Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-11-27
Gales artb Sketfkes.
JeHy SMITH;
Or Two fhanksgfviBgs.
By ELLA WHEELER.

| Aunt Tabifha sat knitting q blue wooden
sock. Uncle Joel was poring over the
column OF patent-medicine advertisements.
which he found q never-failing source oil
entertainment and delight. Janet, their
spinster daughter, was washing the sup
| per dishes, and the rafting of tescups and
saucers, spoons and forks mingled with
| the click Of Aunt Tabitha's needles. and
made a sort of domestic melody, which
was presently interrupted BY leng drawn
sigh and an ejaculation from the lips Of
Miss Janet Of
"Oh, yes "
Now, a. no one had spoken for full five
| minutes, such an exclamation seemed
somewhat irrelevant and one necessitating
an explanation. But neither Uncle Joel
or Aunt Tabitha expressed any surprise.
| or indeed seemed to notice Janet's eau
| lation The truth was, this was but one
Of the many idiosyncrasies OF this most
| peculiar family.
Aunt Tabitha Smith was designed by
heaven for the sphere of an old maid.
| Her prim ideas of propriety, her severe
| criticisms, her aggressive cleanliness and
order, and her limited idea of human ma
ture and needs, all fitted her for the call
ing of spinster of the most approved
| pattern.
In some moment OF weakness. never
accounted for, and through some impulse
| inexplicable to himself and to all who
| knew them. Uncle Joel Smith had per.
suaded her to forsake her predestined vo-
| cation and assume the duties of a wife
and mother.
But, as is frequently the case with ca
reer cut short or turned aside from its
natural course, or with talents hindered
or restrained in one generation, they cul-
( inmate and flower in the next.
Aunt Tabtha had not been allowed to
| fulfil her destiny; but her daughter Janet
was completing it for her in the most ap-
| proved manner. A more perfect speci-
ment of the spinster it would be difficult
| to conceive.
| To be sure, she was only 25-an age
which in these days is considered the very
morning of youth an age far more at
| tractive to the average man of the period
| than Is or 1S-just as the ripe peach is
more appetizing than its fair blossom.
But Janet had been a spinster at fifteen
at twenty she was confirmed old maid.
She cared nothing for the pleasures Of
youth. preferring her daily routine OF
home lite and her round of domestic
duties to any festivity; and by her prim-
ness, her reserve. and her odd little
whims, keeping all possible suitors at a
safe distance and when l say safe. mean
it in the full sense OF the term. For it
would have been a rash and reckless
youth who had ventured into the presence
of AUNT Tabitha,' as Mrs. Smith was
generally known, to WOO her daughter.
Despite the evident fact that she herself
had been wooed and won, Aunt Tabitha
denounced all lovers as'miserable fools"
and she received the reports of neighbor
hood marriages with the same denun-
ciatory phrases which she bestowed upon
other crimes. For Aunt Tabitha seemed
to have little pity in her composition for
the world of INSIDERS. She was of the
severest type of grim old Puritan stock.
She planned and executed her life on the
most austere principles, and felt no SYM
pathy for those who deviated in the least
from her ideas of propriety.
Endearing words and caresses between
friends or members of a family she con-
sdered weak, if not vulgar; and Janet
would as soon have thought of striking
her mother as kissing her. Uncle JOEL
who had once been man of warm affec-
tons, had learned years ago to repress
any impulse of demonstration toward
wife or children.
After child could walk and talk.
Aunt Tabitha considered it too odd
to kiss or fondle; and. rather
than listen to her caustic criticisms and
sarcastic rebukes, he concealed his natural
feelings of affection, even toward his own
children, and turned his thoughts-like
Eos Of
else to occupy his mind, to his physical
ailments.
He was man of delicate physique, and
hearts content in spite of Aunt Tabitha
Janct-who had cut her life by the pat
tern of her mothers ideas-was, accord
ing to Aunt Tabitha's thinking. model
parsonage, sensible, and free from all
nonsense.
If Janet ever had longings or aspira-
tons beyond her narrow and colorless
life. no one knew it.
And her frequent and audible ejacula-
ton of "Oh, yes" seemed an utterance
of approval and satisfaction at her own
discreet and orderly existence.
As she wiped the last dish out of scald-
ing water, Uncle Joel read:
ONeT lU,VOV teStiulouialS nave Uectl
receivee from sufferers who have been
cured by the Gallopin' Pain Pacifier.
Over 10000! That is a great many peo-
Pile to be cured by one remedy. There
must be something in it if it cures 10000
suffering people,"
They ought to be ashamed of them
selves" proclaimed Aunt Tabitha, who
had no patience with Uncle Joel's patent.
medicine mania.
There was quick step on the walk, a
mellow whistle in the hallway, and thu
door burst open rs If q strong wind had
blown it. A handsome. stalwart young
man of twenty, with curling. chestnut hair,
and warm. brown eyes, strobe across the
room. after banging the door behind him.
and throwing his cap into the corner, and
clasping Janet about the neck. placed a
sounding kiss upon the either cheek.
Janet gave little feminine shrek, and
struggled to free herself.
For shame, Johnr' cried Aunt Tabi-
tina, "what coarse manners you have fall
en- into lately You should treat your sister
with moro respect"
Johns boyish face clouded. and 8 sus-
picious mist came into his brown eyes. He
threw himself face downward on 3 lounge
which stood at one end of the room.