The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1884-11-13
JACKSON, OHIO. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 49, 1884

we'll. w mere your WlSuOm!
Darton shortly explained. particu-
lars; but Johns would not be recon,
ciled. ''She was woman worth hav-
ing if ever woman was" he cried
And now to let her gor'
But | suppose [ can marry where
| like" said Darton.
Him" replied the dairyman, lift
ing his eyebrows expressively. "This
don't become you, Charles-it really
do not. If l had done such thing
you would have sworn l was a d
no'thern fool to be drawn off the scent
by such red-herring doll-oll-oll."
Farmer Darton responded in such
sharp terms to this laconic opinion
that the two friends finally parted in
a way they had never parted before.
Johns was to be no groomsman to
Darton after all. He had fatty de-
clined. Darton went off sorry and
even Unhappy, particularly as Japheth
was about to leave that side of the
county, so that the words which had
divided them were not likely to be ex-
planned away or softened down.
A short time after the interview
Darton was united to Helena at sim
pie matter-of-fact wedding; and she
and her little girl joined the boy who
had already grown to look on Darton' s
house as home.
For some months the farmer exper-
fenced an unprecedented happines
and satisfaction. There had been a
flaw in his life, and it had been as
neatly mended as was humanity possi-
BILE. But after a season the stream Of
events followed lcss clearly, and there
were shades in his reveries. Helena
was fragile woman, of little staying
power, physically or morally and since
the time that he had originally known
her-eight or ten years before-she
had been severely tried. She had loved
herself out, in short, and was now oc-
casionally given to moping. Some
times she spoke regretfully of the
gentilities Of her early life, and in
stead of comparing her present state
with her condition as the wife of the
unlucky Hall, she unused rather on
what it had been before she took the
first fatal step Of clandestinely marry
ing him. She did not care to please
such people as those with whom she
was thrown as a thriving farmers
wife. She allowed the petty trifies of
agricultural domesticity to glide by
her as sorry details, and had it not
been for the children Darton's house
would have seemed but little brighter
than it had been before.
This led to occasional unpleasant
ness, until Darton sometimes declared
to himself that such endeavors as his
to rectify early deviations of the heart
by barking back to the old point
mostly failed of success. perhaps
Johns was right" he would say. I
should have gone on with Sally. Bet
ter go with the tide and make the best
Of its course than stem it at the risk
Of a capsize." But he kept these un-
melodious thoughts to himself, and
was outwardly considerate and kind.
This somewhat barren tract Of his
life had extended to less than year
and half, when his ponderings were
cut short by the loss Of the woman
they concerned. When she was in
her grave he thought better of her
than when she had been alive: the
farm was worse place without her
than with her. after all. No woman
short 0f divine could have gone
/ Unrough such an experience as hers
with her first husband without becom-
ing little soured. Her stagnant SYM
pathies, her sometimes unreasonable
manner, had covered a heart frank
well-meaning. and originally hopeful
and warm. She left him tiny red
infant in white wrappings. To make
life as easy as possible to this touch
ing object became at once his care.
As this child learnt to walk and
talk Darton learnt to see feasibility in
Il scheme which pleased him. Revolv-
ing the experiment which he had hith-
erto made upon life, he fancied he had
gained wisdom from his mistakes and
caution from his miscarriages.
What the scheme was needs no pen
etration to discover Once more he
had opportunity to recast and rectify
his ill-wrought situations by return
ing to Sally Hall, who still lived qui-
etly ON under her mothers roof at
Hintock Abbas. Helena had been a
woman to lend pathos and refinement
to home; Sally was the woman to
brighten it, She would not, as Hele-
ma did, despise the rural simplicities
of a farmers freside. Moreover, she
had a pre-eminent qualification for
Darton's household; no other woman
could make so desirable mother to
her brothers two children and Dar-
tons one as Sally-while Darton, now
that Helena had gone, was a more
promising husband for Sally than he
had ever been when liable to remind
ers from an uncured sentimental
wound.
Darton was not a man to act rapid
ly, and the working out Of his repara-
tive designs might have been delayed
for some time. But there came a
winter evening precisely like that one
which had darkened over that former
ride to Hintock Abbas, and he asked
himself why he should postpone long
er, when the very landscape called for
a repetition of that attempt.
He told his man to saddle the mare,
booted and spurred himself with a
younger horseman' nicely, kissed the
two youngest children, and rode off.
To make the journey a complete par
allel to the first, he would fain have
had his old friend Johns with him.
But Johns, alas, was missing. His
removal to the other side Of the coun-
ty had left unrepaired the breach
which had arisen between him and
Darton; and though Darton had for
given him a hundred times, as Johns
had probably forgiven larton, the eff
fort Of reunion in present circum-
stances was one not likely to be made.
He screwed himself up to as cheer