the life of a female book
~canvasser was 80 very hard, and wondered
it any lady clerks were waited in the
~post,oilice.
While she is thus rejecting, the judge
comes riding slowly down the lane.
Whittier doesn't tell US what he is II
Judge of, though we conclude he is n
tolerably good Judge Of rustic beauty,
for he drew his bride Cat some church
iair) and asked the maid to fetch him a
draughL of water from Il convenient
spring, although il was far into the
summer at the time, This she did, and
bIushing deeply AS she recollected that
her shoes and stockings were up to the
house." handed the cup to the judge,
who CALAMITY remarked that
81 sweater draught,
From a fiirer hand was never quaied,"
Maud cOurtesied and said that her
father considered her n pretty fair "hand'
in the bayfield,.
The Judge fingered as long as he could,
talking about the weather, the silver bill,
the eastern question, chances Of his re-
election to the bench, etc, etc, to all OF
which she simply replied, Yes, sir"
"to-he," or something like that, and
when he couldn't makeany more excuses
for lingering, he rode away. Maud
looked after him and sighed as she
thought, the Judge is just the kind of
Il nan Id like 10 tie to. Dress? /
reckon not I'd have a new gown every
day, and two on Sunday. And dad
should wear store clothes; and brother
Sam should have a helmet hat"
How about the Judge as he rode away ?
Was he filled with Il " vague unrest?'
Certainly he was. lie wanted to adjourn
court sine die, and although a little past
the hcy-day Of his youth, 60 a.haying
with Maud from that time out. But
his feelings Mauderated when he
thought of his sisters, who were society
ladies, and what they and the fash
i0nable world generally would have
to say about it, So he kept OF his way,
and he opened court that afternoon same
az usual, only the lawyers smiled az they
caught him humming an old love song,
Swinging in the Lane"
The Judge got elected to the bench
again, and then he was elected for life in
another wayne married a wealthy but
cold-hearted lady who moved (every
spring. in the first circles, and who only
accepted him because she thought it
would sound well to be spoken of in the
society column of tho newspapers as
"Mrs. Judge So-and.So." And some-
times when the Judge was taking a drink
Of old rye, all by himself in his study, lie
wished that Maud could step in with a
little of that meadow spring water to mix
with it.
Maud got married, too. She married
the hired man in 4 check shirt whom the
Judge saw moving in another part of the
field. True, she loved the judge more
than she could any move she ever saw,
and would continue to until time should
be no mower, out as she couldn't have
him, and was fearful that there would be
no mower offers, she clinched on to the
hired man.
Bat Maud wasn't happy either, for she
couldn't help thinking how different her
life would have been az Mrs. Judge. She
thought so much OIL the subject that she
came finally to believe that Tie Judge
had really proposed to her, and she had
refused him. And when she got into a
row with her husband she would throw
it up to him, saying:
II hadn't married you and got stuck in this pen,
ia been much better oil, for | might a had Ben,
Which was the Judges front name.-
Cincinnati Saturday Night.