, 1890-01-01
ALFRED'S PIPE.

Gran'ma Hubbell did not like tobacco
smoke. Throughout the many years of
her welded life she had tried hard to
learn to like the odor of it, but had fail
ed. Her husband, however. supposed
that she was fond of it. Men are clumsy
about such things. They do not feel out
the truth as women do. They trust to
their senses and their reason, and there
fore women cheat them.
at is the dear mans only fault
Charlotte HubbeIl had said TO herself
when she was a young wife, land he
shall never know that / dislike it
For more than forty years she had
lovingly deceived him. After supper
she would bring his slippers and his
pipe; and he, stupid lover, would puff
and toast his feet and say and feel:
"iiere Is peace that passcth under
standing"
Then he would look up into the lightly
curling smoke and try 10 think how
miserable he should be if he had found
a wife whose tastes were not thus suited
to his own. And he would lay her head
upon his shoulder and kiss her; and that
was all she wished. 1t told her he was
happy in her love.
Once, in the street, she passed u man
and family caught the odor of his freshly
lighted cigar. She rather liked it.
III Alfred would smoke cigars!' she
thought.
Slyly she laid away spare money until
she had enough. Then one day she called
the ~juJgtnento Of n friend into service, and
that evening she brought the slippers and
a box of choice ciuars,
Her husband took her in his arms and
blessed her for her thoughtfulness.
Always thinking of my pleasure, ~ he
said. "But, sweetheart, you should have
purchased something for yourself in
stead. The pipe isgood enough for me-
Nothing but the best is good enough
for you, she said, honestly and proudly.
She had really forgotten HAT she had
bought the cigars for herself.
"You precious woman he replied,
still holding her in his arms, and there
in sweet, deep silence they drank the
joy that blcsscs only such immortal
souls as merge thus, W in one.
But, my darling, " he at length contin-
ued, 81 I'M not going to smoke these
cigars. They are too choice, too eNpen-
sive. l cannot afford such luxuries. We
will keep them for special occasions,
when our friends come to see us, The
old pipe is good enough for me"
He thought he had said it well. awk-
ward man. And she let him continue to
think so, tactful woman. But she knew
he liked the pipe better.
Alfred Hubbell was not the kind OF
man to become wealthy. He had not
al extravagant habit. unless indulgence
of n generous nature be extravagance.
He was u furrier with a well established
trade, but he wash nH-StaS 1aTffabIe.
padutiese Two qualities arc scIdcm'.
united with that Jtnet quality which
piles up fortunes. Yet he was content
and his wife was content, and after all
c~ontentment is the only real wealth.
MY pipe is the only luxury wish"
he said.
''His pipe is his only vice." said she.
When he had his smoke in the evening
he always laid his pipe upon the little
lampstand near his easy chair. The next
morning Mrs. Hubbell put it out of sight.
Sometimes it made her almost sick to
handle it, for, like all true lovers of the
pipe, he chung to one until it was SO
saturated with tobacco oil its odor was
unspeakable.
The children OF the neighborhood had
learned to love her and call he~r''gran'ma."
In the years long gone she had borne and
nursed two babes, but they had died
upon her breast. Let no man try to tell
what this must mean. The language OF
imagination fails. Experience alone can
know the thrill of motherhood, the
purifying sorrow If Its loss. She was
sverybody's gran'ma now that she was
and ever must be nobody's.
When the financial panic swept like a
blight over the country the f~urriers were
among the first to feel its damning
breath. When economy becomes neces.
larry to men accustomed to the luxuries
they buy more wine, they go oftener to
ihe theatre, they get faster and costlier
horses; these are the diverting influences
that keep their minds turned from their
troubles. But it is the women who sup
port the furriers, and women suffer losses
IN another way-a harder n a drawer
way. Nan runs away from sorrows;
women faces it and bears it. He fees
and frightens it with laughter; she STAYS
and welcomes it with tears. He spends;
she saves.
Mr. liupbell now passed his evenings
down town. The presence of the men
he met inspired him with the courage he
felt he o should need, for men are
brave only in groups. Pride is the BRAY
cry of man.
When the sheriff put his paddock on
the Hubbell store the proprietor fell
better, more at ease. The worst had
come. The agony of expectation, at
least, was at an end. TlAn, too, he had
been providing against this situation,
and had engaged Professionally with a
wea~ltbSyeastern house to go TO Hudson
Bay afKF spend the winter buying furs
for it. Gran'ml. too, had beer prepared
for this. She mad wept in secret over
the dread prospect. and bravely smiled
when lac was near. 1t was their first
parting