The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-11-29
Sslsetsp Storp.
Smith BROTHERS.
BY RALPH HUMPHREYS.

You can read upon our sign
''Smith Brothers" .Snith Broth
ers' head our advertisements. We
have always been "Smith Broth
ers" at heart, except for one brief
space. We are in the wholesale
dry goods line, as our father was
before US. When he died he left
us his store and his business, and
"Smith Brothers took the place Of
the old sign-s:Johnathan Smith"
We were not young when our
father departed his life. |, Abso-
lum, was thirty-fve and my brother
Abijah was thirty-three. Our mo-
ther died when we were children,
and her last charge. as they say in
novels, was that we should love
each other and try to console father.
We can remember her very distinct
.ly, both of us. She was fair little
woman, with pale face and gen
tie eyes, of a sort Of broWnish blue.
Her voice was very sweet and low:
and she loved us as no one will ever
love us again. To this day1 can
recall her cooling, murmurous into
nations, as she called us mother 5
thousand endearing names; the
warm clasp of her soft arms; the
sweetness of her smiles; the deli
cacy Of her beauty. So can Abijah.
1t is not strange that after her
death, as our lives expanded from
boyhood to manhood, our mother,
as we remember her, became to our
dreaming fancies the type Of all
that was lovely in woman. The
future wife, of whom we both
dreamed, was little, a fair creature,
with brownish blue eyes, sweet
voice and tender smile. We used
to talk about her freely with each
other and the one who found his
mate first was to marry and take
his brother to live with him.
It was queer life which we led,
all through our boyhood and young
manhood. The servants who had
lived with US at my fathers death,
two staid, church going spinsters,
all lines and angles, and grey
haired servingman who looked like
the very incarnation Of family re-
spectability. Besides these we had
no housekeeper. My father did not
like stranger about the house and
himself bestowed upon the domes-
tic affairs the slight amount Of
supervision necessary, until / be-
come old enough to relieve him.
We went to school until we were
shy boys, and besides each other,
made no intimate friends.
When we were sixteen cur
father took us into his store. This
pleased US vastly better than a
longer school life. We were con-
telnplative, rather than communica-
tive, and we used to sit, when the
days work was over, and look from
an upper window down the harbor
and watch the ships coming home,
bearing to temperate New England
oriental musks and spices and
essence; shawls and robes wrought
with many strange Eastern device;
hints of acacias and Indien palms
and dusky women rowing under
them. I~speak for us both; our
tastes were as one taste; what one
liked the other liked also. We
used to associate the gentle woman
of our dreams with all our oriental
fancies. She should wear the bright
hued silks, fold her light figure in
the quaint, rich shawls, bear the
odor of spices in her soft hair and
the folds other garments.
But when my father died and we
got along in our thirties We were
no nearer the dream wife than in
our boyhood. We saw no company
save the people we met in our busi-
ness. Year in and year out, no fe-
male footsteps lighter or quicker
than James and Fepzibah's ever
wandered up and down the stairs
in and out of the rooms of our spae:
ious, old-fashioned house. We
dreamed of the future still, with the
shy tenderness of our boyhood'
We did not at all realize that we