The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-06-03
1.-THE AULD WIFE,"

prime OF lime, looking at his pretty
young daughter just blossomiug into
glrlish beauty, loves her all the better
Tor the thought that comes TO him, like
thrilling realization of his youth again,
that she Is the very picture OF what her
mother was at her age. And then an
unconscious sigh disturbs him as he
glances at the mother, and sees the
havoc rhat has been wrought in tina
once smooth fair face as the years have
been slipping by, taking many things
with them besides rosy bloom and dim
pies, bright teeth and luxuIiant locks.
He is not so foolish as to complain of
the inevitable, to ask why she cannot
always be young, or to forget that he
Himself has suffered a change, that his
forehead is very much higher than it
used to be, and that his old wedding
coat would not by any means meet
across his shoulders now. But, never
theless, he feels it a subject OF regret,
even ii he does not acknowledge it to
himself, that when beauty dies, the love
OF beauty does not die as we'll, or that
some other and more satisfactory and
lasting beauty, the beauty of the soul,
which transfgures the worn and weary
flesh, does not always and surely takes
its place. Perhaps he is so fortunate,
when gazing in his wife's face. as to see
this beauty of the soul that has grown
there, till now, Illuminating and irradi-
ating, it shines like name burning in
an alabaster vase. Or perhaps, as in a
very few extraordinary instances it has
happened, the original beauty is all that
it ever was, even after the lapse OF very
many years, and hat only mellowed and
deepened with time. But neither of
these possibilities is universal or fire.
quent one.
II, however, he sees neither the origl-
nal beauty, nor the spiritual beauty that
has grown under the discipline of life to
replace the other, there is some reason
for his signing; and If any little shade
of sslf'reproac ch mingled with the sigh,
there would often again be reason.
For how many times has he.paused,
for all his love of her, and thought, as
their youth was deepening into middle
life, how best to save that bloom on the
cheek, to spare that smooth forehead,
to keep the old sweetness that he loved
round the eye and lipP Cares must come
in spite of him, cares and griefs and
tronbles, since the tale of no ones life
is made without them. But has he con-
stantly remembered to make himself
the wall against which they first should
break, or to be personally the means of
bringing none Of them upon herr Has
his pride, his ambition, his love of
pleasure, exceeded his means, and re-
quired her, in the effort for respectable
ity, to do something much like making
bricks without straw Has he allowed
his unquiet temper to keep her nerves
always at concert pitch, with fretting
and ault.fnding and exactions, till she
has become little but nervesP Has he
demanded of her in all her departments
q perfection that he has not rendered in
any of hisP Has he given her any cause
for conte mpt OF him as for one caring
more for eating and dridking than for
anything elsep Has he forgotten all the
strain on delicate frame that the birth
and bringing mp of children are, not to
speak Of housework or the direction of
servants, if she has them? Has he taken
care to remember that even if supplied
with every bodily comfort, and perhaps
luxury, her soul yearns for more after
the old tender assurances and words of
admiration? Has he, in fact, just so far
as in his power, warded off trouble,
brought home happiness, taken pains to
put on smiling face when coming in
the door, and added to her stock no un-
reasonable solicitudesp
OF course almost every wife knows
that she is indispensable to one phase
of her husbands contentment, to the
management OF his food just as the ex-
perience of years has taught her his
tastes, the care Of his clothes, the cheer
fulness Of his home. But there is no
wife living who does not long to be made
constantly aware that she is indispensa-
bic to him for herself, and herself alone,
as well as all the rest, and there are too
many wives dead for no other reason
than that the assurances failed to come,
and 30 life lost its SAVIOR, and they slip
ped out of it unheeding and unheeded.
That husband who wants to see the
beauty Of youth on the "auld wife's"
face, or as much Of it as the positive
avs Of nature can spare him, has loaded
her with no care that could be avoided,
and if he could not give silk gowns and
plum cakes, has seen to it that he gave
her no anxleties either. Physical bur
dens greater than the strength do much
toward undermining the good looks Of
youth, but there are other destroying
influences more potent yet. 1t is anx-
iety and the wear and tear Of tired-oat
nerves that whiten and thin the hair,
that engrave the lines upon the fore
head and about the mouth, and that, far
sooner than time would do it, make the
weary muscles hascid, and let down all