Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-01-08
RUTH DEANS VISIT.
Sophia Emery in the Boston Traveller.

Sophia Emery in the Boston Traveller.
In this world it is best not to think
too much Of pleasant possibles, that we
may not be out of humor with present
insipids; yet despite this lamb-like
maxim, if ever one planned and econo-
mized, making old gowns last twice
their usual span, that she might have
one long, cool holiday in new gowns
and free from care, it was Ruth Dean,
the cheeriest Of beings, with the whitest
teeth and broWnest hair that ever adorn-
ed a mortal woman near her fOrtieth
birthdaY-an age when many of her
sisters have lost youth. health and
comeliness, and begin to have dim
consciousness that they ought to have
died when they were young and toler-
able.
When Ruth first planned this visit to
her relatives away from Maine hills,
she was living in 8 large western city
with a ne'er-to-do-well husband and a
graceless young nephew, upon whom
she lavlshed all the pent-up motherhood
that she had never been called to ex-
pend upon children of her own.
GFhy Ruth, the fairest and most low
able Of the five Wcrthing girls, should
have bound herself fortuitously. or
otherwise, to such a bundle of obsti-
macy and incapacity as John Dean,
while all her plain, ordinary minded
sisters married capable, enterprising
men, IS question for philosophers and
biologists.
Keturah Ann Bowers, an angular
down-east woman, living with Mrs. Lane,
Ruth's near neighbor, in the capacity of
unpaid philosopher and paid nurse,
gulltless of Darwinian theories in regard
to natural selection, and having positive
ideas OF her own about matters in gen
eral, "knowed," to use her expressive
language, ''as we'll as she wanted to.
Jest why Ruth Worthin' throwed herself
away marrying that shiftless John
Dean"
EFF anybody knows Ruth an all her
family an all their ways, it's me-"
Keturah was trotting, quite gently for
her, 2-weeksold baby on her lap, and
said this IN answer to some Questions
Of Mrs. Lane in regard to Mrs. Dean.
"4ou see, [ lived with Deacon Worth
ms folks, off and on, most of the time
after | was Il When I went there
Ruth an Robert-they were both twins
was jest little tots in pinafores. Miss
Worthin's other children was a sight
older, an Ruth an Robert growed up
all to themselves ike; for the older ones
married and went away afore the twins
was 10 years old. SIGH happy critters
was them two twins! A plavin' or a
plannin', a studyin' or a workin', they
was alwus together. Robert was mas
ter smart about larnin, and Ruth want
ahlnd him, eff she was a woman-kind.
The deacon kalkerlated to send him to
college, and Robert took to studyin'
Greek an Latnn, an SIGH, an Ruth
Kept right along with him, an I guess
she helped him more'n he did her.
But this college notion didn't last
long afore he got in a desperit way to
60 to sea. The deacon thought he
might go just once. to sicken him of
such life. 1t didn't though, an he
KEEP on goin,' as boys mostly do down
there on the coast of Maine-it is born
IN EN-
when Ruth was nigh 90 years old,
Miss Worthin' took stroke an went
off suddenly. The deacon never got
over this blow, an next year, when the
iayiocks was a-blowin', we laid him side
Of mother as he always called her.
They was all the father an mother |
ever knowed''
To hide a touch of feeling in ,her
voice, keturah Ann gave the baby's
clothes vigorous pull downwards, OBJ
serving In her usual stridulous tone:
The masterfullest baby to be always
hunchln' up his clothes [ ever see."
Where was Robert when his parents
died ?" asked Mrs. Lane.
was gong to say be was off on a
long trip an come home few months
afterwards. What should he bring with
him, though, but queer kind of a
Turin wife, German, that he took off
wrack with other poor half-starved
critters. How on airth they contrived
to get acquainted an fall in love with
one mother, it beats me; for when she
come to us she couldn't speak scurse a
word except nine that | could make
out,an' that she put in SIGH onsuspected
places that / used to laugh when /
oughtn't-she poor furriner an all
Ter family drowned
But as soon as Ruth set eyes on
this Bertha Rubinsteir, she took to her
an all her outlandish ways as eff she'd
been a born sister,"
But" suggested Mrs. Lane, 81
thought you were to tell me how Ruth
happened to marry John Dean. She
had no beau, no lover up to this
time -
"Sakes alive! plenty of 'em, SIGH as
they was. There was the schoolmaster