Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-08-04
4 YANKEE ATALANTA.

Il YANKEE 1IALAAIA.
chime of tea bells rang out along the
broad street of Charlton as DIR. Myrick, perch
cd in his high-swung sulky, drove wearily
homeward through the biting air. To hun
CRY man the cheerful tinkle pleasantly sug-
gested the thought of creature comforts. But
the thought of creature comforts unpleasant
ly suggested their natural entail of bills. He
recalled the unpaid scores of these tormentors
rustling in the hollow bronze globe, by whose
weight bronze Atlas standing on his Office
table seemed quite bent aud overcome. No
wonder either, thought the care-worn doctor.
His own world often seemed to contain moth
ing but bills, aud that the stoop in his own
shoulders had come OF their unlifting load he
knew.
1t was Mrs. Myrick's last Christmas gift to
him--that costly inutility. When he kissed
her with thanks, his prophetic soul misgave
him that the bill would be sent in at the mo-
ment he could least afford to pay II one hour
Of his wearing year were distinguishable from
another in that respect. But he had long
since discovered that his wife had a fiscal
genius unrivaled among her sex, save by that
able financier Mrs. Micawber. She declared
that the explanation Of their embarrassments
lay in the fact that the doctor constantly mis-
laid his bills and so, Of course, paid most of
appointed TO office, so to speak, this pagan
Chancellor Of the Exchequer, and had made it
a daily duty to put all new or stray evidences
of debt into his grim keeping she really felt
that the MyTick family stood once more on a
sound financial basis or, If they did not that
it was certainly no fault Of hers.
Meantime she went on as she had always
done, committing endless extravagances in
the name Of economy, and heaping up bills
Al l.. IL l. l..
of the ten virgins for whom the bridegroom
called, her lamp would have been found neith-
er full nor empty she would long since have
exchanged it altogether, much under value,
for highly recommended self lighting and
feeding perpetual burner, certain under no
circumstances to ignite. This system of bar
ter and substitution animated the housekeep-
ing devastating as it went.
But however spent and troubledDr. Myrick
might be he never suffered himself to be i'm
patient with his wife. He was eminently a
Just man. He remembered that she was mn
altered from the smiling beauty of seventeen
whom he had passionately wooed, vowing,
after the manner of lovers that not for worlds
would he have had her other than she was.
No strong minded, aggressive, unsexed crea-
ture for him, he had gone so far rs to say, in
the wisdom Of his post st-graduate experience,
but tender, clinging, sweet, adorable maid
en-, whose strength was her weakness, and
who should clothe his roughness with her
grace. In short, the oak and the vine, though
somewhat hackneyed Rs to metaphor, seemed
to him quite the correct thing as to senti-
| ment.
At thirty.five his Mary was just as pretty,
Just az useless, Just as incapable Of serious eff
fort, Just inAne, just as loving, just as sweet
| tempered, ,as on their wedding day. 1t was the
| care-worn man of forty two who had left the
impulsive boy Of twenty -four so far behind him
that he could no longer comprehend the pas
sion of that foolish young fellow for beauti-
| full doll. 1t seemed impossible that he, Arthur
| Myrick, knowing what a wise, careful, and
| high. minded wife might have done for him in
essence and estate during these eighteen
years, could ever have quoted with approval,
TO the girl he loved Coeridge's sentiment
that the perfection of character in woman is
| to be characteress.
Yet he remembered that he had perpetrAt-
| ed that very idiocy, and he acknowledged that
he had no right to whimper now that his
pleasant vice Of sentimentality had been made
an instrument to plague him. All that he had
reason to expect from his Mary-love for
himself and children-he had received in full
measure And he would have beld himself
caitiff indeed could he have visited upon her
blameless head his own sins OF blinded judg-
ment, of dull perception, and Of an ignoble
worship which eXacted no .nobleness of its
object.
Over the cradles of his five daughters he
had suffered pangs of apprehension and self
reproach lest they had been born to make the
lives of other men as hard and empty as his
who had begotten them. Through each sue
cessive year his own domestic vine had clung
and clambered closer about its supporting
oak, precisely as he had invited it to do. He
knew that the innocent bloomy growth had
sapped his vitality and thriyen ON his decay.
And he vowed vow to Heaven that each Of
his little maids should grow mp strong bodied
strong -souled, strong minded, II need we're
to the verge of masCulinity, II only thus could
she become a distinct human being, and nc
parasite.
But as the years slipped by In the common
place disguise Of days, he accepted his girl
as they were, with o matter of course patema
pride, and sometimes forgot, and oftener fel
too weary, to shape into conduct his aspira
tions for them. They we're all pretty--pret
tier than their mother even, They were al
clever in their different ways, well-bred ant
intelligent as a matter of course. Those ef
feots belonged to the Myrick blood, the doc
tor thought, with some pardonable self-com
plaoency. He felt sure that Rose, who wa
seventeen now, had great executive force. HI
thought that she might even inaugurate a new
|
would only abdicate in her favor. He hat
suggested the change of dynasties, with
periidious pretense of relieving his wife from
care. But with perfect sweetness she had de
clined all aid With her experience, she oh
served, housekeeping cares were nothing I
her-the merest form of occupation; wherea
dear Rose would grow old before her tim
b with such a responsibility on her shoulders
: No, no. Every girl learned that sort of thin
: by intuition as soon as she had a house G
q her own. She knew she did, and Rose ha
: certainly inherited her capacity TO manag
I. we'll. Let the child have her brief holiday
i Will Hayes wanted her to be married in tn
s spring, and then she must settle down, @
o course. Besides, as Win was rich, Ros
d would never have to slave as she had done
, thank Heaven
, This engagement was another of the doc
a tors worries. Rose was too young, he thought
o and VIII too imperious But he was secretl
!: pleased that the Hayes family, who were g
I, critical as they were rich, should have give
so warm a welcome to his bonny daughter
: Nevertheless, be reflected with some sham'
y he did not feel well enough acquainted wit
y | NJ. - H., NhaN not HapNhu