The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-10-15


cotton carpeting, as you call IT, Liza
Allen, never cost less'n one thousand
dollars It's worth that now, for India
shawls of that size and quality doesn't
get cheaper as they get older. | got
pinch of it and peek at the wrong
side on the way out. It's the real
thing and no mistake"
"The lands endl" Mrs. Allen
dropped into chair, too stunned to
stand.
Eliza grew white around the mouth,
her lips suddenly dry. For half min
ute nothing was heard but the ticking
of the cleck and the boom--boom-
boompl" of a stray bee, trying to knock
his way back into the sunshine through
the window-panes. Eliza first found
indignant tongue.
" An she's a minister's wife! | call
that sin!'
With observation-disclosures
a-starvin' at her doors!n uttered Mrs.
| Allen, solemnly. 81 alters did sus-
picon somethin' heightened about Mis-
Martin. Priscilly Hunt, she helps with
the parsonage-washin', and she says
there's never less'n two fine white
linen table-cloths in the wash a week,
an dozen finger napkins. An their
| spoons an forks is solid, Priscilly's
sure. She's got real sensible notions if
she is plain woman an hard worker;
an says she to me, only last week, The
Martin ways amt Hightstown ways,
Mis- Allen says she. I'm afeerd
there's leaven o. worldliness there,
SAYS she. Their everyday grammar
| -, l.ot h,,,h / 20 Nr;p
my ears to onderstan' it, says she.
An you wouldn't b'lieve how them
boys is bossed round bout keepin' their
hats on in the house, an the like.
heard Ruth Martin tell Tom, once,
that twas vulgar to put his knife in his
mouth; and Mis- Martin, she fairly
flew out at Matt when she caught him
a-combin' of his hair in the kitchen,
says she, kinder shut Priscilly up for
talkin' round bout the minister's family.
| amt no favorite O gossipin' nowhere
nor no time. But seems if she was
nearer right'n | thought"
The city niece shrugged her shoulders
in patronizing amusement
I'VE look at things so different in
the city. Our pastors lady wears as
| fine clothes as she chooses. She is a
good customer of ours. Seal-skin cloak
and satins and laces and all that, you
know!"
- hain't no opinion of no sech
highty-tighty vanities,'' returned Mrs.
Allen, with just severity. It's put
tin of the disciple too many pegs above
his Lord exaltin' O. the shepherd above
his flock Them that preach the gospel
l oh 1.-Two hY- hn ~ IN
to gospel rules. / don't read nothin' in
the gospels nor in st. Paul bout dam
ask tinger-napkins, nor solid forks, no1
yet thousan' dollar shawls. An when
it's the peoples money keeps up sech
style, l say it's time it's looked into
Mrs. Allen was a leading woman in
church and society. 1t was looked into
by one hundred pair of eyes within q
week. Mrs. Martin had an opportune
headache on Thursday, Associate
Auxiliary" day. The meeting was al
Deacon Aliens and very full. Mrs
Allen hoped that the int'rest manifested
in missions was the beginnin' of bet
ter state O. things. The church 'pearet
to be very cold an dead.
"'Seems if the line b'tween pro
fessors n worldlin's is pretty nigh rub
bed OUT said Mrs. Symonds, white
haired, specialized mother in Israel
When l was young, you could tel
'em apart by their very cloes.'
This brought Mrs. Martins shaw
fairly before the iunto. Nobody wa
surprised at the revelation of the world
illness of the parsonage household. Al
had long felt, strongly or vaguely, the
high-and-mighty tone" of the family
Mr.. Martin was not mite proud, bu
what could he do against wife ant
daughter? Each woman had her in
stance of the uppishness - rampan
under the roof-tree reared by churcl
money. and not one would have breathe,
a syllable on the subject had not he
predecessive narrator broken the sea
of silence.
have neither heart nor space for de
tail of the CHASTITY satire. Mr.. Martil
did not 60 suit the Hightstown people
He preached excellent sermons; wa
constant and tender in ministration a
the bedside of the sick and dying
buried their dead out of sight witt
Christ-like sympathy; visited from hous
, to house in genial neighborliness. Blu
that he was not at one with his parish
| toner's became, ere long, too palpabl
) to himself. He held many trouble
talk with his wife, who was as sorely a
a loss as he; many more and agonize
t conferences with the Master he served
| Night, after night, distracting solicitud
held his eyes waking; the torture
heart, bleeding to faintness from score
of pin-pricks, cast itself upon the sur
( mercies of the changeless One, an
chung there for life.
eff | knew wherein have slnned!
5 he groaned to his perplexed spouse
a "All my questions meet one reply
3 We have made no complaint. Blu
Y since you ask, it cannot be denied thu
there is a strong undercurrent of dil
t satisfaction. We cannot say where
/ began. Nobody knows where it wi
h stop had hoped to pass the rest {
: my life in this lovely hill town, but tn
: will of the Lord be donel What ma
e can fight shadows?"
e Mrs. Martin folded the India shay
over a swelling bosom on the bleak NJ
e vember day when her husband preache
j. the farewell sermon that crowded tn
s edifice. She listened in bitterness, II
+ terly foreign to her nature, to the sol
It rising and breaking upon the sanctual
9 stiffness. Were these people hyp,
!. critics? Was the church a sham an
1t religion farce? Was there such
thing as true Christianity? Had thel