The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-04-19

seen 70 duVance up the ROAD toward
Maria Brewster's. as he had been seen
to advance every Sunday night for the
last twenty-five years, but that was all.
He manifested not the slightest intention
of carrying out peoples judicious plans
for his welfare and Maria's.
She did not seem to pine with hope
deferred; people could not honestly think
there was any occasion to pity her for
her lover s hardness. A cheerier woman
never lived. She was literally bubbling
over with jollity. Round-faced and
black-eyed, with a funny little bounce
Of her whole body when she walked, she
was the merry feature of the whole
place.
Her mother was now too feeble, but
Maria still corded boots for the factories
as of old. David Emmons, who was
quite sixty, worked in them, as he had
from youth. He was a slender, mild
faced old man, with a fringe Of gray
yellow beard around his chin; his head
was quite bald. Years ago he had been
handsome, they said, but somehow
people had always laughed at him q
little, although they all liked him. .'The
slowest of all the slow Leydenites" out
| siders called him, and even the '.slow
L~eydenites'' poked fun at this exaggera-
ton of themselves. It was an old and
well-worn remark that it took David
Emmons ar hour to go counting, and
that he was always obliged to leave his
own home at seven in order to reach
Maria's at eight, and there was a stand
ing joke that the Westinghouse passed
| him one morning on his way to the shop.
David heard the chatting, of course;
there is very little delicacy in matters of
this kind among country people; but he
took it all in good part. He would
laugh at himself with the rest, but there
was something touching in his depreca-
tory way of saying sometimes: "Well,
| don't know how tits, but it don't seem
to be in my natur' to do any other way.
/ suppose I was born without the faculty
of gittin' along quick in this world.
You'll have to git behind an push me a
leetle, 1 reckon
He owned his little cottage, which was
one of the kind which had the piazza on
the right side. He lived entirely alone.
There was a half-acre or so of land be-
| side his house, which he used for a vege-
table garden. After and before shop
| hours, in the dewy evenings and morn
ings, he dug and weeded assiduously be-
tween the green ranks of cor and
beans. If David Emmons was slow, his
vegetables were not. None of the gar
dens in Leyden surpassed his in luxuri-
ant growth. His corn tasselled out and
his potato patch wa white with bios
SONS as soon as anybody's.
He was almost a vegetarian in his diet;
the products of his garden spot were his
staple articles of food. Early in the
morning would the gentle old bachelor
set his pot of green things boiling, and
dine gratefully at noon, like mild Rob
ert Herrick, on pulse and herbs. HIS
garden supplied also his sweetheart and
her mother with all the vegetables they
could use. Many times in the course Of
a week could David nave been seer
| slowly moving toward the Brewster cot
tage with S basket on his arm well
stocked with the materials for an inno-
cent and delicious repast.
But Maria was NOT to be outdone by
her old lover in kindly deeds. Not a
Saturday but a goodly share of her
weekly baking was deposited, neatly
covered with a white crash towel, on
David's little kitchen table. The sur
reptitious air with which the back-door
key was taken from its hiding-placc
(Which she well knew under the kitchen
blind, the door unlocked and entered, and
the good things deposited was charming,
although highly Intellectual. There goes
Maria with David's baking" said the
women. peering out of their windows as
she bounced, rather more gently and
cautiously than usual, down the street
| And David himself knew well the min
istering angel to whom these benefits
were due when he lifted the towel and
discovered with fearful eyes the brown
loaves and flaky pies-the proofs of his
Maria's love and culinary skill.
Amongst the younger and more irrev-
erent portions of the community there
was considerable speculation as to the
! mode of courtship of these old lovers OF
twenty-five years standing. Was there
ever a kiss, a tender clasp of the hand,
tween sweetheartsp
Some of the more daring spirits had
even gone so far as to commit the mani.
fest improperly of peeping in Maria's
parlor windows, but they had only seer
David sitting quiet and prim on the little
slippery horse-hair sofa, and Maria by
the table, rocking slowly in her little
~cane-seated rocker. Did Maria evel
leave her rocker and sit on that slippery
horse-hair sofa by David's side? They
never knew, but she never did. There
was something laughable and at the
same time rather pathetic about Maris
and David's counting. All the outward
appurtenances of Excepting company
were as rigidly observed as they hat
been twenty-five years ago, when David
Emmons first cast his mild blue eye.
slyly and lovingly on re~d-cheeked, quick
spoken Maria Brewster. Every Sunday
evening, in the winter, there was a firt
kindled in the parlor, the parlor lamp
was Lit at dusk all the year round an1
Maria's mother retired early that the
young people might ''sit up" The ''sit
ting up" wa nc very formidable affair
now, whateverit might have been in thu
first stages of the courtship. The neet
of sleep over balanced sentiment il
those old lovers, and by ten o'clock a
the latest Maria's lamp was out ant
David had wendell his solitary way t,
his own home.
Leyden people had. a great curiosit,
to know if David had ever actually
popped the question to Maria, or if hi
natural slowness was at fault in this a
in other things. Their curiosity hat
been long exercised in vain. but Widow
Brewster, as she waxed older, grew 10
quacious and one day told II neighbor
who had dropped in in her daughter
absence, that "David had never reel
come to the pint. She supposed b
would some time; for her part, sh'
houoh he had hetter. Int then after all
knowed Maria didn't care, and mayb,
twas jest as we'll as twas, only some
times she was afeard she should neve
live to see the weddin' if they WASH
spry." Then there had been hints con
corning a certain pearl colored silk whicl
Maria, having a good chance to get at
bargain, had purchased some twent,
years ago, when she thought, from sun
dry remarks, that David was coming t
the point, and it was further intimatet
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