Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-09-11

Good Friday is dav chosen for various
! title private tasks. There is no harm in
getting through stroke of work hen
you have come home from church. A
woman announced that on that day her
husband would lay the first stone of the
pig-sty. This pig-sty was the chateau en-
Espagne of all the family. 1t was to be
erected out of the savings of the good wo-
man, who had done little charring that
winter. When you come along the
/ fields, you will see it." Aye, and
/ sight will not be the only sense to which it
appeals.
Every village has its hunchback. In
this instance he was a poor, ialf-witted
creature, the butt of the village ragamuf-
fins, gamins and gamines Physically he
was extremely strong, but mentally he
was disqualified from working three days
together He went to prison and not to
church. A young lady showed him some
klndness-she sent him on errands, and
then he earned few pence; but in gener-
! al she did not give him moneyAthe kind
ness was of another sort, kind words, kind
| looks. | can SEE the two row, the last
time they met; it was by the side of the
| little river; the hunchback was trying to
catch IL roach or a carp. By this hideous
! type, in its rags and dirt. stood the fair
slight form in a close-ftting black dress
with golden hair little disarranged by
the wind. Round about the yellow flags
were in flower. What they said do not
know; perhaps she spoke of a hereafter
where there would be no mishapen ones;
no rags, no soothing boys. Some weeks
later and this sweet SAINT had entered her
novitlate in French convent. And till
the hunchback broke his neLk falling
through trap-door he would always ask
after her, saying 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 a liberty 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 answer for
that, she answered; "let us say that he
looks the picture of health!' 1t would
have been impossible TO suggest in a more
polite buf 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,
is the dowry. The marriages of the Eng
lish 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.
The plainest girl in the village was be-
trothed to young man whom she would
not marry while her aged, paraly2ed mother
had need of her. The young man waited
h.
village ptied 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 Of
again, it was said; and the girl, poor thing,
always plain. was so uncompromisingl
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 in a little shop, when |
believe is doing well.
This is the story of long courtship; as
an ending | will give the story of a short
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 APP
pear-a root of hepatica, then deep red
auricula. then various wall flowers; later,
a blackbird in 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.
Freds father, small tenant, worse off
than the common laborer, is none too
pleased; how should he be at such a harum-
scarum boy-and- girl business? 1t is June;
Agnes has just completed her l7th year.
AS for Fred, Agnes's mother. said apollo
getically: "He isn't so very young-he
zone 49,"
About this time ! made his acquaint-
ance Going into the cottage | saw lad
with boyish looks, and the mother told
me, That Agnes's companion. "
We'll, said |, lyon are very lucky
young man to have got Agnes to say she
will marry you; YOU ought to think your
self uncommonly fortunate" THAT |
do, p" he said in his girls voice; it was
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'.' = 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 bIackbird 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
comicaI, demonstrative sister of the staid
and prim Agnes.
"0h. mol she's rather too young; don't
you think SOP"
Till then ! did not know that among
the English poor the notion prevailed that
children we're out of place at wedding; a
notion rooted among all classes on the
continent, where our baby bridesmaids
I I