The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-02-07
gmaersou gatelligeneer.
A MATRIMONIAL CAMPAIGN.

hI. olioRSuOAN SAuio w thS 6SANS F,~
with paper of moist, brown sug' un.
der one arm, and half a P, Of
parafine candies under the other
On each side of him rose up Jump
heads of cabbages, and blue'green
swamps of onions. A thrifty hop.viDe
was waving its tassels against the porch
pillars, and bed of parsley was growing
rankly by the gate. For Mr.. Blidge.
field was firm believer in the beauty of
utility.
In the days of his deceased wife there
had been faint attempt at morning.
glory vines, clove.pinks and johnny.
jumpers around the house, but Mr.
Blidgefeld had soon settled that matter.
"Fudge!" he had ruthlessly cried.
"They ain't good to neither stew for
cough. mixtures, nor to boil up for greens.
Looks? What do / care for looks?
Amt a squash bloom every bit as pretty
as a marigold, I'd like to knowH My
daughter must be brought up not to care
for empty shoH !"
And 90 all the wild, fantastic beauty
of nature had been narrowed down into
vegetable borders and potato patches,
and the souls Of the Blidgefeld children
had been narrowed accordingly.
Money money! money! That was
the God of Mr. Blidgefeld's idolatTv.
Hc went to church on Sunday, and sat
out the service in his cushionless pew,
but TO him all that the choir sang and
the preacher preached was-money
He attended the prayer.meetiDgs punct-
ually, for he was member of tho church,
but he never put more than copper
penny In the plate.
"If every man takes care of number
one," he said, with hard compression of
his hgnum vitD lips, ':shc whcio world
will be took care Of"
He rose up early TO economizc the
sunshine and lay down late for fear of
wasting time. He kept whole alma.
nae full of proverbs on the tip of his
tongue, and denounced "shiftlessncss as
If it were one Of the seven cardinal sinu."
Dancing was an insl.-- ,nt Of the Evil
One; novel reading was the opening
wedge 10 Dante'e Purgstorio. Anything
in the shape of innocent recreation was
direct flying in the face of Providence.
And the Blidgefeld children grew up
gaunt, careworn and prematurely old
under this systcm OF training.
Mfr. Blidgefeld's first wife had drop
ped quietly and obscurely into her grave
before any one fairly comprehended that
she was not in high health. Hard work
and q relentless taskmaster had fairly
worried her out of the world. And all
the neighborhood marveled whom, ten
years afterward, Nancy Bloom married
the widower.
Nancy was the village school.teachcr
"a bright.eyed, buxom young woman of
twenty.eight or thirty. She had taken a
fancy to the little Blidgefields, and she
was tired of teaching and wanted n
home.
"You'll ind Ben Blidgefeld hard
nut to crack" said the neighbors, warn
ingly.
"I'll risk It," Nancy had cheerily re-.
piled.
And SO she married Mr.. Blidgcfeld,
and went to the farm house to live.
The six young Riidgefelds had been
told that Btepinother wss fearful
thing, but to their ourpriso, they found
Mrs. Blidgefeld Number Two positive
revelation of delight.
"She shcwoi me how to boil molasses
candy, with hickory.nuts chopped up in
IT," said Simeon, weird child of eleven,
who was popularity supposed to be ignor.
ant even Of the motion of humming.
top.
"she gave me apple.saas on my Bread"
whispered Marion, the next.
"We're to have pie every day."
chuckled Moses, who liked good things
10 eat and drink.
."And Pm to lay up the berry money
for blue muslin frock all of my own"
added Adellua, who had never worn any
thing but her mothers faded old calico
gc|as sSsai!y CIT over.
aI'm to have bran fred new tool.chest
If I raise the red heifsr calf" exulted
George, the tallest boy.
And Leroy, the eldest, who had been
scolded, anubbsd, and kept down all his
life, felt, With thrill Of happiness, that
his. new stepmother secretiy sympathized
with his efforts to rise in the world.
"Now shes here" thought Leroy, II
feel as if could do most anything"
Mr. Blidgefsld had ncarcely been
married week, when he came home on
shss =sw rasas Argsat night, si.s the
pack Of groceries ander his arms, and g
dissatisfied frown between his brows.
1.-TWO Candles" he said, pseping
gloomily under the hem of the ball.
fringed window curtain. "And chicken
for supper--and apple:sass, and cheese
And every one settin' round. and nobody
doin' no work. This won't do. Nancy
must learn better than this ~
he opened the door aud walked grim.
y &c.
A dead silence fell upon the children
at the wet -blanketing appari.ion OF
"father."
But Nancy looked chseffally up.
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