The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-06

budt tlIue something Will surely turn up.
"That is what you always say, Human,
but should think by this time you
would find out that things don't turn up,
unless we go to work and make them."
The unfinished harness fell in sections
on the kitchen floor, as Mr.. Brewster
arose from his chair, sitter he had finished
speaking. But he gathered the pieces
together and went out to the barn. Mary
Ann was in what he mentally designated
some OF her tantrums." He always took
refuge in the barn when the subject of
that mortgage was agitated.
As Mrs. Brewster went back to the
soap and sand and the pantry shelves,
she said aloud:
"Well, like Mrs. Poyser, in Adam
Bede, I've had my say. After all, per.
haps I'd better not have said it. II
doesn't do any good, and 1 fear I'm fall.
ing into the habit of 'nsgging,' which !
despise in any woman. But when folks
feelings are working, bottled up as mine
have been SO long, sometimes they will
burst open in spite Of everything done to
keep them down. Folks oftentimes are
brought into contingencies in life that
they've got to get out of or be vanquished,
and the only way to pay off that mort
gage is to take those city boarders. l
ought not to have signed, of course. But
Human did talk 50 well about the mines,
and everything looked so clear. Poor
fellow! He did have hard time OF it,
and that terrible mountain fever that
took such hold of mimi There's good
deal of luck and chance about that sort
OF business anyway. [ read in Miss Cor
nelia's magazine, last summer, story
about Gunnison county, where Luman
was. 1t told about an ooh, Be Joyful
Creek and Poverty Gulch,' lying side
by side, and man going out to seek his
fortune was just as likely to go up one
side as the other. How could Luman
tell, when there was no guide-board to
show him which was which,"
Human Brewster looked at the matter
of the mortgage from his standpoint 10
the barn much more favorably. He did
wish Mary Ann wouldn't worry so much
about that mortgage. If she would only
wait awhile things would shape them
selves and the mortgage be paid, he felt
sure. Not long afterward he heard his
wife's voice calling him in the pleasantest
of tones. Mary AIMS "tantrums" had
worked themselves off, just as they al
ways did.
"See, Luman," she said, as he came
near to the house, " there's robin in the
maple tree. It's the first robin I've seen
this spring, and brings good luck"
didn't L tell you it would come out all
right, Mary Ann?'
"There's Hepsy Brookins!' exclaimed
Mrs. Brewster at that moment. "The very
person ! wanted to see above all others
Go out to the gate and hitch her horse,
Human"
"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'll
she asked.
"No, hain't. Mis- Paulding spoke to
me spell ago about going there, but 1
hain't give her no answer"
"You must promise to come to me-
again this summer, Hepsy. I've decid-
ed to take those city boarders this sea-
son."
"Why, Mis- 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, to-
morrow morning"
Mrs. Brewster spoke with as great en-
thusiasm about taking the city board
rs as if it we're as pleasant circum-
stance in her life as her trim sister Mari
cites going to the sea- 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 purchase and gone out, a
man in the store spoke up:
SIS it true that Mrs. Brewster's going
to take those city boarders again? My
wife said she was tuckered out last fall
with EN-
"Yes," replied the proprietor who was
weighing ont some tea. "You know
Brewster has mortgage on his place;
PIT it on when he went out to Colorado
to the mines. Old Tompkins has the
mortgage; he's an old skinaint and will
foreclose this fall"
"Ill wager that Mary Ann Brewster
will be too sharp for him. She'll find a
way out of that mortgage, unless I'm
very much mistaken. She's the smartest
woman know. If she'd only married a
man half as smart as herself, they'd
skinned the MOON and the last speak
er turned to the old farmer who had just
put his basket of butter and eggs on the
counter.
Human Brewster don't seem to have
no faculty for getting living. He's a
visionary sort of man; good man, too; no.
body's fool, either. Luck seems to go
ao,;u aorna folks aIlus