Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-06-13
MIDDLETON'S WIFE.
The Story of Plucky California
Woman.

AAsseS 1AAlNACAA " oS Ouo VI LuOSc uulOEL"
innate women whose surplus physical en-
ergies distinguish them from others of
their sex. As child, she was known as
~'tomboy," and prim mothers held her up
as an awful warning to their little daugh-
tiers, while in her own home the question
OF how to subdue her buoyant spirits was
wrestled over with true maternal solicit
tude. When she grew up, society frowned
upon her as a 'hoyden," and her way was
beser with thorns.
At eighteen she could row, and swim,
and ride, and play lawn tennis like boy
She was great walker, and upon one oc-
casion had walked to Mt. Diablo and back
in two days, with her brother and couple
of friends, a feat which alone would have
sufticed to place her under ban in San
Francisco's best society. That she sang
like bird. danced like sylph, and was,
altogether, very amiable, pure minded
girl, was small Offset for the sum of her
iniquities, and although she was exceed
1ngly popular among set Of young and
irresponsible boys, conservative circles
frowned upon her, and it was generally
understood that she was young person Of
most radical and dangerous tendencies.
1t was, therefore. matter of polite re-
greet when the announcement of her ap-
preaching nuptials with one Of this same
conservative circle was received. Tom
Middleton was promising young lawyer,
of excellent family and irreproachable
manners. 1t had been generally under
stood that Toms ideal was of a very
different type, and more after the pattern
OF the elegant society women with whom
he had been accustomed to associate. His
intimate friend and ,boon companion,
Jack Spencer, who had always disap-
proved Of Kate, undertook to pose as the
lnouth-piece of society, and echoed its
sentiments in Toms unwilling ear. Tom
stood stanchly by his colors, but his
friends words sank deep into his soul,
nevertheless. He secretly resolved that,
for his sake and her own, Kate must be
"'toned down."
J He succeeded evenbeyond his hopes. Nine
years after her marriage, few would have
recognized in the quiet, repressed woman,
the gay and spirited girl Of former days
Kate was fond Of her husband, and the
alchemy of love had wrought the change;
but it is dangerous thing to NEEDLE with
spiritual chemistry as we'll as the forces
of the material world, and if Tom had
known what pent-up longings and rebel
ious inclinations ragged beneath his
wife's quiet exterior, he might have re-
pented his success. But he went on
callously and blindly, as men will when
dealing with delicate forces which they can
not understand, and Kate kept her griey-
-ances to herself. Two children came-the
elder a girl, fiery, untamed little Great
ure, who made the mothers heart-ache, as
she saw in the child reflex of herself: the
other, boy, sturdy, deliberate, like his
father. When the children grew larger,
and needed room for exercise and out
door air, which their city home would not
afford, they took up their residence in a
little country home, not so far away but
that Tom could travel back and forth
daily and attend to his business, and it is
here that our story finds them.
One gray, December day, Kate stood at
her window, gazing out upon the land.
scape. 1t had been a dull, tiresome week.
Several days before, Tom had started off
on Compromised vacation, which was
to be dedicated to hunt in the mount
aims, in company with party of friends.
She was thinking, with envy, of this mer-
~ hunting party. and wondering, half
bitterly, why amusements that were con-
ceded to be proper and healthful for men
should not be healthful and proper for
women. How she would have enjoyed the
long tra:lps over the hills, the excitement
of the hunt, the JOY of holding a good gun
upon her shoulder, and knowing that she
could sight and shoot with the best of
them! She felt wicked solace as she
thought of the showers that had fallen in
the valley and the clouds that had hung
constantly over the mountains. She was
lonely, dull and cross, and chafed against
her hedged-in life, with its narrow boun-
daries, its senseless restraints.
There was rush of feet through tho
house, the door OF her room opened. and
the children burst in.
Mamma, the creek is up! Take us
down to see it,"
The childish longing for novelty and ex-
element found an instant echo in her
heart. They had run in from outdoor
play, and were bonneted and cloaked.
with rubber oyershoes to protect their feet
from the damp earth. As for her, it was
refreshing to evade Br1dget's vigilant eye,
and to steal out Of the front door in her
loose house dress, bare-headed, and with
worsted slippers on her feet. They fol-
lowed garden path for little distance,