Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-11-28
THE ONE WHO IS LEFT BEHIND.
What Fond and Foolish Creatures Women
Sometimes Are.

The one who is left behind-ah. tbs
one who Is left behind! 1t is almost
always a woman. What does she do?
If she loves the careless. happy-go-
lucky young fellow, she viii gaze afser
him through vista of tears as long as
there is piece of him in sight aud
then she viii rush up stairs and grab
one of his old vests or coats or plunge
her head into an old hat that has been
left behind too, and cry like the big
baby she is. At breakfast her coffee
will taste salty like tears, and at din
ner her soup will be tasteless. If she
sleeps at all for the first few nights
she dreams that she sees her beloved
afar off. He is coming towards her
with a smile of love on his face. He
comes nearer and nearer. She stretches
out her arms to embrace him. A dark
cloud falls between. She calls, but he
does not answer. She gropes around
in the darkness, but she cannot find
him, and she wakes, sobbing, to find
herself sitting up in bed with her arms
Outstretched and the tears streaming
down her face. All, is there a woman
who loves much, who has not dreamed
such dreams when parted from her be-
loved?
Careless Charlie or solemn Solomon
promised to write from the first stop
ping place. They forgot to do it of
course, but the one who is left behind
does not forget to look for the letter.
She starts and trembles at every sound
of the doorbell, and if it rings unusu-
ally sharp and quick she is sure 1t is
the telegraph messenger bringing the
news of railroad or Steamboat disas-
ter, in which her beloved has been
mashed as fiat as founder, or blown
sky high. 1t was not telegraph mes
senger. She thanks God for that. But
it was not the expected letter either,
and she plunges her hand into the old
hat again for comfort.
In what strange ways we women
comfort ourselves when parted from a
beloved onei
know Woman-a literary woman
who develops sudden fOndness for
needle and thread and thimble when
her husband leaves home. She over
hauls every article of his wardrobe
and sews on buttons by the dozen and
tape strings by the yard. | half sus-
pect the sly man takes a short trip
from home once OF twice a year just to
get his clothes mended.
know another wife who always
mounts her husbands old slippers on
a pedestal of some kind and says her
prayers to them night and morning
until he returns. | know woman
who has a vest belonging to her sailor
love who has gone on a long cruise.
She keeps it hidden carefully away in
the bottom of her trunk. | caught
her kissing and crying over it one day
and said: ''Why didn't you ask him
to leave you pair of his old boots?'
She turned her eyes on me with a glare
and answered.: DO you suppose his
heart was in his feet?"
81 hope not" replied, "but it GER
tainly is not in the pocket of that old
vest
No" she answered, ''but it used to
cover his dear heart, and I'd rather
have it for keepsake than the dia-
mond locket Kate wears with her
sweetheart's picture in it,
How tastes do differ!' | said to my
self. thinking of the comfort Kate gets
out Of the locket hidden away in her
bosom, and what comfort Mary finds
in tue ring that her Harry left her to
remember him by when he went to
New York on a business trip ten days
ago, and how fondly Jennie treasures
a pocket handkerchief that belongs to
the man she loves.
All. what fond and foolish creatures
we women are.-NeaO Orleans Pea
glGl1e.