Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-09-11
OUT OF q. FAMILY JAR.
EY EMILY H WHEELER.

l)l)I VI a. FAMILY JAK.
ss5s BY EMILY r WHEELER.
It was all very well TO vow and pro-
test that the next time we would be
more discreet, and that whatever we
saw or heard at 11etty's, we would
hold our tongues. But when the next
time came, and shewentinto Mysteries
over Rob, and declared he cared moth
ing for her, and never had, we couldn't
help nodding acqu:escence to a friend
ly neighbor who suggested that our
sister-in-law was extremely sensitive
and high-strung. Then it went back
to Lefty that we said she was a hys-
terical goose and absurdly jealous Of
poor Bob; and then she declared that
we had no more feeling for her than a
stone, and always had looked down
on her. because she was q poor girl,
and she should think a wife had some
rights, if she didn' t bring her husband
afortune, as all the Graham girls would
to theirs, il they ever succeeded in get
ting any. And SO there wewere with the
prettiest family squabble possible on
oui, hands. ID
The worst of it was, it was such an
old one. III, 49,. - +S
We should have learned wisdom by
experience; but though we knew Let
ty fwas.a weak little thing, and all her
fondness for Rob taking the shape OF
absurd jealousy even Of This own family,
we could never get used to it. She was
such sweet little creature when he
married her, soft-eyed and low-voiced,
and meek as a lamb, appealing to us
over everyt thing, from the wedding cake
to the form OF the ceremony. We
hadn't really minded it that she was
poor, for il the Grahams were rich now,
twenty years ago they were not, and
if Rob had been brought up like q
prince, as heir to the factories and the
stores and the rows of tenant houses,
we, his three elder sisters, had known
something of the other side. OF the ia
pestry in the hard times when father
laid the foundation OF that fortune.
and though we lived ins Q big house
now, and had our, servants and our
carriage, andled society, in a way, in
the little town, Wenever meant to put
ON airs. I think, indeed, we were bet
ter democrats than Lefty, for we new
er thought Of these things, and she
never had them ont. iof her mind,
and was superse nsitive to j any ref
erence to her former conditio We had
sthought lit such ~ pref onlance
when Rob married her, picking her
out Of q mill accident the first week
she went there to work, and falling in
love with her cit sight, and taking no
end of trouble to- get her widowed
mother into something nice and quiet
and profitable, so 1 that Lefty need
never 90 back to the mills. And
presently he installed Mrs Dent as
queen-dowager ofthe home to which he
took Lefty, and that was the begin
ming OF the mischief Mrs. Dent was
twice as suspicious as she, and never
let her shut her eyes to the family dis
dam Of Cophetua's choice. She was
small and Slight and loW-voiced, this
4ueen-d oWager Of ours, and so per-
fectly womanly, as every one said,
though why there's anything ul-
womanly in five feet six and nvoirdu-
5pois to correspond, as our Pamela
had, is more than ] know. But /
notice that little woman aawaysslay
the hattering JUNCTION to their souls
that superiority is in inverse ratio to
size. III II ,.$ .4.5... Il I. u. E.55 s
The special trouble was that when
Lefty got jealous she had Mysteries,
and AFTER Dr !. Grey limited that some
thing was the matter with her
heart, Of course we yslre always
anxious. 4 she was va I'M delicate,
that was true, and when she was
herself she was as sweet and affec-:
;tionate as possible, and we all pettedt
and spoiled her. And then Rob would
walk home from cho il meeting with the
soprano (nearly old enough to be his
mot her(, or sing duets with with May
Flemming and she engaged) or pick
up a tired mill girl in his buggy, and.
there was Lefty il tears, and the
house shut; mp, and the doctor sent
for and Mrs Dent on guard, and Rob
on lis knees for sins he never dreamed.
OF, and we Indignant, and sure, sooner
or later, to show it and be banished
from The sick-r o ON. OF course, being.
all she had Mrs. Dent was very fond
of her, but bet ween her pride and Let
ty's jealousy poor Rob had q life Of