The Wahpeton times., 1886-11-18


course. But Luman did talk SO we'll
about the mines, and everythinglook-
ed SO clear. Poor fellow! He did
have a. hard time ofit, and that ter.
rlble mountain fever that took such a
hold OF him! There's good
deal of luck and chance about
that sort of business any
way. read in Miss Cornelia's maga-
zine, last summer, a story about Gun
nison county, where Luman was. It
told about an %, Be joyful Creek
and a Poverty Gulch,' lying side by
side, and man going out to seek his
fortune was just as likely to 20 up one
side as the other. How could Luman
tell, when there was no guide.board to
show him which was which,"
Luman Brewster looked at the mat
ter of the mortgage from his stand.
point in tho ba,n much more favora-
bly,. He did wish Mary Ann wouldn't
worry so much about that mortgage.
If she would only wait awhile, things
would shape themselves and the mort
gage be paid, he felt sure. Notlong aft.
erward he heard his wife's voice call.
ing him in the pleasantest OF tones.
Mary AIMS ''tantrums" had worked
themselves off, just as they always
did.
"See, Luman," she said, as he came
near the house, "there's robins nest
in the maple tree. It's the first robin
I've seen this spring and brings good
luck"
didn't tell you it would come out
all right, Mary Amp"
s"There's Hepsy Brookins!" exclaim-
ed Mrs. Brewster, at that moment.
The very person I want to see above
all others. Go out to the gate and
hitch her horse, Luman."
"Well, Hepsy, if ever was glad to
see anybody in my life, I'm glad to
see you," and the lady kissed the mild
pleasant face OF the young girl, as she
came up the garden walk. "You
haven't engaged anywhere for the
summer, have you?" she asked.
"No, l hain't. Mis- Paulding spoke
to me spell ago about going there,
but hain't give her no answer"
You must promise to come to me
again this summer, Hepsy. I've de-
cided to take those city boarders
this season."
"Why, Mrs. Brewster, you was clean
beat out last fall, and you said you'd
never take 'em again for no price"
81 was tired out and wilted down
then, Hepsy, but now I'm fresh again.
I'm going to send letter to New York
| tomorrow morning"
Mrs. Brewster spoke with as great
an enthusiasm about taking the city
boarders as if it were as pleasant q
circumstance in her life as her trim
sister Marietta's going to thesea-shore
was IN hers.
Busy weeks followed, and the time
came all too soon for the arrival of
the city boarders. The night before
they came Mrs. Brewster went to the
village store to get certain piece of
cretonne to cover an old-fashioned
chair. After she had made her pur-
chase and gone out, a man in the store
spoke up:
"Is it true that Mrs. Brewster's 60
ing to take those city boarders again?
My wife said she was tuckered out last
fall with 'em."
"Yes,' replied the proprietor, who
was weighing out some tea. "You
know Brewster has a mortgage on his
place; put it on when he went out to
Colorado to the mines. Old Tomp-
kins has the mortgage; he's an old skin
flint, and will foreclose this fall"
"I'll wager that Mary Ann Brewster
will be too sharp for him. She'll find
way out Of that mortgage, unless
I'm very much mistaken. She is the
smartest woman l know. If she'd
only married q man hall as smart as
herself, they'd skinned the moon;"
and the last speaker turned toward
the old farmer who had just put his
basket of butter and eggs on the count
er.
"Luman Brewster don't seem to
have no faculty for getting living.
He's q visionary sort of man; good
man, too; nobod US fool, either. Luck
seems to go agin some folks allus."
AS the farmer finished speaking, g.
little wiry man, the postmaster, add
ed:
"He hasn't got any push to him.
Old Mrs. Brewster says the reason Lu-
man never made out more is because
Mary Ann takes the reins in her
hands,
"Waal, now, the other side of the
house look at the matter in quite a
different light" spoke up the tall, thin
man, who kept helping himself to
crackers out OF the barrel at the
further end of the store. "They were
all agin Mary AIMS marrying Luman
Bl ewster. She had chance to marry
a perfessor somewhere in some great
college, I've heerd."
"Her sister Mariette feathered her
nest pretty WE'LL" the storekeeper
added. "She want half as likely as
Mary Ann, either, when they were
girls; not to my way of thinking"
"Mary Ann used to fall in with Lu.
mans schemes at first" rejoined the
wiry man, but She had falls enough to
come down to bottom facts, now.
When man lives in the clouds, q
woman has got to attach herself to
the earth with strong cables, now I
tell you. Terry firmy is quite neces-
sary place to stand on, if you're going
to make any sort Of living"
The 1nen in the country store we're
readjusting the Brewster family affairs
long after the object of the discussion
had arrived home. She and Hepsy
were bound to cover the chair that
night. That finished, Mrs. Brewster
sat down on the soft cushion to COL
lect her thoughts. All the family werein
bed and asleep when she took the we'll
worn family Bible and opened it. No
matter how much work came into her
life, she never failed to read her chap.
ter every night before she went to bed.
She felt anxiOus over the diSnensinp
of affairs in the household after the