Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-10

advice to Gustav about the boy. She was
always recommending this or that old
fashioned treatment for the little ailments
of childhood, and laying down rules for
the Improvement of his health and Of his
mind. She had even sent some hideous
clumsy patterns of the underclothes of
German children, and the mother had had
to make some of them, which were gro.
tesoue affairs on the person of the
slender little American. And many
doses from the German apothecary on
the corner had the poor boy been forced
to take, through her oficious Vaccinations.
We naturally hate our sisters-in-law, but
sister-in-law such as this Poor Louisa
was to be blamed, of course, but was not
to be wondered at. She felt that the sec
ond great blessing.of her life was that this
woman and she lived three thousand miles
apart.
So she put the letter on the mantel-
piece, next to the abominated picture, and
resolved that she would not listen to
word that it contained.
1t was now five O'Clock, and there was
some excuse for lighting the gas. Then came
the weariest hour of ALL 1t was dreadful to
think of Louis exposed to such an air at
| SHCu al nun do Wills. LIZ uau never III
winter been out after four o'clock, and
then only on the finest, safest days. She
heard in imagination the ringing, warning
cough, and saw the flush on the poor
| little cheek. Why did she let him go? She
| ought to have fought it out, and kept him
at home. There is q sort OF mother anxiety
which is like a fever in the veins. She
walked about the room, and at some mo-
ments trembled with weakness of nerves,
at others felt frantic with the desire to go
out and hunt for him.
SAT last just on the stroke of six, she
heard the latch.key in the door, and the
sound of her husbands step in the lower
hall. Her poor, silly heart gave leap she
ran and turned up the gas, and then hur.
ried out into the entry.
"For some reason, on the floor below,
the gas had not been lighted. There
was Just the dimmest light in the lower
hsll, and none on the floor above, nor
on this floor. She forgot all her fears
in Joy at the return. She remembered,
with little thrill, the surprise in the toy
drawer, the stable in the locked.up closet.
She wondered if he had been unhappy with.
out her. If he would dare even to whis-
per with his father in the room. No, he
would slip his slim warm little hand in
hers and hold it tight. They understood
each other.
"Gustav came up slowly, more slowly
than usual. She stood by the balusters,
and looked down into the dimness, and
listened eagerly for the little tread behind
the heavy one. Gustav made such noise
with his great boots. Sac dared not call
out Louis
&c But when the step of her husband got
nearly to the top of the stairs on their
landing place, her ear discovered that there
was no other football, light or heavy, fol-
lowing him.
"She drew back when her husband
passed her alone to go into the room.
Where-where is Louis 2 she asked,
hurriedly.
"He passed her stolidly, as was his won't,
and did not answer her.
"He had left hin n the hall below, per.
haps, she thought. Il had quarreled with
him, and the child was in disgrace and cry
ing, and he had not dared to come up
stairs. She flew down; perhaps he was
afraid of the darkness She called softly,
Louis, Louis, as she hurried down.
"But there was no one in the hall, nor
on the staircase. She even opened the front
door, and glanced up aud down the street,
where the gaslight was daring in the saw
age wind.
Z" She got up the stairs again, somehow,
and stood painting at the door of their own
room.
Where have you left Louis?' she said,
taking hold of some piece of furniture near
her. Her husband stood with his back to
her. He was taking off his boots,
sShe repeated the question before he
spoke. Then it was a little hoarsely.
"' He is safe enough, hope.
"'I know it, but achere p
"She was not afraid of him now, but
was quite near him, with her eyes like fire.
"Then the man raised himself and said,
brutality, for it was best to have it over
with:
"'He is outside of Sandy Hook by this
time, and deadly sea-aick, l haven't any
doubt
"She did not swoon she gave long,
low shrek, and sprang at him, and grasped
his throat. / really do not know what i'll
she might have done him in her mad fury,
if she had not been slight and delicate
woman, and he a great heavy brute of a
man. He had dreaded this moment, bat
he had dreaded it none too much. He had
feared tears, reproaches. swoonings but
! here she was like one mad, and fearing
neither him nor Heaven in her horrible
reproacbes.
The household was soon reused. This
is one sort of secret that cannot be kept.
The dodgers, the people of the house, the
servants, hurried to the room, and in few
moments comprehended all.
"'She shall be put into a mad-house if
she goes On like this, said the husband,
shaking her off, and turning to leave the
room, very little pale.
You deserve to be put into some
thing worse, if there is such place, cried
one of the women, Historically. You are
a brute-a brute l only wish you could
be killed =
Gustav shrugged his shoulders, with o
little sarcasm about the license of wo-
mans tongue. And, in ali their wrath,
they felt themselves to be inferior creatures
as he spoke.
"'This is bad business, said one OF
the men of the household to him, locking
at the frantic mother, held between two
women who were crying with her. Her
fury and strength were dying down, and
she was shuddering and faint
go Yes said the stolid husband, in re-
| ply. Bat man is master OF his own
child, / suppose, and can educate it in one
place or another, as seems best to him.
"'That is true, said the other, thought
fully. All the same, itseems little hard.
GA little hard yes, it was q little hard.
In the midst of all Gustav went down to
dinner, and some Of the servants had to go
down to wait on him. And the men had
to so down to get theirs. And although
no one had great appetite after the scene
upstairs, they all ate fairly, and some OF
them talked little politics. None of the
women would go down they had their
hands full with the poor creature up those
two shabby flights of stairs.
That was fearful night. But it was
only one night out of many. 1t makes me
sick to thin of her longings for the child !;
OF the hours that she lay awake while he
was yet on the ocean of the terrors she
endured lest he should never reach the dis
tant, hard home to which he was dis
patched of the pathetic, hopeless, craving
that she had to feel his slim little hand in
hers once more OF the unspeakable pity
that che felt for his loneliness and timidity.
She never dwelt upon the fear that he
might forget her. She almost wished he
might, if 1t could save him any homesick-
ness.
AI--l