Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-04-27
AUNT MILICENTS STORY.
BY HARRIET n. HATHAWAY.

tabieaa on the bright, sunny afternoon
which perfaced the opening Of this simple
story. At q table sat a lady, with a sweet
face, q smooth, quiet brow, from which
swept back q profnsion of soft, brown,
wavy hair, while q tender smile played
about her lirs, and beamed from her eye,
a. 1t rested on her little daughter Gerty,
standing opposite her Before a window
across the room, q middle-aged lady, in 9
alyer-grey silk and dainty mob-cap, was re.
clining in an armchair; one could not
study her face without feeling sure that she
hRa had a varied and sorrowful life-exper-
ience, that she had, through much chasten.
ing, attained the serenity OF spirit that alone
comes through submission to the will Of
God.
Mamma said Gerty, "may I look al
this pretty vase? please may / take it in my
hand?"
Mrs. Willis raised her eyes from an en-.
craving she had been studying, and after
little hesitation, replied:
Eyes, Gerty, if you will be very, very
CAREFUL; it is very frail, and were you t
reak il, money could not replace it; yon
kao| Uncle Robert brought it from Italy
last umEaer, Aunt Milicent," addressing
the elderly lady.
So Gerty, thus permitted, drew the beauti.
full vase towards her, her pretty, young face
diSnpling all over with smiles and roses,
and her mother addressed herself to her
aunt. With gentle touch the child turned
it this way and that, held it up to the
light, the better to see its transparency, and
at last, satisfied, was just about to place it
whence she had taken ii, when it sud
eenly dropped from her fingers; a crash.
q cry from the little girl, and the pretty
biiou lay in shiyers upon the marble table.
20, my vase, my vase!!" exclaimed the
mother, springing upon her feet, and with
hasty hand dealing e blow at Gerty, styou
cruel, careless girl"
"But, mamma, mamma, I did not mean
to! O, ] am SO sorry!" and two large
tears stood in the e~ntreati,.g blue eyes.
But fereer biazed the anger upon the
young mothers face; you could scarcely
have believed it the same that one mo.
ment before had locked SO gentle and
tender. Stamping her little foot upon the
carpet, she seized Gerty by the shoulder,
and hnrrying her to the door, and opened
il, aad pushed her roughly into the next
room, with.
There, go o1t of my sight You are
the trial of my life, and do not much
care IL / never look
@Alice! Alice!" md a OBTAINING hand was
laid upon the young mothers arm. It
wss Aunt Milicent, who, with face as white
as her cap-border, confronted her excited
orJ 4nrxr, r;oaoH is S.n JIT:li:zI -
awed into silence; she had never seen such
an expression on that placid face before
she had never hearcs suoh authority in
her tone.
go, Gerty,p she said, ~ forgive you,r
and Gerty, smiling through her tears, lift
ed her face to her mothers for the kiss
without which she would not feel sure Of
her forgiveness; then, turning to her aunt,
who had sunk upon the nearest seat, look
ing so changed from her wont, Mrs. vii
lis asked:
".What is it Aunt Milicenta What has
shaken you SOP"
20, Alice, my child, be thankful those
dreadful words you were but just about to
say did not pass your lips, else might you
have lived to mour your foolish, wicked
anger 10 the end of your days-you might
have lived to suffer as / have done!'
Mrs. Willis seeing her unit so deeply
moved, seated herself ON an ottoman at her
fact, and taking her trembling fingers in her
own. she said:
Aunt Milicant, I will admit I have been
uniustly, u~nreasonably angry with my dear
little Gerty, and even now 1 am willing to
confess it to her-poor dear! what great
pitiful tears stood il her eyes-but / do not
mink it is such q terrible thing that I have
done; even had I finished my sentence with,
I do not much care if never look upon
you again though it would, doubtless
have panied my little girl, she would have
known I only said it in my anger, and she,
is so sweet-temFered she would have for
given me at once"
'sAh, Alice, how ready are we to strive to
make our ways right in our own eyes!
Should a mother ever commit an act that is
OF q nature to call out the exercise of for
giveness from a child? Does she not iniure
her moral character by so doing? But /
think, niece, ! can do more real benefit by
telling you my experience than by moral.
izing, and SO / will school myself to the
painful task, thinking it may be to you a
useful lesson.
Perhaps you have heard portions of my
life, and often of my boy, my little Paul,
who came to SO sad IN end, before you were
of an age to know of the painful events con-
nected with his sudden death. / naturally
possessed just such q hasty temper as l have
marked in you. 1 was, like yourself,
w~arn-hearted, impllsive and generous, but
! did not control my temper; i had nevel
been schooled to it, for my mother died
when I was young. and my father pe.ted
and INDUCED me In every whim and cap.
rice. My 'tantrums, as my old nurse used
to call them, only seemed to amuse him:
when I used to go in one of them, he would
laugh, and call me his little finder box
and declare he loved me all the better that
] had some spirit of my own, and so / grew
to think 1t not wrong, but c~ommendable
Of course, the habit, by indulgence, rev
stronger, and there were times when / al.
most felt afraid of myself.
When / was about twenty, I married a
man in respect to temper entirely my oppo-
site, and this is the only reason That render.
ed on married relations in any degree har
monioas, but looking back upon them from
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