Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-01-04

wife, Zoo.
Hettie's big blue eyes looked eagerly into
Harry's oh, with what longing!
s'Harry, what do you say 20
''Oh, Hettie, she'd raise such a row ; wait
while things will be better by and BY"
Hettie Hale rose from his arms and walked
out of the room, and the old lady fused and
fumed. Harry, feeling that he had not done
right, half vexed, half grieved, caught up his
hat and hurried away. For days he was
haunted by that gleam in her blue eyes, and
felt oppressed by sense of impending evil.
One noon as he went back to the fields, Het-
tie, pale and peaked faced, followed him out
on the rose-covered porch and with unwonted
tenderness, put her arms about his neck and
kissed him, eagerly, ardently ; and he paused
awhile to pet and caress her.
'Dear little wife, what would | do without
you ?" he asked, in loving idleness. A little
spasm of pain crossed her face, and she laugh
ed diSmally.
ooh, you'd get along-some way" Really,
he did not see the faint sarcasm, and, kissing
her again, went off to his labor. He came
home at sun down to find his mother white
and frightened, and his wife-gone. In her
room he found tiny note:
Don't be angry dear. l feel ill and weary,
and longing for sister Carrie, and her hon
est, loving heart. shall stay with her till ba-
by is born, and then-the future we can decide
in some way. 1 must have peace and calm.
You will have plenty of time to decide whom
YOU prefer, your mother or your Wife"
Great heavens Hettie gone No wonder
the strong fellow turned white, and felt as it
the foundations of the world might be swept
away He fairly flew to the city that is, as
fast as steam and iron could carry him. lie
found her with her sister Carrie. She was se5
as stone.
"No Harry, L will not go back. l have
urged and begged you to do the right, while
could still feel disposed to. No, did not
want you to quarrel with your mother, but !
wanted you to be just to your wife Iffat
you have not been. To tell you the truth, J.
have about lost all respect for you-harsh az
it sounds, my poor husband; do you fancy
would have stood quietly by and seen all your
days embittered by an old lady's unreasonable
dislike, and made no effort to have brought
sweetness and peace to you No; wife will
leave home, sisters, parents, brothers, friends,
youth and everything will 60 amongst stran"
gers, illness and poverty, if need be, to make
home happy for her spouse; and when you
can be little less selfish, little more consid-
crate of my peace and joy, can get little over
your cowardly fear of your mothers quarrel
some, unkind tongue, we may talk OF living
together again. Meanwhile, 1 shall stay here,
and rest safe in sister Carries tender, pro-
tecting love, and you may 60 homeland
think Think Of the JOY and gladness you
promised me, and of the miserable failure you
have made of those promises ~
tell you the fellow quailed as she showed
him how dismal and wretched she had been :;
as she showed him, too, how nearly the foun~
dations of their married life were worn away.
He begged, and pleaded, and wept. His
wife was stone. She had waited, she said,
as long as she would for him to come to his
senses. lie could take his time now.
He went home desolate and desperate. He
had bitter enough reflections on the way home.
What bright, happy, hopeful little lass she
was when he took her to his home how hap
py he had been with the young wife. How
gently she had insinuated it would be best for
them to live alone what bright pictures she
had drawn of a little home all their own, and
now-could it be she was turned against him,
her heart cold and was never to come to him
vail ~ TIC wr;cneu iIIG m0;lIed "s; he sssw
how nearly his mothers sharp tongue had
ruined all his hopes and prospects. But he
found one wee ray of hope to cheer him. May
be after baby came, and Iettie had been from
him a while, and missed him a little, she
would relent and come to him again.
But days grew into months, and Hattie
J. Hale showed no signs or desire to return.
Harry went into the city four or five times
week and wrote her many letters beside.
Sometimes she replied, and sometimes she did
not lie, poor fellow, was growing thin and
worried, and white, as the fear grew on him
she meant never to rejoin him. He had one
long, serious talk with his meddlesone moth
er; convinced her, too, that she aco,tld haze to
treat his wife with consideration and courtesy,
or, in short, find another home. This he told
| Hettie, whereupon she blazed forth at him.
"Well, 1 believe, Harry Hale, you grow
more fool every hour you live! AS hus-
band you have proved yourself coWardly, In
sufficient, and absurdly nimby-namby. Now,
as a son, YOU will even be unkind, ungenerous,
and should say, absolutely beastly! Do you
think son of mine would turn me out OF my
home in my old age? For shame Let the
old lady alone. That is her home, has been
all her life, before you were born. Let her
stay there, and-let me tell you one thing
will never 60 into that house, be your moth
er alive or dead, to make a home for you
there 1 have been too unhappy there, and
have lost respect for you there, and suffered
too much in consequence, to ever regard that
house as home"
And she curled her lips in scorn. The poor
fellow fairly tore his hair and cried out
''Well, Hettie, what am l to do then I
How can please you? want you, my wife.
l love you, dear. I am not happy without
you, and yet can devise no plan that pleases
you. Tell me, for Gods sake, what to do u
He looked at her so beseechingly, with
fairly tears in his brown eyes, that she went to
him as of old and sat on his knee, with her
arm about his shoulders.
ssMy DEAR old, stupid Harry. I told you
long ago-I will tell you once again. AS |
begged you such ages ago, back in the Sum-
mer starlight, if we are to live together and
be happy-and, my dear, if we can't be peace
full and happy we will not abide together
another day-we must have little home OF
our own, where you and can rule together,
subservient to none but ourselves and love,
and free from other associations. You can
never be a brave, bold man in house where
all your wears You have been yielding, and
lodging, and shrinking to avoid fretful
tongue nor can be happy where in every cor
ner springs ghost of some sharp speech to stab
me over and over again. Your mother will
always be welcome in your home, While she
minds her own business. bit in your home
and mine-in our home, l 'vil he mistress, or
!; not there at all ~
Then she fondly kissed him, and having
shown him the plain path, bided the results
lie went back to Valeville, the veil lifted
, clear from his eyes. To re-win his wife lie
must do as she said, and, yes, he believed she
was right. What else did the Holy Writ
mean when it said, "a man shall leave moth
| er and father. and cleave unto his wife -
Harry was not a king bee at quoting Scrip
| ture, but he had certainly learned, at bitter
cost, one of the Scripture truths. lie said
nothing, but quietly and hopefully set about
| winning his wife over again. lie bought a
cunning little cottage and u snug little lot
2 about it. by his fathers will the old farm
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