The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-04

ANOs WI ! y aoos S"k~ AAfs
"Well see about that!" shrieked Mrs.
Glover.
eve will seel'' said Mr.. Glover. "Le-
gally, Mrs. Glover, you've no right to
one cent of that money of Uncle u
ric's!"
"Fiddlesticks!" said Mrs. Glover.
"Wasn't Uncle Upshur my relation2"
"And aren't you my wife,"
ITO nv sorrow, ami" said Mrs. Glo-
yer, preparing to use her pocket hand
kerchief. "But that fact don't author
ize you in robbing me of what is right
fully my own"
"Woman," sputtered Mr.. Glover,
"what do you mean?"
EXACTLY what I say!" retorted biz
wife.
II mean to be master in my Own
house! !" said Mr. Glover, hastily.
"You can do as you please about
that" said Mrs. Glover; "but it's q
house I shan't stay in if Pm TO be treated
like a mere cipher. I'll leave you. Silas
Glover-yes, III leave you-and all the
neighborhood shall ring with your tyr.
amy and meanuess"
"You're a vixen!" said Glover.
"You are a brute" said Mrs. Glover.
"Will you hold your tongue2" said he.
"There isn't the power On earth that
can silence mel" protested she. I leave
YOU Silas Glover!"
"The sooner the better" said Mr.. Clio.
yer: eff you are going to turn into such
an ontraoio,1s shrew as thiS"
But just as their voices raised to an
unwonted pitch, were striving for prece-
dence, the sound of prodigious and long.
continued knocking at the front door,
served, momentarily at least, to calm
the tempest.
The wordy combatants eyed each
other comprehensively.
"Woman," Kissed Silas Glover, "you
have disgraced me2"
eff there's any disgrace in the matter"
retorted Martha, sit don't lie at my
door!'
At that moment in walked Nehemiah
Nixon, the village attorney and counselor
at-law, a stout, short man, with a bald
head and q little stumpy growth OF white
beard under his chin.
"Bless my SOUL" said Mr.. Nixon,
."what a noise you're making, good peo-
ple"
Mr.. Grover invited the newcomer to
take a chair. Mrs. Glover began to poke
the fire. Evidently the embers of their
wrath yet smouldered, ready to blaze up
again the moment the temporary
pressure of conventiouality should be
removed.
"Well said the lawyer, 'l've brought
you a piece of news"
s'Eh2" said Mr.. Glover.
Unpleasant news" added Mr.. Nixon.
cor at least I suppose you all regard it
in that light. 1t seems-ahem!-that
that vagrant son of old Mr.. Upshur, who
was reported to have died in Manitoba
didn't die at all, but is alive and flour.
ishing, with a wife and two children"
"What" cried Mr.. and Mrs. Glover,
in a duet of dismayed voices"
"And," added Mr.. Nixon, in the indif-
ferent way of one to whom the subject
does not matter personally in the least.
s'they are coming on at once to take pos
session of all that the old man left.
Upon the whole, I am not surprised.
The Upshurs always were peculiar. /
am told that old Uric and his son hadn't
spoken to each other for ten years. And
when the report of his death was bruited
about, old Upshur didn't take the slight
est pains to ascertain whether it was
true or fa'se."
Fortunately for the peace of the Glover
family, Mr.. Nixon did not stay long.
But when the big front door closed be-
hind him, Silas and Martha looked at
each other.
"Martha," said the husband, who was
the first to break the unpleasant silence,
II ain glad of it-glad from the very bot
tom of my hearth"
Mrs. Glover burst into tears.
$50 am 7, Silas" sobbed she. "Be-
cause-because we were nearer quarrel
ing with each other than we ever have
been in all our welded life"
II don't care one straw about the
new barn." magnanimously declared Mr..
Glover.
"And I don't need the south wing"
cried Martha. "We are very comforta-
BILE just as we are"
II can patch up the old roof, and put
a few boards on the end," said Mr..
Glover. II was always a good hand at
carpentering!"
''And what was good enough for your
mother is good enough for me-" said
Mrs. Glover. GAS long as we're both
spared to each other, I don't care if we
live in q wood-shed."
II was a villain to speak as I did to
you'll" cried the conscience-stricken Silas.
1T was all my fault, Silas," said Mrs.
Glover. lit was 1 that provoked you
And the middle. aged couple kissed
each other as tenderly as if their honey
noon were yet shining in the sky, and
the first and last cloud that had ever
darkened their horizon went down in
mutual smiles.-Ruth Ransom.