The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1889-11-29

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verely. Don't pretend to misunder-
stand me. I'm plain farmer, anl my
wife must not be too much above
things / take an interest H."
lin not, john" cried Rosa What
do | do?"
John could not say. He only knew
that his home, which had been place
OF peace and comfort In the days when,
as the bachelor brother OF 6ye-and-
thirty. he had been the adored OF the
homestead. the idol OF his mother, and
the Admirable Chrichton OF his
younger sisters, had turned into sort
OF cabinet OF torture; that the little
beauty who had left boarding-school
TO marry him-and whom he had
thought perfect-was spoken OF as a
"stuck-up." as q thing OF airs and
graces, as one who put on airs.
The family wore the air OF having
been through frightful trial. Sharp
things were said-bitter ones, also;
and his amiable parents, his cheerful
old aunt. and his lively little sisters
were changed into beings as solemn a.
grand Druids.
The change had been brought about
by him giving them what he supposed
would be a pleasant surprise-in mar.
rying Rosa He had quarreled with
them, now he was lecturing his wife
She was wiping away tear when
Jane the servant, knocked at the door,
and brought in batch OF letters.
"Speer's folks fetched them from
she Office" she said. as she dumped
them on her masters desk. and
showed by her glances that she plain
ly saw that his wife had been CRYING,
and that ha was the nansa. and he
Dent over the letters, pretending TO
examine them.
,tRosa, however, was forgiving. She
fh to the table.
Two for me-" she cried. This is
toHn mamma, and this is from Lilly
erssy. know. And what a pretty en-
yelope you have there, John-the god
dess Pomona, is it not, amongst her
fruitson
"A notice from the managers Of the
Agricultural Fair, said John. Father
got the prize for pears last year. We
generally get prizes.
He handed the document to his wife,
who perused it carefully, and the little
tiff was over.
Still life was not what it used to be
in the old farmhouse. You can i'm
agine il all. The detail OF days of
chilly coldness, of evenings once spent
in the general sitting-room passed in
upstairs bedrooms, of formal meals
and naughty politeness. John often
thought that regular quarrel, like
those that took place in the cabin of
Mike Granburg. on the railroad bor-
ders, where plates and glasses and
chair-legs flew about, would be. pre-
ferable. He went out as much as pos
sible. And Rosa had asked him for a
little piece OF ground for a garden OF
her own. He had given 1t to her, OF
course, and she spent much time there,
but she never asked him to look at 1t.
His sisters avoided 1t carefully. The
spot chosen was an out-of-the-way one
beyond the corn-feid. They worked
in their own as usual; and even over
flowers these giriS did not meet on
friendly terms.
His mother rather ostentatiously |
read the more severe OF the religious |
works in the library in her armchair
on the porch. His father talked Of his
time being nearly over. His aunt
knitted as sternly as though she were
one Of the Fates in charge OF the web |
Of destiny; and nobody called him Jack
any more.
He was aware that the ladies spoke
Of Rosa's remote little garden as the
open air conservatory, or the Gar
den Of Eden and once when he asked |
them why they did not go and look at
1t, Edna replied:
"Oh, our glances might blight it."
And Ruth added:
at is too. too utterly, ! presume.
We country girls could not appreciate
it.n
Whereupon he called them 'ill-
natured idiots, and they began to sob
and alluded to him as "a
brute" And really Rosa did carry
herself in stately fashion, and met
their Roland with an Oliver, as far as
coldness went.
1t was not pleasant August and
It was more unpleasant September.
His only comfort was In his grape