Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-12-16
A FAMILY AFFAIR.
Tho Deacon's Son, and His Letter
to Tidy Slocomb.

West Eden was electrified by the ap:
pearance upon walls and fences OF a
placard announcing that the Cecilia
Club" would give concert at Haver-
ford (six miles away, and Saul Kilt
reGge was the "basso profondo.
West Eden WAS far, very far from the
madding crowd. and the entertainments
that came within its range were wont to
be of the burnt.cork variety. They
ssvorcd Of the ungoily, and Of = very
humble social sphere. And Saul was
Deacon Kittrcdge's only son, and had
been expected to follow in his fathers
footstcps-to be Deacon of the Church,
President of the Eden BaL.;. Postmaster
of West Eden (the Postmastership had
descended to the Deacon from his father
and grandfather undisturbed by polti-
cal cha ges, and the Deacon regarded
it as respectable hcir-loom), and for n
wife he was to take to himself Mary
Willett, the minister's daughter.
All these plans were waiting for the
bah, Saul when he opened his astonished
blinking black eyes upon this trouble
some world Alas! almost from the
day OF their opening the black eyes took
quite different views Of life. Before
their owner was five he had set little
Mary Will,tt down hard in n mud pie,
and run eff to play with the dsreputs-
bic children on 1.-The Flats"
Hes always been walkin' the down.
wa;i pHth, said Deacon Peters cot the
other church,) as he stopped for y
friendly chat at the underiaker's door
on the day when the placards appeared.
"To think OF his thrashin' the school,
who was discirlinin' Tidy Slo-
comb. one of them Flats children, and
then runnin' away with circus when
he IN mt but sixteen! And then he left
college against his fathers will. and
the first thing they knew he was playact-
in in n theatre! And he's courtin' Tidy
S'o"Nmb, and means to marry her. They
ga -" promised his mother he'd give
up tbs plnyactin', but don't know but
this is jest ~ bad. His father has cast
him of and forbid him the house, but he
terrible broke down by it. Well, he's
ben prosperous man. Deacon Kit
trrdge has, and You can't expect to fly
in he face Of Providence every way"
Deacon Peters seemed to regard Prov
Id nee as n malignant power ready to
sw''p down on mortals and take re-
We = for any Happiness, they might
b: o." ioyed.
- I, want never what you could
c. A'y given" said job Fisher, the
". aker. fat and jovial man. who
work upon willow baby car
RI; cradi., aud baby carriages being
OF """iil, mingled with the legitimate
Pr rcts of his craft all over his shop.
"Ru. be always seemed to me like a
skh'i.h colt; there want nothin' really
wi"k,d about him."
rae Lords Judgment amt ourn, "
6. he Gc?con, stroking his stubby
CT II ueu!n .nusly.
,aierally He'd be moro pertekler.
bui I Kind of seems to me rs IL He'd
know how To make allowances too"
The undertaken looked little alarmed
after he had given expression to this lax
doctrine, aud FASTENED TO add: Il s'pose
] be kind of soft-hcarted about Saul
You see, him and me used to be great
friends when he was little curly -headcd
Teller; he used to fix up play houses
round here in my shop-in cradles or
collins, cry one, twas all the same tc
him. | can remember when he fetched
over his old cat and a terrible homely
batch Of kittens, and kept in coffin
that I'd got ready for old Mr.. Hollis till
they was old enough to give away.
was expectin' every day that old Mr..
Hollis would want his coffin, but was
amazin how long he hung on"
I'm afraid Saul never had any real.
izin' sense Of solum things" said the dea
con. But there is Deacon Kittredgs
readn' one of the bills it is certainly 9
time to offer Christian sympathy"
1t amt playactin," said the under
takcr to himself as the deacon departed
elf basso profondo does sound like
swearin'. and somehow put you in min!
IF the bad place; and IL nobody else
don't, Maria and I'll 60 over to hear
Saul sing"
When Deacon Kittr6ege saw the deacor
OF the other church coming toward hin
no, cant never talk about it to any
body but the Lord and Laviny," he muir
INJURED to himself.
The post.office was an excrescenc,
upon the side of the large low-farn
house which Deacon Kittredge's gran,
father had built; an ornamental eXcrcs
cence, for West Eden was not after all
so far from the 'madding crowd bu
that hints of the new styles in architec
ture reached it, and the post-office wa
an aspiring work-box bedaubed witt
fiendish reds and yellows. of which tn
solid, respectable old house locke,
thoroughly ashamed. The family sit
ting room had been the post-ofiice, ant
the new post-office opened out of IL
otherwise she would have died of home
sickness after 1t was built, Mrs. Kittredg
declared. West Eden was social place
and as many people came to the ofiic
now by the way of the sitting-rvom a
by the legitimate entrance.
Mrs. Kittredge had become lame b
reason Of chronic rheumatism, and wa
unable to get about much, and II 1t ha
not been for the post office she couldn't
80 eho Oitcu ucCiottu, huNc hVpt up .
with what was goin' on"
She knew whom everybody's letter
we're from; she sometimes walked tn
deacon in the dead of the night wit
,hrewd guesses rs 10 their contents; and
nevertheless, she had hailed with de
light the advent of postal cards.
OF late the deacon had been ponder
Ing deeply the reasons why such jade
ment should have come upon him In tn
person Of his only son, and the suspicio
had struck him like sudden blow this
Laviny was 'light-minded."
She certainly had not seemed 50
her youth; she had been reckoned
most discreet and proper wife for an In
cipient deacon. Her love If gossip ha
been latent until she had passed middl
age, but he could see that IL now II
creased constantly.
And II was not the gossip alone. H
had lately found under the cushion {
her chair, In search for lions Mssse'