Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-06-28
THE WRONG CARD.
tsUsAS HARTLEY IN HARPER's WEEKLY.

(SUsAY HARTLEY IN HARPER'S WEEKLY
Mr. Hiram Leadbetter passed very lone
ly evenings In fact he did not know what
to do with himself since his wife died, and
the delightful card party which had been
gathered in the sitting-roOm of his little
domicile for years was broken up. Since
that time he had not even had an opportu-
nity to play two handed game of euchre
or high low jack, for in less than week
after his wife's funeral his old neighbor,
who had formed one of the party, had gone
to live with his daughter and the other
member, his wife's youngest daughter, had
married sea-captain and sailed with him
to South America. There were no card
PLAYING people in tbe town now. The
Pride's Corner minister did not approve OF
games, unless it might be, as he said, ''an
innocent game of checkers or fox-and-
geese. at suitable time" Hiram and his
wife had Joined the Universalist church
wears before over at Plumtield, where they
lived in their youth, and where, as Hiram
frequently remarked ''folks he'd sense
enough to know that religion hedn't
nothin' more to do with checkers'n fox'n'-
geese than it he'd with cards, m thet Satan
hedn't much in'trest in neither" But the
worthy couple were Stunned by the major
ity of the towns-people on account of their
persistence in this unholy entertainment.
When the minister asked Hiram if his
wife had not repented of her downward
course before her death, his indignation
was so great that he declared he was sick
of the whole place, and was going to leave
it ANYWAY, whether he could sell his farm
or not, though he answered the reverend
gentleman very quietly that she was alwus
a-believir' as well as a-doin' Christian, n
hedn't nothin' ter repent of, n no regrets,
without twas leavin' her family. The last
words she said to him, poor M'riar, was,
How dretfully you'll miss your game even
ms Hiram, if you can't git nobody to take
my place.
1t was February then, and as it grew
toward spring the long twilights were al
m ost maddening in their dreary blankness.
Heretofore there had been the one bright
hour of lamp-lght and the pleasing excite
ment of whist to look forward to before
bedtime. M'riar would never consent to
play until eight o'clock, as she did hold that
it was not right to put by ones work until
that time, unless she hurried to finish the task
which she had allotted herself for the day.
! Butwith such pleasure before one, who
would not waltz Cyntey, his wife's oldest
daugher. had come to keep house for Hi
ram nova neat and industrious spinster,
the best of housekeepers, the best OF cooks,
but he did not find her company enllven-
ing. She stepped about in her cloth slip
pers noiselessly as a ghost, with her prlm
little mouth closed as tightly as if it had
been fastened with lock and key, and il
it was only at the table that she opened
it, having a strange fashion of speaking
the few words which she found it necessa-
ry to speak without moving her lips. She
sang psalm tunes also in the same object
ionable manner. When. on her first arrlv-
al, Hiram timidly proposed that they should
try game of euchre, just to while away
away the long evenin', she looked abso-
lutely Mortified, and said be mustn't run
of an idea that she had such dretful slack
notions about things as ma had. She was
clear Averill, Ma was Baldwin. She
hadn't no Baldwin blood In her"
Hiram was meek by nature, but he re
torted, WITH considerable emphasis, that
daughters twas half as good as such a
ma as she was'd orter be thankful, an he
didn't know what she meant by slack no.
| tions" But Cynthy made no reply. She
was apparently absorbed in what she call
ed ''slop- work" which occupation she pur-
sued every moment she could snatch from
her household duties when she was not
playing on her melodeon. Hiram settled
into abject melancholy; the very cocks
crowed in minor key; his food became
tasteless, his sleep broken. He reproach-
ed himself for not being thankful for his
mercies. If he had lost good wife-he
hadn't half realized until she was gone how
CHEEKY and comfortable companion she
was-he had still plenty O. cretur comforts.
His tasks were light; there was no lack OF
money for his simple needs; his home was
peaceful, at least, if it was lonely, and
there was no more card-playing. ''N'here
1 be settin' up grievances" he would say
over and over to himself. "Mebbo Satan
does hev the doin' O. cards, as the minister
said, the habit of playin had me in so tight
clutch. 'Tis like gamblin', kind er
greed, though hain't never played for
cent or nothin' in my life." And then he
would console himself by concluding it
| warnt nothin' but q miss-missin' Mriar
m the cards tom a miss at his time O
| life was hard.
He tried to follow the example of his
neighbors, and find entertainment by sit
ting in the store evenings, but it was even
| drearier there than at home. The men in
variably talked politics or told sea yarns,
and Hiram wasn't much interested in poll
tics, and hated the very name of the sea,
having been taken as cabin-boy by his
father, who was a sea captain, in his ex-
treme youth, where he suffered untold ag-
onies of sea sickness. So he sat silent and
listless while the other men argued and
narrated. Sometimes one would ask his
opinion when there some disputed point to
be settled, but he would shake his head
dismally. 'I can't seem ter git up enough
ent'rest in politics ter git the hang of 'em
nohow. l catilate it's like fallin' in love,
this fallin' in politics; folks must do it
young; then they git it bad, m it kinder
hangs on to 'em."
When planting-time came the days were
less tedious, his time and thoughts being
so wholly occupied in working his little
farm; but the evenings, though shorter, were
more dreary than before. The frogs in the
little pool at the back of the orchard SEEM
ed to be piping his own gloomy thoughts.
The perfume of the lilacs was like voice
shouting continually of the good old times,
when the lamp light shone on M'riars rosy
and beamlng countenance as she deftly
shuffied the cards, the pleasant, expectant
one of the wrinkled old neighbor, and the
sympathetic, smiling one of the young one
opposite him at the table.
But one warm evening when Cynthy's
voice and the mournful wall of her melo-
deon mingled with the songs of the frogs
to the tune of Federal Street" and ''Bal-
erma," Hiram, sitting dismallY on the back
porch, was suddenly blessed with a new