The Red Cloud chief., 1880-04-29

Stfu fuScs ne ut Oh mtx0one<Se. -
frightened and sweetened he placu
where she dweit Herr the msssiou
which no woman need despise. 20 maks
people happy. 20 charm agsy their sai.
len moods. and 10 difizss p~ieasansnesu
wherever she appeared
Only with her fsfher she had last hes
old magic His smiles grew ~infrequen,
and his temper o capricious and un-
certain than ever.
81 don't know what TO think Of Dea.
con Cameron." said the pastor, Mr..
Dcnbigh. who for thirty years had h
bored Ia the Hillside Church. lie VA
talking ~coniaen;isiiy with his wife.
He IL becoming more cranky and
crotehety every day did hope that
the illness OF his child would have
wrought . change; but, IL 50, il il q
change for the worse. am informed
that he forbids young Murray TO enter
his door; and when I this morning
asked him 20 increase his subscription
TO our Domestic Board. he treated me
~ though l were begging for myself.
Adversely hardens q man when IL does
not refine him"
at may be-" said the pastors gentle
wife. "thst God is striving with the
Deacon. There Is coed in him. / am
sure. think he u no: AZ peace with
God. Dr. with himself. just now. He
knows he is in the wrong about Agnes.
and he is therefore NOT comfortable.
Perhaps, dear. we have not prayed for
him ~ we ought
The plain fact Was that the Deacon
was exceedingly uncomfortable in his
mind. He had offered a genuine PRAYER
and pledged an honest vow. fully mean
ing TO keep his word. while in his heart
had been a vague idea of precipitation
SIS he knelt beneath the oak. When
Agnes had first begun TO grow stronger,
his resolution had been firm to fulfill
his word; but a she had crept onward
TO health il had loosened lis hold upon
HIM Could q miracle have been per-
formed, and the maiden have arisen
from her couch at one triumphant
bound from death to life, he would
have been awed and overwhelmed and
in haste TO make good his word TO the
Almighty. The comparative slowness
of her restoration had given time to his
nature 70 assert itself, and he was real
ly more ~ill-tempered. cross-grained and
churlish than he had been before. Even
TO Agnes he vas sometimes harsh; the
more SO that, under her soft exterior
and winsome ways, the slender girl had
an underlying subsoil of granite. not
unlike his own character. and far
tougher and firmer than the fabric of
which her gentle mother wa made.
Agnes loved her father, but she loved
her friend. TOO. If Edgar were pro-
hibiied from visiting her at her own
hearth. she was not ashamed TO meet
him openly under the sky: 10 walk with
him to the choir rehearsals; and to go
riding with his sister. while he held the
reins and his swift horses, the admira-
ton of the county, trotted smoothly up
hill and down dale and over the hard.
beautiful, floor-like roads which swept
around mountain-sides, skirted limpid
streams, and ntersected the thriving
villages which dotted that portion Of
the State. Had any other member of
his family thus dared his displeasure,
the Deacon would have met them with
prohibition and threatening; but il was
too late TO begin this curse with Agnes,
who he did not wish To drive into en-
tire enlargement. So the year wore
on, darkling and sorrowful in the
Cameron household, though outwardlv
all things prospered and whatever the
Deacon touched turned to gold.
His main trouble was with his Bible.
Turn where he would, the verses IA
miliar from his childhood Knocked him.
The word VOW seemed TO stare at him
from every page. 1t was David who
said: "Shall / offer to the Lord
sacrifices of that which cost me moth
ing?" And David had always been his
favorite character. But they all paid
their vows.
Even Jephthah, whose rash and
sweeping pledge to the Deity had in
volved the offering of his only daughter
not shrunk from the terrible exaction.
Saul, in a moment of haste, had con-
demned a possible offender { o death;
and 10. it proved to be Jonathan who
must meet the bolt of fate, and only the
majestic protest of the united nation
had availed to save him. The Bible
was an armory which bristled with
weapons turned constantly against the
Deacon's conscience. And while he sat
At the head of his table, silent, con-
strained and gloomy, imposing an un-
wholesome and irritating repression on
wife and children. a fiery battle was
raging within him. He grew to dread
Agnes sweet, composed face, where
The raaaa xrI.,k ..ot1 x.-.,% .,las
nitely. and hold its own to the last, was
already stamping n Madonna-like dig
nifty. Often. as he saw Edgar Murray
in church. he felt that he was unrea-
sonable in opposing his suit. There
could be no valid objection to a pure,
steady, well-educated and honorable
young man, who loved his daughter
and whose love she returned. The OBJ
stinafe antagonism of his dislike had no
foundation which could be sustained by
arguments.
DAYS wore on. Months and seasons
waned. The apple trees blossomed.
ripened and were shorn of their fruit.
Successive harvests were reape0. And
then the tide of good fortune turned.
and the Deacon had q new
experience. He lost money. APP
parently stable investments collapsed.
His eldest son went to q dis
tant State. A horse OF which lie was
proud was carelessly tied, and famed in
consequence. A ~favorite Alderney
sickened and died. The barn took fire
and was consumed. None of the losses.
so far, were crushing; but the aggre-
gate bore heavily on the Deacon and
made him very sad. As he sat in his
armchair or followed the pillow, he felt
that the warfare of the Almighty had
assumed a tangible form. and that His
arrows were being aimed for his de-
struction.
One sorrowful day there came a
greater loss. The hand of paralysis
was laid upon the meek and ever-sub-
missive wife, and she lay for hours in
that desth-in-lfe which Is 80 horrible
and o. inserutable. Now was the cup
of calamity full and running over.
Never . demonstratiye nor q very low
ing husband, the Deacon had felt q
true respect and complacent proprie-
tary affection for the woman who had
given him herself in the radiant bloom