San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-31
ghe Daily Eight.
>oo-oo.o-o~ooo-o~o
MONDAY, DECEMBER, 81, 1893.


wedding ring and little brooch given her by
old Mary. Sarcastic and unkind as was
Reuben's tone in speaking to her, she I'M
doubtedly profited by his fault finding, and
after time she discovered that Luke was
right in saying his fathers bark was worse
than his bite. More than once, when some
small domestic difficulty perplexed her, Reu-
ben's watchful old eyes perceived it, and she
found herself at the same time snarled at as
a fool and helped out of her quandary.
Again, the old schoolmaster took very
kindly to his grandson, and Gwen, who was
keenly conscious of her own want of educa-
ton, was ready to put up with much churl-
ishness to herself for the sake of getting the
boy taught by Reuben, whose learning in
spired her with profound respect. Often
when she busted his book shelves, where Hor-
ace, Virgil, Cicero, Thomas a Kempis,
Shakespeare, one or two works on education,
and little old fashioned volume of Bacon's
Essays and Lockes Conduct of the Under
standing" leant side by side in friendly toll
erance of one another's contents, she would
scan their titles and read a page here and
there, wishing she had had more schooling,
and that Peter might grow up "bookwise."
One day Reuben caught her at it.
''Put the books back!" he exclaimed, per-
emptorily. GAIL the years we lived together
the old woman never so much as opened q
book O mine, and here are you, gal that can
hardly spell her own outlandish name, polk
ing into them, spelling 'em, and wasting
your time"
81 wasn't hurtin' 'em, father" said Gwen,
earnestly; but unluckily she had laid his
favorite Shakespeare open, face downwards,
on the table and the old man broke out
afresh.
"What's the use Of trying to make any
thing of you? Surely any fool nd know it
hurts book to lay it sol Get alongl I'll
put the shelf right myself; never you touch
it again"
''Very well, father" said Gwen, quietly;
"but was only thinkin' O. Peter, and Won
derin' if p'r'aps some day you'd teach 'un
what's in the books"
"Well, wellr' said Reuben, somewhat mol
lifted, "he's good little chap and sharp
enough, too. He puts me in mind of Luke
when he was a little 'un, but he'll hardly
come up to his father. Luke's got q first
class head, if only he'd stick to steady work
and not take up so with inventions that'll
never come to any good. He's fine Liable
Poor Gwen WINGED for of all the shafts in
Reuben's culver of abuse, this was the one that
wounded her most cruelty. The sting of the
words lay in their partial truth, for she knew
that her kind, clever young husband might
have made a better match. And yet she
loved him so dearly, and strove so hard to be
worthy of him! 1t vexed her, too, to hear
Reuben speak 50 slightingly of Luke's iuven-
lions, for, as e matter of fact, the young en-
gineer had sold the patents of various small
labor saving contrivances for considerable
sums. Only in one case had he failed, and il
was hard that Reuben should seem to re-
member that so much better than the sue
cesses. Gwen delighted in her husbands
work, and rather than let him be disturbed
ty domestic worries, played out all hes
woman's tact in the endeavOr to make it ap.
pear to him that the fault finding to which
Reuben sometimes subjected her, even in hii
sons presence, was merely the froth on a
calm sea of good understanding
She little imagined, however, that this view
of the matter was Reuben's own, till one day
to her establishment a neighbor remarked:
cold Mr.. Sparrow thinks a deal of you.
Mrs. Sparrow, doesn't be? He drops in now
and again, and tells us what a good manager
you are, and how comfortable you make him
He says you are wonderful thoughtful for
such young woman
Gwen could hardly answer for surprise,
but the discovery that Reuben praised her
behind her back encouraged her greatly, and
she tried harder than ever to improve. not
only in her management of the house, but in
speech, style, and manner.
70 1oJ,
said Luke, one evening; whereat she flushed
with pleasure and Reuben gave grunt of
dubious significance, which Gwen chose to
interpret as an expression of assent.
"Some day, father, III speak quite cor
rect-quite correctly, mean"
II hope so" said Luke, 50 eagerly that
Gwen looked quickly up at him and per
ceived the strange excitement in his eyes.
II hope SO" he repeated, drawing a deer
breath, ''for believe l am going to make
my fortune, and that would be a lift up in
the world for us all"
Reuben's face assumed its most skeptical
expression.
'You ought to be shrewder than to believe
in fortune making, boy. Nothing but steady,
straightforward work pays nowadays"
''And isn't it straightforward work to plod
away at the elements of invention for years?'
said Luke, warmly; ''to get to know every
discovered application Of science to mechan-
les, so as to be familiar with ones tools, as il
were, and then to effect original combina.
tons? I don't want to boast, but nv small
inventions haven't failed, and am justified
in believing my big one won't l have in
vented an electric tram car which is bound to
superscdo all others"
'Ah, well, my lad, if the patent fetches you
the money it has cost you, III congratulate
you"
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