McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-10-23
SOLD MIR. B1NNEY."

All their friends had said, when Mrs
Binney died, '.Now what good thing
it would be If old Mr.. Binney wOulC
marry Miss Bright
Miss Bright had not been without hel
troubles, and very hard ones they hat
been, too, but she bore them with g
brave heart, and carried smiling face
and had thankful spirit within her.
striving always to remember her bless.
ings, and how much they outnumbered
any evil she was called upon to bear.
Indeed, to listen to Miss Bright's
showing, you would have counted her
as one of the luckiest persons ever born.
She had the kindest of friends, the most
comfortable of situations, and the girls
she had taught were endowed with an
amiability of disposition which made it
a positive pleasure to be with them.
The only accusation she could bring
against them was that they were all in
such terrible hurry to grow up and
get married, and then Miss Bright's oc-
cupation was gone and she had to step
out into the Torld and find fresh field
for her labors.
AS years rolled on, each one adding
to the score of Miss Bright's age, these
hunting grounds of instruction became
more and more narrowed. Children of
eight began now where girls of eigh-
teen used to leave off, and history and
geography, to say nothing of the parts
of speech and grammer, were all so al
tered that poor little Miss Bright had to
acknowledge that at times she really
did feel quite confused. every soon
shan't be left with anything to teach,"
she used to say pathetically, and then
Mr.. Binney's nephew, Joe, or some
other good fellow who heard her, would
declare she should set up school for
wives, for there never were such wives
as the girls whom Miss Bright had
brought up. She had taught Joe's wife,
Sally, and her sister, and though since
then she had had other situations, at
holiday time, or whenever she was
seeking employment, she always re-
turned TO the house of DR.. Brendon,
their father.
When Mr.. Binney dropped in, as he
frequently did, to inquire after his old
friends, the Brendons, he from time to
time found Miss Bright there, and hap
pening in on the occasion of one of her
visits there, to bring the news that Mrs.
Binney was i'll, with no one whose bust
ness it seemed to look after her, moth
ing was more natural than that Miss
Bright should volunteer; and a great
comfort they found her.
So sprightly, yet unobtrusive was the
CHEEKY little woman, that Mrs. Binney
herself was influenced in her favor, I'M
til, with an eye to their mutual comfort,
Mr. Binney proposed that Miss Bright
should stay with them altogether.
''Why not?'' he said, we could well
afford to pay her salary
But this word, salary, acting like
magic on Mrs. Binney, seemed to bring
her to her senses Immediately. She
would be very glad to have Miss Bright
as visitor, as long as she liked to stay,
but as to living with them altogether
no, she would not give her consent to
that; she had always objected to hay
ing in her house third party. 1t was
then that Miss Bright's friends pulled
very long faces indeed. What would
she do? they asked her.
''Oh, something is sure to turn up"
she would say, hopefully. whenever
[ have come to my last ebb an opening
has always been made for me; and l
an not going to despair now.''
And she said all this the more en-
phatically because, in spite of her con-
tidehce, she could not help feeling that
a voice which she could not still kept
''What will you do when
you grow older? Teaching will get
harder than ever That was true
enough, but what else was there for
her to do?
When Mrs. Binney died, which hap
pened quite suddenly about a year before,
there had been some talk as to Miss
Bright going to Mr.. Binney's as house
keeper; but this proposition had been
made without the knowledge or con-
sent of the principal person concerned,
who, as soon as the hint was given,
negatived it.
Mr.. Binney thoroughly appreciated
Miss Bright, but he had lost his taste
for matrimony. He remembered that
he had spent forty excellent years with
out wife, and Notwithstanding he was
now widower, he could not conscien-
tiously say that he felt his state to be
very unhappy.
Susan, the cook, respectable and
staid, would, he felt sure, manage his
household properly, and if it proved
that she should give way to extrava-
gance, as people seemed to say she
would, Mr.. Binney fancied that he
could better put up with that evil than
with too much of the economy from
which he had suffered already.
So that all the hopes, that on the
death Of Mrs. Binney, Joe and Sally
and the Brendons had cherished for
Miss Bright, were ruthlessly dashed to
the ground. Evidently Aunt Binney was
not to have successor.
eff we could but have got her there
as housekeeper,' said two of those arch
conspirators, ''the rest would have been
easy
But though they returned to the at
tack several times, no good came of it.
Mr. Kinney shared in their raorat of the