The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-27
HOME AGAIN.
A story Tor Thanksgiying.


why can't you stay at home. Joseph. and
work the farm, just as father done before ye9'
'Well. for one thing mother don't banker
to work myself into an old man before my time,
an live on pork and potatoes like Paddy"
Mrs. Gillett sighed. She was a thin, sad-eyed
woman of forty-fYe, who had worked herself
almost to death, and lived all the time on pork,
potatoes and pie, the triad of dyspeptic demons
that rule in New England Kitchens and she had
no desires beyond her round. She did want to
keep her boy at home to be company and help to
her; he was her first born, and now the only child
of his mother; the other seven filed tiny graves
under the daisies and solrel in Clinton church
yard.
Her husband had died of sun-stroke in the
corn-feld two years ago He never made a will;
so only third of his personal property came to
her, one-third of silver watch, one unbleached
shirt, a leg and a third of his pantaloons-for he
had two pairs, two out of six chairs and so on,
for his personals" were few and poor Joe got
house and land. But she could trust her boy,
and she looked forward to a calm, eventless life
in his house, thinking to knit his stockings tend
his babies, make and mend for his wife, till she,
too, should go to her place with her dead. 10
seph, however, was of different mind he was
young and ambitious. To this time he had not
made any definite plans for himself; only fretted
over his barren acres, his toll in frost and sum-
his monotonous food, made palatable only by hun
ger and outdoor labor and his longing to be and
do something better than his father had been or
done. A night or two before story begins he
had met an old sehool-mate at the village store
Al 20,
make it place for exchange Of gossip and that
opinionated wrangle of ideas so precious to the
heart of every true Amercan-and there Harry
jerks had boosted loudly of his place in New
York, and displayed ON his handsome person
such clothes, such jewelry and such glazed and
astonishing linen that Joe's patched and rustic
garments seemed to hurt him physically with
the sharp sense of humiliating contrast. But 1T
was not the brilliant aspect of this butterfly alone
that struck Joseph; he was bewtched with the
picture his former friend drew of the daily
elements and nightly amusementS OF city life;
his brain reeled with the ferment of new
thoughts his life seemed dull and staGnant as
the water of the often that drained his swamp
lots; and before he left the store with his jug Of
molasses and bag of meal he asked Harry to
look out for place for him in New York. He
had been 1.-THE best hand at fggers" in his school,
and sturdy honesty anG common sense under
lay this talent fitting him by nature for the life
of a business man, though dormant within him
lay warm and generous heart and a repressed
enthusiasm that must be still kept dormant if
he expected success. 1t was of no use for his
mother to offer her feeble arguments to his
strong determination; she felt this as she saw
the look of uneasness and contempt with which
he spoke of his life and labor. With womanly
instinct she brought another motive to bear
Does Cornelye know you're goinW
Joe flushed to the roots of his dark hair. mo"
he said, sharply, mot yet"
81 don't blieve she'll like it, the poor woman
judiciously added.
Joe's face hardened. "Then she'll have to do
t'other thing" With WHICH unglacous remark
he went out of the kitchen door to the barn.
Cornelia Marvin was a delicate gentle girl
who taught school in Clinton, where she had
been born and left solitary orphan. joe Gil
lett had known her from his early childhood, and
had drifted naturally enough into keeping com
pany' with her as they grew older Cornea
chung to him with every fiber of her innocent
honest heart, and he accepted the homage with
contented complacence, but rather as a matter
of course than with the vivid, ardent passion of
a man for his true love and future wife. No
form of words had ever been uttered between
them They passed for lovers in the village COS
sip: and who could see the girls great shy hazel
eyes upturned to JOSH phi, the color coming and
going in her cheek like the reflection of a wild
rose in the brook it overhangs, without reading
in natures own lovely language the story of her
heartl But all this a trivial matter to Joe
when his fortune called him. He might marry
Nelly some time, but at present there was his
fortune to make, and he was glad that no pledge
OF speech letter had ever given form to the
idea of their engagement; he was a free man.
Yet he did not like to tell her of his plans; he
left the news to drift about until it reached her;
and but that she grew paler and dismissed school
at o'clock one day, because she had dreadful
headache, she made sign. Women do grow
pale and have the headache for thousand rea
sons and who can tell whether 1t is Indignation
Or heart breakl
Joe shook hands with her on Sunday. after
church, and said: Good bye Carnelye | S'pose
you have heard I'm going to York into bankl'
'Oh yes" she answered, smiling. II hone
you'll do great things Joseph And that was
ALL
Tommy Hymny. as he was ncknamed an odd
character who served as chorus to all the village
tragedies and comedies, hobbled up just as they
parted
Dew tell goin' to York, be we nowl
mid scenes of confusion an cretur complaints
he quavered out in his cracked voice ''Wel
well! WE'LL tan't more'n few Saba DAYS sence
! remember We a-toddin to meetin in petticoats
long of yer ma:
THE creturs, look how old they grow how old they
grow, how old they grow,
The creturs, look how old they grow
An wait their fry doo-oo-oom!'
guess you won't have to wait for it long down
TO York 'cordn to the tell TITS pretty nigh to
the gates to the uncomfortable place, to speak
within bounds like"
Il guess not quite so bad as that Uncle Tom
my said Joe, with laugh. Harry jerks amt
u do know, do know said the old man.
Iadly. "Hels got time enough yit the bad ways
iredful smooth ut first
Broad is the road that leads to death,
An thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows a narrer path.
With here an there traveller
Sung to the lugubrious old tune of Windham,
omethlng IN words or measure gave Joe u sort