The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-12-04
ONE SATURDAY NIGHT.

VII inc testNc Us VI All HSeu trce.
Henry "; Lonafsllow. in Hd'per's Magazine
for December.
ONE SATURDAY NIGHT.
The threshers were all off at last!
Mr. Twinkleblinker leaned dejectedly
upon the forward wheel of his wagon,
partly, l presume, because no other OBJ
feet offered itself for his support, and
watched the dull red separator until it
had crawled quite away into the dusk.
If it had been the Juggernaut of all his
earthly joy and hope, he could not
have contemplated it with more mel
ancholy aspect. Indeed, l am far from
sure that he did not compare it to some
such heathenish and implacable power
of evil. crushing the very night beneath
ruthless satisfaction. But the decrepit
old machine had done its whole duty
and it was scarcely responsible for
blight in wheat or the devouring of oats
by grasshoppers Mr.. Twinkle
biinker called himself a fool, and went
in after the milking-pails.
The COWS were patient creatures, and
murmured not at being quartered in a
rude structure, covered and surrounded
with straw. Mr.. Twinkleblinker, how
ever, had seen better barns. This one,
comfortable though it might be, vexed
his eye sorely, and he longed, week in
and week out, to replace it with some-
thing that would seem to indicate more
definitely the approach of civilized life.
But there was no chance for improve
re ho
last year. And Mr.. Twinkleblinker
could not see any better prospects for
the years to come. Nothing had been
paid on the farm yet, except one hum
bred and forty dollars down, and his
note was good for five hundred more
The interest would be due in October.
Did he know of any way to meet it?
And could he, if he should stop to
consider, make up his mind where to
look for the milking stool that he had
east aside so hurriedly in the morning?
Or had it spitefully sunk out of sight in
the slough of despond, like a hundred
and one other conveniences, which were
chiefly noticeable for never having
emerged. as yet, from the chrysalis Of
imagination?
anchor this simple piece of carpentry,
and perhaps some additional articles,
displaying an inherent tendency to get
lost at every favorable opportunity,
would succumb to its persevering per-
manence, and remain, too. At present
there was little to sustain the unassum-
ing position that Mr.. Twinkleblinker
tlourished as part and parcel, rather
than an undivided intinitessimal, of the
great world around him; and Mr..
Twinkleblinker desired that such po-
sition should be sustained most emphat-
ically. a fence about the house seemed
more indispensable. even, than one
around the barn. However, since he
could have neither, why should he al
low himself preference?
Here was the half-bushel. and wouldn't
it, since the case was urgent, serve to
support his weary bones, while four
cows were being MIXED? Mr.. Twinkle
blinker thought that it would, and sat
down to try the experiment.
How free Charity Snow had been be-
fore he married her, and what sunny
disposition she possessed! Well she
might, too, fitting about her fathers
roomy abode like blithesOme bird.
Three summers, now, she had tOiled
unrsmittingly, and bravely fought back
her homesickness in the very face of
this monotonous Kansas horizon. Was
there not always place for her beneath
the paternal roof? Would they not
welcome her there with open arms?
When should he be able to offer her a
comfortable support, even, to say moth
ing about home of their own, where
she could dwell and feel at rest?
Had he made mistake in not COM
ing West alone, and preparing the way
partially for the feet of her whom he
loved? Or did he lack (unconsciously,
Of course some quality or other that
was indispensable to successful bust
ness man? He was certainly getting
more and more into the mire, financial
ly, every day; and Charity suffered ac-
cordingly. Must he drag her through
another year, and yet another, and an
other, of such disheartening disaster?
such fate?
Mr.. Twinkleblinker was fast getting
the blues. Charity loved great shelter
ing trees that would lay their protect
ing arms about the roof like mother.
Mr.. Twinkleblinker paused in his short
journey from one cow to another, and
looked away to the east where little
line of shadow interposed between the
earth and the sky. Here were the only
trees in sight from his prospective
home, and they seemed to heighten,
rather than subdue the sense of lone
illness in the damp, apparently illimita-
BILE air. Charity would shudder invol-
unfairly and draw closer to his side, if
she were with him. Mr.. Twinkle
blinker resumed his short journey
hastily struck the milking-stool
with his foot before it was completed.
When Charity lived in Christian
country, Mr.. Twinkleblinker thought,
bitterly, she was as much at home in
the village church as the morning sun.
Her sweet voice scared upward SO like
q birds that the singers grew to think
they could not do without her And
he remembered, incidentally, that her
serious and devout ways were what had
first drawn him toward her, and made
him grow to love her. Tomorrow
Charity's friends would gather again in
the narrow, straightforward pews, and
hold service as usual. But Charity her.
self must worship, if worship she
could. apart and alone, Wasn't it nat
ural that she could call all this to mind.
Sunday mornings, and wish that she had
never come away?
There was greater i'll than this strid-
ing toward her, too. Real want, gaunt
and grim, pitiless and uncompromising,