Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1883-07-14
SICK HEADACHE
A Hygienic Love Story.
Harper's Bazaar.

Harper's Bazaar.
Cocks had crowed and hens had cackled
for full hour at least. This was world OF
scratching, they said to themselves, and eggs
were not built in day. Early to bed and
early to rise make fowls healthy and lively
and wise. The robins in the apple trees, the
swallows in the barn, the little brown
phoebes that held meetings in the
meadow, had been piping and thrilling that it
was day, day, day, till they half expected to
hear the noon bell ringing. The shy quail
in the hedge-row had called their warning
of hot and dry, hot and dry" over and
over. to any ears that would listen The
spiders had long since hung out their glitter
ing webs drying ON the wild-rose bushes.
The bells of the morning glory, blue and
pink and purple. had swung for hours out
side the buttery window, before the delin-
ouent Aunt Larkin lifted the latch and en-
tered, not as her wont was, quickly, as with
desire, but on leaden feet OF dull resolve,
and looking white as her own linen.
There stood the row of milk pals waiting
to be emptied, to be washed, to be spread in
the sun, already fierce and hot outside.
There was the long array of pans mantlina
with yellow cream. There, in the corner,
waited the exacting ehurh, the dasher lean
ing toward her hand with what seemed 8
alalevolent readiness. AS she took up the
skinner the kitchen clock struck six. -
'Oh DEAR" sighed Aunt Larkin, morn
| in lost, evenin' crossed.
But when, with conscientious care, she had
stripped the third pan of its rich abundance,
she laid down her weapons, SO to speak, and
capitulated to the one foe able to conquer
that resolved soul. a
'Thanny," she called, at the foot of the
stairs.
eyes, mother" answered cheerful voice
from among the lilac bushes, and brown,
curly head, set on the slender shoulders OF
young manhood, showed itself in the door
way. What, another of the evil broodi
' straight to bed, mother. I'll go right
over for Obadiah's Sarah. I'll make you
some tea, and manage my own br akfast.
| Don't you worry about me. But you see
was right, mother. You must have girl
Shall | help you up stairsl"
"No, dear" You just see to yourself
| The coffee's ready and the bread is in the
stone pot and there's plenty of doughnuts
and a currant pie, and dried beef and cheese
in the buttery; and if you want to fry your
self slice of meat, there's the fat in the red
| jar, and the veal's out in the spring house.
But though the mother-instinct insisted
on thus making the way easy for its young,
and poor Aunt Larkin staggered to her bed
too horribly i'll to speak again for hours.
| Sight and sound were alike dreadful. The
| swift jingle of the wooing bobolink swinging
| outside in the golden ropes of the laburnum
pierced her sensitive ears like the steely clash
| of swords. And the droning hum of bees
| plunging deep in the white sweetness of the
| svringas, was as the bray of a trombone.
| Her heavy limbs ached, to ache the more as
| she tried to rest them in new positions. II
seemed to her that the deadly nausea was in
| her feet, in her arms, in her spine-eyery-
where.
That the entrance of any human being,
even her beloved Thanny, would be unen-
durable, she knew. But oh, if some phan-
| tom, some invisible, inaudible agency, would
but turn the swivel of the blind, where ray
of abhorr1ble sunlight was already creeping
in! How could she ever have let that bottle
of Bohemian glass stand on her bureau, even
though Thanny had given it her, filled with
| cologne for her poor head! Its vivid red
seemed to smite her through the cloud of
dull pain above her brows. And If she shut
her eyes, it did but glare the redder. Than
ny brought her the tea, and it was vile.
Presently Obadiahs Sarah came creeping in
with demonstrative quietness, in shoes that
creaked and gown that cracked, to set down
tinkling tray by the bedside. Aunt Larkin
who would have mourned over lie as nvera
lost SOUL had she been capable of telling
one, feigned sleep to dismiss that amiable
7andal. But when she opened her eyes and
saw the yellow butter, the deep blue plate,
| the brown toast, the red milk pitcher, the
black earthen pot, she felt that sex alone.
| not gratitude nor Christian grace, bridled
her tongue from profane and vain babbling.
Meantime, nature, who did not include
sick headache or any other mortal malady
in her scheme of existence, went about her
usual business. The sun mounted higher
and higher, cattle browsed, sheep fattened,
buds blossomed, crops grew. Among these
the plantage at the village academy -four
ished apace. Here lay the daily toll of Mr..
Nathan Larkin assistant principal, sensi-
tive, conscientious fellow, of indomitable
will, loving work, and toiling to kindle in
duller brains and lighter natures his own en-
thusiasm and his own resolve. The Rev.
Edward Granniss, DID,. Phi. d.. LII. D..
principal of the Quaboag seminary, being a
gentleman of phlegmatic temperament, much
addicted to heavy dinners at MONDAY, was
quite willing to let his esteemed young
friend do most of the pulling of the double
team, especially through the hard places
though simply for his own improvement, of
course.
Thus the youth, taking no rest, spending
If his intense personality with prodigal read
mess, inheriting from his mother set OF
tense and swift-responding nerves, found
himself beset, once fortnight or SO, by the
same fend, sick headache, which had de
vastated years of her useful life. He was
young and heroic. Sometimes he could
grapple with it. hold it STILL and. thus ham,
pered, go through the routine of his work
after dull fashion. Sometimes he yielded
undergoing tortures greater than his
mothers as his imagination was more vivid.
But, either way, he counted month out
of each year an unredeemed sacrifice to this
Moloch
On this summer day he felt wonderfully
alert and alive. The boys thought he made
Caesar and the Arabasis almost interesting
with his vivid sketch of the splendid life OF
the republic, and his showing up of hot
headed Cyrus, and cool, cruel, able Arta-
xerxes. s1ong- memoried" for his wrongs.
But in secret he was much disquieted. For
Miss Allis Putnam was to come that after
noon, and he felt that his poor mother would
IVORY" more than was needful. Not that he
had not his own misgiylngs. strong
minded young woman who had graduated
first in her class from the medical college.
and walked the hospitals abroad for year,
who had written prize treatise on some dis
gushing and sanguinary subject, and nc
doubt practiced vivisection, should be, to his
thinking, though for quite opposite reasons,
like Wordsworths Lucy
maid whom there we're none to praise,
And very few to love- n gfrF g
He fancied he knew how she would look
slight, sandy -complexioned, her light, char
aeterless hair very neat and wholly uninter-
esting. her dress very upright and uncom-
promising about the bases, collars and cuffs
prim and spotless-no ''sweet neglect" about
her, nor even ''th' adulteries of art, )" which,
notwithstanding Ben Jonson, he thought
most bewitching. She was so distant q
cousin that kinship had not made the invita-
ton obligatory. But his mother had dearly
loved her mother, and when that gentle
widow wrote that her dear Allis had returned,
and that she longed to have her ever beloved
Candace know her before she settled down
to her profession, the ever beloved and ever |
obliging Candace replied at once that the |
young traveller should be made welcome.
"A caravan of unexpected guests could not
upset Aunt harkins perfect order, nor find