Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-08-23
MT. Wayt'S Wife'S 'SSiSter
 #~~
 By MARION KIRKLAND.

quickly.
 IIester's great eyes were raised to her aunt from lids sodden with tears; her lips trembled unmamageably in trying to frame her plea.
 "Forgive mel please forgive mel" she sobbed. You know what my morning flend is. And am not brave like you, or patient like motherl'
 Hetty fondled the hot little hands.
 Let 1t pass, love, l was not angry, but some subjects are best left un- touched between us. Here is your breakfast. Homer says that I make chawkerlette jes' the same's they did for him in tho horspittlo when he had the new money They must have had a French cheT and marvellous menu in that famous 'horspittle.' It reminds me of Little Dorrit's Maggie and her "evenly chicken and so lovely an 'ospittally!"
 She had tho knack of picking up and making the most of little things for the entertainment of her hapless charge. Mrs. Wayt was much occupied with tho other children, to whom she devoted all the time she could spare from her hus. band. It happened occasionally that
 
 made. and oftener that his craving was for certain entrees she alone could pre- pare to his liking. She brushed his coat and hat; kept the run of missing papers and handkerchiefs; tied his cravats; sat by him in a darkened room when he took his afternoon siesta; wrote letters from his dictation, and, when he was weary, copied in a clear, clerkly hand, or upon his typewriter, sermons and addresses from the notes he was W ont to pencil in minute char acters upon pocket-pad. At least four nights out of seven she arose in the dead of darkness to read aloud to him for one, three and four hours, when the balefLl curse, insomnia, claimed him as her prey. His fad, at this date, was what Homer tickled Hester into hys- terics by calling them horsephatcs." Horsford's acid phosphate, if the oracle were to be believed, ought to be the rGde Recum of ailing humanity. nc carried silver flask containing it in his pocket everywhere; dropped the liquid furtively upon lump of sugar, and ate 1t in tho pulpit, during anthem, or voluntary, or ofTertory; mixed it with water and drank 1t on tho cars, in drug stores, in private houses, and at his meals, and Mrs. Wayt kept spirit-lamp and kettle in her bedroom with which to heat water for the tranQuilizing and peptic draught at cock-crowing or at midnight. If she had ever complained of his eXactionS, or uttered an ungcntlc word to him, neither sister nor child had heard her. She would have become his advocate with him against himself had need arisen-which it never did.
 My ministering angel" he named her to tho Gilchrists, his keen eyes softencd by ready dow John Ran dolph said, in his old age, of his moth CT: 'She was tho only being who ever understood me- l can say the same of my other and dearer self. Sho inter- prets my spirit munitions when they are but partially known to myself, Sho meets my nature at every turn"
 She mot it to-day by mounting guard sometimes litorally-beforc tho door of his Study-thc one room which was un- tirely in ordcr-while he prepared his discourses for the ensuing Sabbath. The rest found enough and more than enough to do without the defended DOT tai. Fanny was shut up in the dining room with the baby Annie, and warned not to bo noisy. The twins carried bundles and boxes up and downstairs in their stockingfeet; Homer pried off covers with mufllcd hammer, and shouldered trunks, empty and full, loav- ing his shoes at the foot of tho stairs. Hester said nothing of blinding head ache and jumping pain" in her back while she dusted books and china Hetty was every where and evor busy, and nobody spoke loud word all day.
 "You might think there was a corpse in the study instead of a sermon being bornw Hester had once Sneered to her confidanto. never hear him preach, but know should be reminded of the mountain that brought forth a mousse"
 One of her fathers many protests, ad. dressed Gt Hetty and to his wife, was that their eldest-born was virtually heathen."
 "Home education in religion, even when administered by the wisest and tenderest of mothers - liko yourself, my love-must still fall short of such godly nurture and admonition as are contemplated in the command: 'Forsake not the assembling of yourselves to. gether.' There is didactic theology in David's holy breathing: "A day in Thy courts is better than thousand.
 "Better than a thousand in the same place? l should think so," interposed Hester's tireless pipe. "He needn't have been inspired to tell us that! Fam. fly worship sufilces for my spiritual needs. That must be the porch to the 'courts,' at least"
 In speaking she, too, looked at her mother, although every word was aimed at her father.
 "It is a cruel trick that we haver' Hetty had said of the habit. Every ball strikes that much-tried and inno. cent women, no matter who throws it."
 "of oourser' retorted tho sarcastic daughter. And must while tho angle of incidence is equal to that of reflec. tion."
 In the discussion upon family rersU,