The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-02
businesslike kind Of a way, but showing

IA = " - ooc
no affection toward his children, who
consequently did not love him.
AS Wedge walked home, his tools on
back, he cam across an old friend, car
rying carefully a dainty bunch of snow
drops in his big, rough hand.
"Here, WILL" he said, walking along
by the carpenters side, GIVE just given
a tr;fle for these fowcrs-pretty bits of
things, amt they-for my wife makes SO
much of any little present I take her
home, she never minds what I bring her,
SO long as I'give it her myself, for to be
sure always tack on alittle something,
in the shape of a few kinds words, which
makes the thing seem valuable in her
eyes. I don't know how l should get on
sometimes, if it wcrn't for having flowers
pretty handy; you can get them for lit
tie or nothing at any time, and yet they
are more beautiful than anything we can
make. Perhaps that is what God gave
flowers form part at lcast-that tho
poor man have within his reach the means
of showing kindness and giving presents,
which, without them, he might seldom
or never be able to give at ALL"
Wedges road now lay in a different
direction from his friends, SO they
parted company, Joe Sparks putting a
couple of snow drops into Willis hand,
%supposing he would know we'll enough
what to do with them.
Wedge turned the snowdrops over in
his hand and looked after Joe, who had
nearly turned the corner; what could the
man mean by giving him the. %snowdrops
and never saying q word7 He couldn't
have known what had just happened at
the hall; yet it seemed strange that he
should come up and say all this about
presents just when Wedge was thinking
about that very subject and enjoying
the excuse, too, tthat he couldn't afford
to buy his wife anything" But now
having tho snowdrops, and having heard
so much about them. it seemed as if
nothing else will do but that he must
give them to his wife, and this proceed
ing would be such new and extraordi-
nary one that the very thought made him
feel sheepish.
Wedges wife was 4 nice woman, but
family cares were weighing her down, so
that the light was fast dying out of her
eyes and the color fading from her
cheeks. She would not have minded
them half nor even quarter SO much if,
when Wedge came homo, she could have
told him all about them-for, ten to one,
he could have set things right. But he
had always pooh-poohed when she ven
tured to begin tho subject, SO that she
had left off looking for help where there
was none to be got. 1t seemed to Wedge
that if he had paid down hard cash for
clothing, feeding and schooling the fam
lily he had done his share towards their
bringing up. Such being the state of
things, you may we'll imagine how sur
prised was Mrs. Wedge when she heard
q cheerful voice cry out:
"Where arc you, MaryT
But greater still was her astonishment
when, on going to the door, her husband
presented her with tho snow-drops, de-
claring rs he put them in her hands, that
''beautiful as they were, he thought the
rosebud on her arm beat them out and
out"
Wedge had done many q handy bit Of
work with those tools on his back, but
he did a neater job DOW with those snow
drops than ever he had done with nil of
them put together, for he, so to speak,
sawed Mary's heart right in two, and got
to the very inside, and planned down no
end of knots and rough places, and
French polished her off as if she was
some choice piece of cabinet work to b.
sold for nobody knows what.
That day was the beginning of brighter
times; Mary's heart having been, as we
before said, sawed right open, never
closed up again. by reason of her hus-
bands continually putting in one little
thing and another on purpose to keep it
open; and warm streams of affection
came gushing out that nobody knew
were ever there at all, they were hidden
down 80 deep.
And as to Wedge, he never knew be-
fore how many pretty little speeches he
could make. Without any notice before
hand whatever, they seemed to come
from somewhere inside, all ready made,
packed and directed, ready to be de-
livered "with care, this side up" to his