The Portland daily press., 1885-11-28
[From the Christian at Work.
a CASE OF SCANDAL.
BY ELLA THOMAS.

suspecting by nature than was the WIDOW
Hester Hatch buff so, the people OF Algon-
&C would certainly pray that they might new
er choose that pleasant town as residence.
Tall, thin and angular was the Widow Hes
ter Hatch, with scanty light hair twisted
tightly into the smallest of knots, and
held in place by shell comb of severe pat
tern; restless eyes she had, of pale gray,
shaded by thin eolorless lashes; mouth
whose thin lips shut so tight as to leave
white line along their edges, while her whole
face wore an habitually injured expression.
An injured woman the widow considered
herself, who went through life cherishing the
belief that the world was in league to wrong
and defraud her When she carried her but
ter and eggs to the store, she always took
the opportunity to inquire of her neighbors
what they received before she would believe
that the merchant had not given her less
than his usual price.
If he had not the article she asked for she
went away in the belief that he was simply
hiding it for some more favored customer;
while if he produced it she was equally tor
tured lest he considered it unsaleable.
If she was invited to a tea party or quilt
ing, or any of the mild festivities ofAlgonac,
she always sat on the extreme edge of her
chair in the most perpendicular of attitudes,
and replied to all conversation in the briefest
ofmonosyllables, while she inwardly weighed
every word and action in the light of its
possible relation to herself if she was not
invited she laid the fact up and brooded over
it with certain frosty resentment which
nothing could ever thaw.
The simplest pleasures were even embit-
tered by her suspicion. She was fond of
flowers, and would have enjoyed her we'll
kept garden if she had not constantly suf-
fered with the fear that someone's flowers
would look better than hers, or they would
have a variety she had not.
With Mrs. Ames, the village postmaster's
wife, whose yard was usually gay with flow
ers, she waged a ceaseless though one-sided
rivalry inasmuch as the lady was wholly I'M
aware of its existence. On her head, too,
rested one of the widows darkest suspicious,
for as it CHANGED one spring they both sent
to the same florist for some choice lily bulbs,
and because Mrs. Ames received hers few
days sooner, she always cherished the firm
and implacable belief that Mr. Ames had
purposely withheld her own in order that
his wife's might get started first.
81 mistrusted it at the time" she used to
relate; che didn't look as man ought to
look when he said there was nothin' for me,
an when | said, it is very strange, for was
expecting some bulbs he said he was sor-
ry but they hadn't come, and that very af-
ternoon Mrs. Trueblood told me that Mrs.
Ames had got her'n. The next day / went
again, but ne said no, they hadn't come yet
but he couldn't look me in the eye when he
said it, an when | tried to catch his eye he
pretended to be busy stampin' some letters
And the next day was Sunday, so you see
Mrs Ames had had hers four days before
got mine, an when he did give 'em to me
they looked that dry as though he might have
kept them week. But that wasn't the
strangest part of it,; if you'll believe me not
one of them bulbs came up the next spring
not one," with grim nod Of her head by
way of emphasis. "Of course, | don't say
that anybody came aud pulled EN- up in the
night. / make it roole never to judge peo-
pie; but do say thatit is very curious how
Mrs Ames's all happened to live through
the winter and none of mine"
But happily for kindly Mrs. Ames, who
was without single spark of jealousy, she
der, nor why her friendly advanced to the
Widow Hatch were so frigidly received.
Another cause of suffering to the good
woman was that she was totally destitute of
any sense of humor. A joke always mysti-
fed, and as a consequence aggravated her,
age when one Halloween the Frew boys
appeared at her window with a JACKIE Ian
tern carved from a pumpkin, instead OF
laughing at the apparition as did the other
neighbors, she hied herself across the field t.
Mr.. Frew's and made grievous and fearful
complaint of the treatment she had received,
for Mrs. Hatch could drop into tears as
easily as Mr. Wegg into poetry; and the fact
that she and her daughter were 'Ione I'M
protected females" was often impressed on
her listeners.
Mr.. Frew endeayored to mollify her resent
ment with the plea that they were only IN
fun, and that boys would be boys, though on
their return home he reproved them for their
indiscretion in amanner that Solomon would
have approved of.
For Mrs. Hatch was not the only occupant
of the tall, thin, red house in the edge of the
little country village; her daughter Almira
Sophia shared it with her, and never was the
UduRUDeT.
more strikingly verified; the same inverte-
brate spine sallow complexion, stony eyes,
colorless hair, and worst of all, the same zeal
Gus, suspicious nature Without question
the poor girl was to be pitied for the blight
ing atmosphere in which she had grown up.
Perhaps, indeed, people of that tempera-
ment are to be more pitied than blamed for
the diseased state Of mind which fills their
lives with such needless misery; at the same
time our compassion is usually bestowed on
those who suffer because of the jealousy.
rather than the ones who endure the pangs
From Almira Sophia's earliest childhood
she had been on the lookout for Sights and
injuries-a search in which they who engage
seldom fail to find their object. When lit
tie girl in pinafores, she used to come home
from school with long complaints of the
teachers Partially, of the girls who had
made faces at her, and the boys who had
called her names. AS she grew older and
her self-consciousness increased, if any one
looked at her she fancied they were CRITICS.
ing her appearance; if any one laughed
where she was, she was sure she was the OBJ
ject of their mirth.
Both mother and daughter were members
Of one of the village churches, which they
managed to keep about half the time in hot
water with their complaints. Each success
sive pastor, down to the last young incum.
bent, dreaded the sight of the widows old
white horse halting at the parsonage, for he
knew he was in all probability to hear of
dereliction on the part of some one.
Deacon Hall, who had to pass her house
on his way to the village, used to hurry up
to avoid being called in and asked some such
question as:
''What kind of a Christian spirit he
thought it showed in brother Gabriel to sell
sugar that fell short four ounces in nine
pounds?" or ''Did he think it was the way
one church member should serve another,
an woman an widow at that, for Zenas
Wise to buy her calf for eight dollars, when
he knew Aaron Teeple got ten for his'n, and
hers was worth every cent as much?'
But one week the Widow Hatch and Almi-
Ira Sophia were not in their accustomed
places in the weekly prayer meeting, and
the following Sunday their pew in church