River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-11-12
A CASE OF SCANDAL,
BY Ella THOMAS.

There may be women more jealous
md suspicious by nature than was the
Widow Hester Hatch; but if so, the
people of Algonac would certainly pray
that they might never choose that
pleasant town as a residence.
Tall, thin and angular was the
Widow Hester Hatch, with scanty
light hair twisted tightly into the
smallest of knots, and held in place
by shell comb of severe pattern;
restless eyes she had, of a pale gray,
shaded by thin colorless lashes; a
mouth whose thin lips shut so tight as
% leave a white line along their edges;
while her whole face wore an
habitually injured expression.
And an injured woman the widow
considered herself, who went through
life cherishing the belief that the
world was in league to wrong and de-
fraud her. When she carried her
butter 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 an article she asked for,
she went away in the beliefthat he was
simply hiding it for some more favored
customer; while if he produced it she
was equally tortured lest he considered
| it unsaleable.
If she was invited to + tea party or
! quilting, or any of the mild festivities
of Algonac, she always sat on the
extreme edge of her chair in the most
perpendicular of attitudes, and replied
to all conversation in the briefest of
mOnosyllables, while she inwardly
weighed every word aud action in the
/ light of it's possible relation to herself;
/ if she was not invited she laid the fact
up, and brooded over it with a certain
! frosty resentment which nothing could
ever thaw.
The simplest pleasures were even
embittered by her suspicion. She was
fond of flowers, aud would have en-
1 joyed her well kept garden if she had
not constantly suffered with the fear
that some ones flowers would look
| better than hers, or they would have a
variety she had not.
With Mrs Ames, the village post
masters wife, whose yard was usually
gay with flowers, she waged a ceaseless
though one-sided rivalry, inasmuch as
| the lady was wholly unaware 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
| Iilv bulbs. and because Mrs. Ames re-
ceived hers few days sooner, she al
WAYS cherished the firm and implacable
belief that Mr.. Ames had purposely
| withheld her own in order that his
wife's might get started first.
Il mstrusted 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,
1T is very strange, for | was expecting
some bulbs, he said he was very sorry
but they hadn't come. and that very
afternoon Mrs. Trueblood told me that
Mrs Ames had got her n. The next
day | went again, but he said no. they
hadn t come vet, but he couldn't look
me in the eve when he said it, an when
tried to catch his eve he pretended to
be busy stampin some letters. And
the next day was Sunday so you see
Mrs. Ames had had hers four DAYS be-
fore | got mine, an when he did give
em to me they looked that dry as
though he might have kept them a
week. But that wasn't the strangest
part of it; if you'll believe me not 4
single one of the bulbs came up the
next spring-not one, with grim nod
of her head by way of emphasis. "Of
course, don t say that any body came
and pulled EN- up in the night.
make it roole never to Judge people;
but do say that IFS very curious how
Mrs. Ames' all happened to live through
the winter and none of mine.
But, happily for kindly Mrs. Ames.
who was without n single spark OF
jealousy, she never knew the impnta-
ton she rested under, nor why her
friendly advances to the Widow Hatch
were so frigidly received.
! Another cause of suffering to the
good woman was that she was wholly
destitute of any sense of humor. A
: Joke always mystitied, and as a conse-
quenee aggravated her, and when one
Halow-e en- the Frew boys appeared
at her window with a JACKIE lantern
carved from a pumpkin, instead Of
laughing at the apparition as did the
other neighbors, she HE'D herself across
the field to Mr.. Frew' and made grieY-
/ ous and fearful complaint of the treat
tglapt she had received. for Mrs. Hatch
Nuid s'drop' into tears as easily as
c. Wegg into poetry; and the fact
MI and her daughter were clone,
that she females was often inn
unprotectet; listeners.
pressed On LEI ID. ~ored to iaollify her
resentment with the pea Tina onss me-. engs
were only in fun, aud tina. D ~ g hon,e
be bows. though on their rett. ,r .se;e,o
he reproved them for their indis, Ns' sy..
lin a manner that solomon would h.
approved of.
Poor Mrs. Hatch was not the only