Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-09-18

seemed to turn her head and listen, that he
had never met Kate Stephens. For other
and less tender reasons he wished it very
often during the ensuing year. The good
family cooking was superseded by the mar
tistic efforts OF series of poor cooks-the
ancient 'help' of the household having left
in Indignation to follow the fortunes of her
old mistress. For weeks together there
would be no servant, and Kate openly de-
clared that she couldn't cook. Then meals
of tea and bread and butter wore out the
hard worked doctors patience, until, after
repeated visits to the city, new servant
was found, and new list Of misdemeanors
was rehearsed for his benefit every night
at supper time and every morning at the
breakfast table.
He was very uncomfortable but he had
not ceased TO love his wife. She was only
eighteen years old, and much was not to be
expected of her powers in the housekeeping
line. He hardly wished to see her in work
ing attire, with her hands REDEEMED with
labor and cooking apron on. Her dainty
helplessness had charm in it. Her soft
hands and unrufied attire pleased him
nightly, and there were momepts when he
was very happy.
But no man can remain so ill-fed; and
the daily discomfort, combined with the
twinges OF remorse which he felt whenever
he saw his mothers patient face or his sis
ters' indignant countenances, quite altered
his temper by slow degrees.
He did not reproach his wife at any time,
but he sulked behind a newspaper, or spent
long evenings out by himself and now and
then alluded to mothers pies and dumplings
in a tone which wives understand very
well.
All this merely confirmed Kate in her
diSliEa of her n10fhar-ln-ia and siGfnre-In-
law; and when the first baby came she re-
fused, with little string of spiteful re-
marks about old-fashioned names, to have
1t christened Margaret after its grand
mother. Then Henry refused to think of
''Rose," but yielded when his wife cried
over it; and Kate's sister came to the
christening, though the grandmother did
not, to the great scandal of all the congre-
cation. Kate's ''airs" had wounded the
old lady too far at last. She had resolved
never to enter her sons door again, and
Kate rejoiced thereat.
So the baby grew to be two years old,
and another came, and nursemaid was
added to the establishment, and the trouble
with cooks went on, until one day, Kate,
led by an advertisement supposed to be in
serted in the paper by an unexceptionable
servant, penetrated into the dirtiest streets
| Of New York. and into a room where the
| dirtiest of all created children was i'll in
| bed.
"Poor craytherp said the mother.
''What ails him 1 don't know" and Kate,
in the sympathy of motherhood, patted the
child's head and spoke to him kindly, and
advised warm bath. which the matron
took as an insult. The efficient servant,
however, was engaged, and Kate went
! home to feel conscious In few days of be.
| ing very unwell, and to break down at last,
and take to bed, while her anxious husband
felt that at last the greatest trial Of their
married lives had come upon them for Kate
had taken the smallpox in one of it's very
worst forms.
''Shall send for your sister, my deari"
asked he, after breaking the news to his
wife as tenderly as possible.
ITO RoseF' said Kate. ''Oh, no. She
wouldn't come, and 1 couldn't expect it.
Don't send for any one. Let me die; shall
be pitted If l live, and after that what
would life be worth!"
81 should love you as WELL" said the hus-
band; "but I'll save your pretty skin as
well as your life, if can; but there's trial
before yoH, and before me, too. wish
He paused, and did not say: II wish
mother was here"
AS for sending for her, he had no such
thought. The servants had fed in dIsmay,
anu a udil-WlIbCO OOy WllO was uOb dlTdlU
of smallpox, inasmuch as he had had it him
self the year before, was ''minding" the
children in the apartment farthest removed
| from the sick-room.
There was not nurse in. the place who
would undertake such a case, and the neigh
bors would have bolted their doors agains st
him. What should he dol How contrive
for the safety of his babesl Suddenly a
voice smote his ear:
This is time of trouble, Henry. Let old
scores be forgot. Jane is dressing the chill
dren to go home with Fannie, and will stay
herself to help me. Don't fret about moth
ing, my boy. Wen do the best the Lord
allows u.s."
Henry took her in his arms.
my good MOTHER" ne said, show can you
be so good to usl'
AS for Kate, she was fast falling into that
condition when she could speak or think of
nothing
But brave old Mrs. Rider did, as she had
promised, the best the Lord allowed, and
her best was very good and wholesome.
Jane made all comfortable in the kitchen.
and Fannie cared for her brothers. babes in
the new home in which she had wept so
many bitter tears for her old one And at
last Kate passed from under the shadow of
the death-angel's wings, and her face took
a likeness to itself again and reason re-
turned.
Then who was tender of her as a newborn
babe, save old Mrs Riderl And who fed
her with dainty blanc mango and jelly but
dimpled janet And who came to tell her
how the children were growing, and how
well they were, but Fanniel Until at last,
paler and thinner, and with her soft hair
cut short on her neck, but with a skin as
smooth and fair as ever, Kate went into her
,Ex~-. lf- \. q
him alone, knelt down at his feet
"Dear Henry, forgive me" she said
"For what, lovel" asked the husband.
"For robbing you of such mother and
sisters" said Kate. II was foolish, weak.
minded girl; 1 did not understand; they
have been angels to me; they can never be
thanked enough for what they have done.
Oh, Henry, will they stay with usp'
The end OF it was that they did stay. The
old lady could scarcely believe that the
pale, sweet young woman whom she had
just seen pass through such suffering was
the naughty creature who had repulsed her
friendship and bRnished her from her sons
home. Jane declared that nobody could re-
main angry with the poor little soul; and
Fannie had grown to love the children very
tenderly; so the two families became one,
and more than the love of mother and
daughter exists between Kate and the
woman whom she once styled "My dreadful
mother-in-law. IN. Y. Ledger.
Descent Into the Grand Canyon.
81 went to the bottom of the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado last winter,n said
W. z, Hart to ST Louis Globe-Democrat
reporter, 'sand au9 one of the few men who
ever attempted the descent. / went there
to examine mine said TO exist in the bot
tom of the canyon have been all through
the Rockies, from Montana to Central
America, and know what chasm is, but
} the sight of that abyss took my breath
away. From the top to the bottom it is