The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-28


| She had been very fond of her sister, and
had an admiration for and pride in her
which was somewhat singular, since she
herself was much the stronger character of
| the two. She had seemed to feel almost as
| much satisfaction in Nancy's fine parlor
| and fancy work as if they had been her
own. Perhaps she consoled herself in that
way for not having any of her own, and
| maintained to herself her dignity amongst
her neighbors.
After her sisters death she began to
| think that some of these fine things ought,
by right, to belong to her.
"kancy earned 'em lust as much bv
savln' as Thomas did by workin,'" she told
Emmeline. 1T wouldn't be nothin' more'n
fair for her sister to have 'em." But Thomas
Weeks had capabilities of action in him
that people generally did not suspect him
of.
He was little, spare, iron gray, inoffen-
sive- blocking man, but he had been a small
tyrant over his mild-visaged specialized
wife. Now she was dead he mad definite
plans of his own, which matured as soon as
decency would permit, and which did not
include his giving his deceased wife's sister
his fine red plush furniture. She visited
him often and limited, but he 1lniled know
inglv, and talked about something else.
Nancy had been dead about six months,
when, one afternoon, Mrs. Steadman saw
| him drive past in a shiny buggy with a
lady. Her suspicious were aroused, and
she talked and worried and watched.
She found out he had q new hat and coat,
| and was having the house painted and sit
| ting room and kitchen papered. Every
| body said he was going to get married, but
nobody seemed to know to whom. r. At last
| it came out. He came to church one Sun
day with his bride-a short, stout, sallow
woman in middle-aged bridal fnery, no
more like poor Nancy than huckleberry
! bush is H}iKess willow sapling. She was. a
widow from neig6bori6g Town, and repu-
ted to have quito a snug little property
four or five thousand dollars.
Emmeline and her mother sat just across
the aisle from the newly welded couple.
Mrs. Steadman had given one startled
comprehensive glance at them when they
turned into the pew. After that she did
not look at them again, but sat straight
and rigid, holding her chin so stiffly against
her long neck that it looked like q double
one, pursuing up her lips as if o,keep back
a rushing crowd of words which were
clamoring behind them.
She told Emmeline when they got home
that it was all she could do not to speak
right out in meeting and tell Thomas
Weeks just what she thought of him.
''pd like to get right up" said she, can
ask him # he remembered it was hardly
SIX months since my poor sister was laid
away, an # he'd ever heerd OF such thing
memory, an # he didn't think it was
treatin' some folks pretty hard to bring an
other woman in to use their dead sisters
things, when he'd never given them a
penny's worth of 'em."
AS far as the results went Charlotte
might just as well have spoken out in
meeting and accused her recreant brother
| in-law openly. She had always been a
woman who talked a great deal. and could
not help making funerals for all her woes,
and now there was not woman in the
town whom she did not discuss Thomas
second marriage with, and detail her own
grievances in connection Herewith to.
They all sympathi2ed with her: women al
ways do in such cases.
She warmed up ON the subject to every
body who came into the shop. Emmeline
| kept quietly sewing, giving her opinions on
her work when asked for them, but not
saying much besides. Her mother did not
understand her; privately she thought her
unfeeling Emmeline had not heard word
from Andrew Stoddard all this time For
a while she had had a forlOrR hope of a
letter, but it had died away now. Out
wardly she was living just as she always
had before he had come; but the Old
hosnely ways, whose crooks she had
thought she knew by heart, were CON
staatly giving her feeling of pain and
straHgeness. She was not imaginative or
self conscious; she never really knew how
! unhappy she was, or she would have been
unhappier. She kept steadily at work,
and ate and slept and went about as usual
she never dreamed Of its being possible for
her to do anything else, but the difference
was all the time Cos ling her terribly.
Her mothers fretting over tho affair had
disturbed her activei more than anything
else; she was almost glad now to have it
turned into another channel. And this new
one threatened to be well worn indeed be-
fore Mrs. Steadman should leave it. She
scolded and cried in it. She was divided
between grief and indignation.
Poor Nancy's few articles of finery
ranked in her mind more and more. She
pilgritned up to Thomas house evening
| after evening to see if there was light in
the best parlor; report said that they used
it common now. She came home tremb-
| ling: there was one.
ITO think of their usin' poor Nancy's best
plush furniture like that" she said; settin'
| in them stuffed chairs every evenin' jest as
if they was wooden ones; they won't last
no time at all. AM to think how hard she
worked am saved to get 'em, an how
choice she was of 'em. Then thar's all
them Tides an mats an rugs, an that
beautiful hair wreath made out of my folks
hairW
This last seemed to disturb Charlotte
more than anything else. She had not a
doubt, she said, but what working on it
had FASTENED Nancy's death, and to think
that other women should have it.
One Friday evening Mrs. Steadman
started for meeting. Emmeline did not go.
She had some work she was hurrying on,
and her mother, contrary to her usual
habit, did not urge her to; indeed, she
rather advocated her staying at home.
About half an hour after her mother left
Emmeline laid down her work-it had
grown too dark for her to see without
lighting a lamp. As she sat at the window
a moment in the dusk, she saw a figure
hurrying up which she did not think could
be her mother's it came so fast and fur
ridly; besides, 1t was not time for meeting
| to be out.
But when the gate opened she saw it was.
! Her mother scuttled up the steps into the
entry, and opened the shop door cautiously
''Emmeline, anybody here?"
"No."
She came in then. She had something
under her arm. Light the lamp, Emme-
line-quick! See what I've got?'
Emmeline got up and lit the lamp.
"Why, MOTHER" said she, aghast. Her
mother was holding the hair wreath, in its
oval gilt frame, with an expression of
mingled triumph and terror. ''Why,
mother, how did you get it?''
"Get it? | walked into the house an
took it," said Charlotte, defantly. 81
don't care; | meant to have it. Nancy
made it, an worked herself most to death
over it, an its made out of my folks hair,