West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1879-02-08


road. The husband, somewhere about
the grounds, would occasionally respond
with two or three bars. Ii was all quite
an ideal, Arcadisn business. ihev
seemed very happy together. these two
persons, who asked no odds whatever of
the community in which they had
settled themselves.
There was queeruess, a sort of a
mystery, about this couple, which
admit piqucd my curiosity, though, as a
rule, have no morbid interest i'm the
affairs of my neighbors They behaved
IKE pair OF lovers who had run of TO
get married clandestinely. | willingly
acquitted them, the one and the other
ol having no legal right 10 do so; for.
To change word in the lines of the poet,
"Itis JOY to hink tho best
We may OF human kind"
Admitting the hypothesis of elopement,
there was no mystery in their neither
sending nor receiving letters But
where did they get their groceries2 I do
not mean the money to pay for them
That is an enigma apart-but the gro
ceres themselves. No express wagon.
no butchers cart no vehicle of any de-
scrlption was ever observed To stop nj
their domicile. Yet they did not order
family stores at the sole establishment i'm
the village-an inexhaustible little
bottle of shop which I a lvertise it
gratls) can turn ont anything in the
way OF groceries, from handsaw TO n
ket-handkeTchief. | confess that |
allowed this unimpor;ant detail Of their
housekeeping TO occupy more Of my
speculation than was creditabe TO me.
In several respects our neighbors re-
minded me of those inexplicable persons
we sometimes come across in great cities.
though seldom or never in suburban
places, where the field may be supposed
too restricted for their operations per
sons who have no perceptible means of
subsistence and manage TO live rovally
on nothing year. They hold no gov
ernment bonds, they possess no real es
tate (Our ncighbors did own their house)
thoy toll not, neither do they spin: vet
they reap all che numerous soft adyan.
tages that usually result from honest
toll and skillful spinning. How do they
do it? But this is DEPRESSION, and am
quite of the opinion Of the old lady
i'm David Copperield, who SAYS, wet us
have no meandering. !"
Though my wife had declined to risk
n ceremOnious call on our neighbors AS
family, ! saw no reason why / should
not speak to the husband as an indi-
vidual, when happened to encounter
him by the wayside. | made several an
proaches to do 80, when it occurred TO
my penetration that my neighbor had the
air of trying TO avoid me. | resolved
To put the suspicion TO the test. and one
forenoon, when he was sauntering along
on the opposite side of the road. i'm the
vicinity of Fishers saw-mill / deIiber-
ately crossed over to address him. The
brusque manner in which he hurried
away was not TO be misunderstood. OF
course ! was not going to force myself
upon him.
1t was at this time that ! began 10
form uncharitable suppositions touching
our neighbOrs, and would have been as
well pleased if some of my choicest
fruit trees had not overhung their wall
| determined to keep my eyes open later
in the season, when the fruit should be
ripe enough to pluck In some folks, a
sense of the delicate shade Of difference
between meWn ct t,iup does not seem 10
be very strongly developed in the Moon
of Cherries, to use the old Indian
phrase.
was sufficiently magnanimous not to
impart any of these sinister impressions
To the families with whom we were on
visiting terms; for dcspise a gossip I
would say nothing against the persons
up the road, until ! had something def
mite to say. My interest in them WAS
well not exactly eXtinguished but
burning low. ] met the gentleman at
intervals, and passed him without recog-
milton; at rarer intervals ] saw the lady.
After while ] not only missed nv
occasional glimpse Of her pretty slim
figure, always draped in some soft black
stuff with bit Of scarlet at the throat.
but ! inferred that she did not 90 about
the house singing in her light-hearted
manner, az formerly. What had hap
pened Had the honeymoon suffered
eclipse already2 Was she i'll? / faDcied
she was I'LL and that detected certain
anxiety in the husband, who spent the
mornings digging solitarily in the
garden, and seemed 10 have relinquished
those long jaunts 10 the brow Of the
Blue Hill, where there is a superb view
combined with sundry venerable rattle
snakes with twelve rattles
A the days went by il became certain
that the lady was confined TO the house,
perhaps seriously ill., possibly a con
frmed invalid. Whether she was at
tended by physician from Canton or
from Milton ] was unable to say; but
neither the gig with the large white al
lopathic horse, nor the gig with the
homeopathic sOrrel mare, was ever seen
hitched at the gate during the day. If
physician had charge Of the case. he
visited his patient only at night. All
this moved my sympathy, and I re
preached myself with having had hard
thoughts Of our neighbors. Trouble had
come to them early. ] would have liked
TO offer them such small, friendly ser
vices a. lay in my power but the mem
ory Of the repulse ! had sustained
raukled in me. So ! hesitated.
One morning my two boys burst into
the library with their eyes sparkling.
You know the old elm down the
road P cried one.
Yes"
The elm with the hang-bird'sncstY'
shrieked the other
Yes, yes'
Well we both just climbed up, and
there three young ones in itN
Then ] smiled to think that our new
neighbors bad gotsuch a promising little
family.
T INDIA is said to possess a convenient
/ Nrrr fI q