Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-11-12


give you nothin' better'n Calico
'"I don't need a silk" says Annie
''I've got all the dresses can use
now"
Luther looked at her real steady 6
minute. Then he says, ,sorter slow aud
quiet, for all that, mean to get you
one, Annie. I want to see how you'd
look In it,"
'"No better'n | look now In my blue
delaine," says Annie.
| '"We'll see bout that" says Luth'
er. "I don't care how hard times are,
I mean to live till get you black silk
dress"
"She laughed m told him he'd make
q peacock of her If he could; but for al
her brave words / knew she was down.
right fond Of pretty things. 'n' it really
hurt her to have to wear old faded
dresses, m bonnets five years behind
the style. But she never said so, IN
she'd walk into church Sunday arter
Sunday in her old blue delaine and yell
low straw bonnet, lookin' as sweet and
happy as IL she'd been dressed like a
queen.
| "Well, Luther he never came over
here after that without he had some re-
mark to make about my black silk, land
he stuck to 1t that he'd give Annie one
like it before he died.
"But year after year went by and my
silk was all worn out nj got another,
and still Annie's best dress was cheap
delaine, and it wasn't often she could
even afford to buy pair Of cotton
gloves to cover her hands. Things
hadn't got better with Luther and they
had other things to sorrow for tnan
losin' their best horses and cattle and
their crops. They lost their six chill
dren, one after the other. Three of
them died in one week of scarlet fever,
and the others was sickly little things,
and went off in slow consumption.
"If it hadn't been that she had to
keep Luther up, believe Annie'd have
give way many time; but for his sake
she didn't show one half she felt. An
she never lost faith in the Lord. Sac
said His ways seemed hard, but that
He knew what was best for her.
swell, time went Oh, and about five
years ago things seemed to take turn
for the better with Luther. His wheat
crop turned out well, and he sold it to
good profit, and he got his corn off the
bottom lands before the river rose, and
that was great help to him. He SEEM
ed real cheerful, and told John that he
was just beginning to enjoy life. aud if
things went, well he'd soon have the
mortgage cleared off the farm.
"The weather set In cold and stormy
just after Thanksgivin,' and one after
noon I was out i'm the chicken yard
shellin' corn to the heRs, and all muf-
fed up to my eyes, when I heard a wa
gon stop at the gate and there was
Luther noddin' and beckonin' to be.
went down to the gate to speak to
him, and before I got there be was tell.
in me how he had sold Tom Loyton a
colt he'd been raisin,' and he was on
his way at last to buy Annie that silk
dress. He asked me about the number
Of yards he ought to get and where he
should 60 to buy, and said he could
hardly wait to get 1t now he was ready.
He was going to give Annie surprise,
he said she didn't know what he was
goin' after.
swell, the tears was In my eyes as
watched him driye off, pleased as child
at the idea of surprisin' Annie. But
never guessed what the black silk dress
was to cost her, poor soul
sit began to rain soon after Luther
had gone, and poured down for upward
of four hours. I was at the winder
when he went 10y on his way home, and
I noticed he didn't have his overcoat
on, and I wondered what he'd done
with it, for was sure he'd had it on
when he stopped at the gait. Annie
told me afterward that he'd taken the
coat off his back and rolled the black
silk in it to keep IL from gettin' wet II
wasn't even damp when he unrolled il
am showed to her, but he was wet te
the skin himself, and in a few days
there was Doctors buggy at the gate
John went over to see what was the
matter, and found Luther walkln' the
floor and groanin' with pain. The colo
had settled in his side and the doctor
couldn't give him no relief. But ht
said he guessed he'd pull through al
right and there wasn't no need to wor
ry.
"Miss Parsons was maxim the sill
uD. Luther wasn't satisfied till Ami,
had gone to the village and got som'
one to work on it, and she though
best to humor him. He wasn't no bet
ter when the dress came home, and th,
doctor was still tendln' him but n,
one flowed he was anyway dangerous