Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-11

| the hunchback broke his neck falling
through a trap-door he would always ask
after he: lying shyly. as if to himself;
''She was good to me-
The poor. especially the poorest of he
poor, resent anything which seems like TAX
ing libert, with them They hate con-
descension | innocently said to one wo-
man, the wife Of terrible mauvais suiet,
that her son looked a nice, honest lad.
oh, he's very honest can nswer for
that, she answered; let US say that he
looks the picture OF healthr' II would
have been impossible to suggest in more
polite but impressive way that it was no
business Of mine to pass judgment On the
moral qualities of her offspring.
The main, | had almost said the sole,
| consideration In peasant marriages abroad
is the dowry. The marriages of the Eng
fish poor may be improvident. but at least
they are supremacy disinterested. There
occur cases which have quite as much ro-
nance in them as most three volumes.
| TIE plainest girl In the village was be-
| trOthed to a young man whom she would
not marry while her aged, paralyzed mother
had need Of her. The young man waited
| 10 years, and then he went away. The
village pitied the girl all the more when in
one year more the mother died, and she
was free from her self-imposed charge. OF
course the lover would never be heard IF
again, it was said; and the girl. poor thing,
always plain. was so uncompromisingly
ugly now. But, to the amazement of all
the lover came back one day from India
with nice little sum in his pocket, and
forthwith married his plain betrothed. with
whom he set up III little shop. which
believe is doing well.
This is the story of a long courtship; as
an ending | will give the story Of a snort
one. At the marriage Of her brother,
there was no one to walk to church with
Agnes, so her mother sent across to the
small farm by the river to ask if the young
man there wouldn't mind obliging. The
young man comes and succumbs. Soon
after he takes lodgings with the mother;
there are so many children and so few
rooms at home. Now various signs ap-
pear-a root of hepatica. then a deep red
auricula, then various wall flowers; later,
! a blackbird in a cage Agnes thinks of
going back into service, but there the vol
cano bursts. Fred says: mo, no, he can
not bear it. So little demure, staid
Agnes agrees to marry right off at once.
Fred'S father, small tenant. worse off
than the common laborer. is none too
pleased how should he be at such harum-
scarum boy-and- girl business? 1t is June:
Agnes has just completed her 18th year.
As for Fred, Agnes's mother said apollo
getically: He isn't SO very young-hes
gone 49,"
About this time | made his acquaint-
ance. Going into the cottage | saw lad
with boyish looks. and the mother told
me, That's AgDes's companion.
WELL said I, you are very lucky
young man to have got Agnes to say she
will marry you; you ought to think your
self uncommonly fortunate" THAT I
do, he said in his girls voice; it was a
tremendous effort to thus far overcome his
bashfulness, and he covered his face with
his hands to hide the confusion it cost
him.
Poor Fred! his parents had given him
no ''larnin''' He has tried, by attending
an evening school, to remedy the short
coming, but the result was that, though
he could write fairly well, he could not
read-a curious but not unfrequent state
of things.
One day an indescribable topsy-turvy
dom is visible in the cottage; the dust of
ages is disturbed the black bird is put into
a new cage; at last chaos turns to order;
all is spruce, spick and span. The we'd
ding IS for tomorrow.
is Lizzie to go?' Lizzie being the
comical, demonstrative sister of the staid
and prim Agnes.
''Oh, no. she's rather too young; don't
you think SOP
Till then | did not know that among
children were out of place at a wedding; a
1,o4.o tod al h.
continent, where our baby bridesmaids
would create strangest impression. | did
not make matters worse by asking if the
mother herself was not to be the bridal
party. Parents are not present at their
children s weddings-a relic to my mind
of the times when the bridegroom carried
of his bri2e without asking anybody's con-
sent. Kingsley, In Yeast mentions
the parental abstention, signaling as a
mark of the extreme misery of the district
he describes; but this is certainly a mis-
reading of its drift.
At o'clock on the morning after the
wedding those who are looking out of
their windows into the midsummer air
see the young couple run down the hill to
to the bridge, hand in hand, like happy
children; he to mis- work in the builders
yard, she to hers at the factory.
Next year child is born, and then the
little, so little, child dies. The news was
taken to the young father in the work
yard by workman VINO lived next door to
his cottage Mr.. Strait was very kind
about it, said Lizzie, my informant; The
did not tell him with all the others there.
He said, I've got something to say to you;
and then. when he was outside he told
him, Your baby is deadr" After the
funeral. Lizzie told me- Agnes filled The
coffin with flowers, and it looked very nice
Little Annie came to see it - Annie was
Fred's sister, three years old. she
kept a saying, oh. how small what a
little, little coffir. -
Fred fell i'll and could do nothing for
many months, and when he got better his
place had been filed, and he could not find
work. Agnes kept him and herself too by
working at the factory. She used to feel
tired often; but she did it quite bravely
and simply, without ever a complaining
word Then another babe was born, and
they all moved to Derby. Fred wrote:
1--WE we're both very sorry to leave with
out seeing you, as you have been such a
friend to US, but | could not get anything
to do. and | was tired OF letting Agnes
work to keep me, and the people saying
that was idle, which | never deserved. "
Defective spelling. but sound sentiment.
He has kept his place ever since in the
Midland carriage works. and nos out of
his economies he can manage 70 give
! Agnes pretty black silk dress ana to take
her on fine holidays for a trip 70 Matlock
or Buxton.