The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1881-12-07

GAS sure as I'm a living sinner, I'll
break it if you put it on the fire," said
Miss Diantha, new grimness in voice
and eye.
"Try it." said Miss Althea, defantly.
"I calculate you'll find more'n one kind
o. tea kin be drunk in this house. I've
stood you some years too much, an as
fast's you break, I'll buy. You hain't
forgot the will, an that all expenses
has got to be equally shared by the
three, or as many as lives. 1t III be
leetle hard on Chloe, but then she's
used to your imposin' on her, an grain
more won't make much difference"
"Sisters," Miss Chloe began, in an
agony of tremulousness and apprehen-
sion, "for mercy's sake Oh, dear
how can youP Why don't we each have
a teapot, an why didn't think of it
before? There's one for each, and q
caddy apiece too-the little ones grand
father brought home. Oh, don't look
that way, Dianthy, an Althy too! To
think that we're all sisters, an alone in
the world For PHYS sake"
"Be stillp said Miss Diantha, i'm
peratively. cam now, Althy Temple
ton, you hear my last word to you.
When you say you're sorry for this
mornings work I'll say back, an not
before. The Wills fixed so't we can't
split nor divide, an long as we live
there's got to be three in the house.
Well, I wouldn't split if / could.
Folks IL ask, an you kin tell. I'm
DONE"
Done, truly. Eight years had passed,
and not one word had Miss Diantha
been heard to speak. If direction was
needed she wrote on slate and handed
it to Miss Chloe, who acted as mediator
and interpreter. Confident that day
would end it Miss Althea had gone her
way, missing more than she would have
told the war of words which, after all,
had been only words-a family privi-
lege never destroying a certain family
feeling holding its place under all
assaults. But as day after day went by
without sign she, too, grew more and
more determined, and if an occasional
spasm of desire for the old state-or
perhaps better state-of things visited
her, she put it sternly away. Daily the
two faces settled into harder and harder
lines; daily Miss Chloe's eyes grew
more apprehensive.
The three caddies she had filed al
once, the time for some decisive action
on her part seeming to have come at last
beyond any question, and daily she
took down the three teapots, hidden
for years in the recesses of the upper
| shelf of the china closet-one old blue
the last piece of set long ago scat.
tered or destroyed; one q tiny Wedg
wood, great-aunt's property, and last
the bronze-colored earthen their mother
had sometimes used. The three hac
each its own place on the stove, anC
curious neighbors, who had heard there
was something beyond the common
goin' on at the Templetons' looked q
them with suspicion as in some way &C
countable for the difficulty and at las
with shake of the head as the silenc
refused to yield. The minister arguet
and pleaded, the deacons came singl
and in body, exhorting and threaten
ing suspension of church privileges
and the parish was in ferment, tilf
new cause for discussion arose i
another quarter, reverting to this
however, with surprising constancy.
By degrees Miss Althea had grow
almost as silent as the elder sistel
whose life seemed black shadow, darl
: ening even the sunshine of summer c
the golden light of autumn on the hills
, Miss Chloe grew more haggard ever
= day, and her forlorn blue eyes, rec
, rmmed with much crying, brimme
, over for months, as she looked appea
3 ingly from one to another. Anythin
, was better than this hard, grim silenc,
and the two faces always with averte
, eyes.
"Oh, why didn't I think of thel
A three teapots beforeP" Chloe moane
3 to the old minister. "Such an eai
4 way out of al the trouble; an there
let it go on, an now I shall always |
: responsible"
Q No argument ayailed against this CO..
= clusion, and no length of time prove
n sufficient to overthrow it. Months rs
s into years at last, but time seemed new
s to deaden the continuous self-reproaC
} of this Templeton, who had absorbt
|, the conscience of the whole generation
IS and who sought vainly to reconcile
It reconcilable forces.
!, "When an irresistible wave encounte
i" an immovable rock, what is the result
,, had questioned Leander Lamson, hon
from Dartmouth, and overhowing wi
o Sophomore logic; and old Lamso
k after pause for reflection, answere
70 "Tarnal smash for whatever comes b
10 tween"
q, Miss Chloe had come between, al
g, her looks indicated something equiv
s. lent to "tarnal smash
l. Lucinda Wetherbee, once the own
TX of a small but profitable farm, h
le 4" "signed" for her brother, a luckle
le scamp, who fed to the West when Z
final crash came, leaving Lucinda
le sixty to face it asshe might. The end W
ss the town farm, where the poor creatu
IN went for life. too crushed by the su
Id day, oasaation Of all the small aetiViti