Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1880-10-12

looked at her pretty sharp, as she passed
him to 20 into the house, but she didn't t
look bit like the woman in his vision, as
he had come to call it, so he felt better,
and got up to help wait upon the coach
folks.
"But. somehow, that woman in black
set him to thinking, and after little, he
began to watch the coach every time it
came in to see if there was any one
dressed in black aboard, for. somehow,
he was strongly impressed with the feel
ing that the one he was waiting for would
come to him in the coach. But he waited
in vain. When the summer season came
round again, and strangers were more
plenty, there came now and then a wo-
man dressed in the garments which al
ways had such powerful effect upon Eli
hu, but months passed into years, and yet
the right face did not come.
$50 positive was Elihu that it would
come, sooner or later. that he gave each
member of his family instructions to
watch the coach whenever he was away
from the house, and on no account to fail
TO call him ifit brought woman in black.
Everybody knew his story, for he had told
it freely, and although they had thought
it strange when he found his first wife,
and stranger still when they saw her in
her white robes, as they had seen Liza,
they could not resist the temptation TO
laugh at him when they saw him waiting
and watching SO. patiently for his woman
in black.
MANY advised him laughingly, to
take the first widow he could find who
would have him, and call it right, but he
always answered:
"'No, shall wait till the right one
comes
MANY a time did his sons OF daughters
hunt him up, and hurry him to the house
to see some new arrival, only to see him
turn away in disappointment. Il was
plain to any one that no face but the one
he was so positive he had seen would ever
satisfy him.
Zone day the stage got in in extra good
season, and Elihu. being busy, did not
know of its arrival, but as it was cold
night, and the stage liable to come any
moment, he started into this very room
with big armful of wood. When he
opened the door he was n good deal sur
prised to see half dozen strangers sitting
around the fire, and one, woman dressed
in deep mourning sitting with her back
towards him, caught his attention, you
may be sure.
However, he had been disappointed so
many times that he had grown to expect
it, so it was not strange that he passed
leisurely around TO the other side of the
hearth to put his wood down, with scarce
ly glance toward her. The strangers
moved back to make room for him, and
as they did so the woman in black raised
her eyes from the fire and looked him full
in the face. The wood dropped from his
neryeless arms, and he sank into the near
est seat. There was the face for which
he had waited and watched so long,
"All noticed that he grew suddenly
pale, and asked If he was sick.
".No, no., he said. 1t was nothing
he should be all right in a minute
And 50 he was, apparently, though
the woman in black thought it very
strange that she could not look at him
without meeting his eye fixed steadily up
on her.
after little time he took a seat Lear
her, and entered into conversation, and
soon learned that she had been called from
her home in New Hampshire to visit
sick sister who lived in an adjoining town.
Did he know the Watsons,'
"'Oh. yes, he knew the family well,
and soon told her many bits of news re-
garding them, which she, living SO far
away, had never heard.
by the time the stage was ready to
leave, the next morning, Elihu and the
strange lady were quite good friends, and
in answer to his repeated and evidently
anxious inquiries, she assured him, in
some surprise, that she should certainly
return that way.
"True to her word, in two weeks she
Long weeks they had seemed
to Elihu, but he had learned to bide his
time. Yes, and to improve it too, for she
had not been long in the house before he
found an opportunity to talk with her
Just what he told her no one
beside themselves ever knew, but not
long after, he made an excuse to buy
some horses answer for trip to New
Hampshire. In the spring he made
another journey, and this time he did not
come back alone.
"And if | do say it," concluded the
dear old lady, her voice taking an added
note of tenderness, and her eyes, uplifted
to watch the effect of her words, showing
a merry twinkle, "If | do say it, he was
as kind husband, up to his dying day,
as ever woman need to have, and 1
neuer had reason for one moment to be
sorry that Elihu tcaited so long for the
riqht ,coman in black"