The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-01-31
NO.2.

dIOuIG.
II won't have her, neither. She amt
none too good tempered. want a pleas
ant woman or nome
"What do you think of Susan Baker?
HAYES good bit of money bimeby, of her
own, an s@ayin,' besides good worker,
young, pleasant an pretty"
NO." replied Nathan, Il amt one o.
them men as wants a seekont wife young
enough for a daughter"
81 guess you'll have to stay single, then.
There amt any more widders, an not an
old maid except Jemima Comfort, an she's
poor as poverty"
Nathan jumped up. "Much obliged,
Hosey," said he. eI'1l go right down an
ask her. Queer, l didn't think of it my
self"
"You don't mean it's exclaimed the sur
prised brother. ''She amt got a cent"
But without waiting to hear expostuIa-
tions, Nathan jumped into his wagon,
started up his team and rode furiously
down to Farmer Jdckman's. Jemima
made her home there. Mrs. Jackman was
Jemima's sister, but Jemima had to work
pretty hard. She was at work in the wide
hall when Nathan drove up. She looked
out from the door and bowed.
How are you. Jemima9'' called Nath-
an. Gust run down to the gate won't
you?''
Jemima ran down, neat as a pin in her
drab gown. Jemima was a Quaker in
speech and dress.
sGood-morning. Nathan" she said in a
pleasant voice, looking at him inquiring-
ly.
"Jemima, said Nathan, 81 drove around
to see if | could get you to do me a favor.
I'm ruther lonesome lately, an I'm thinkin'
of marryin'. It strikes me you'd suit ex-
actly, and if it strikes you I'd suit, why
just say 70.
The clear eyes of Jemima were dropped
a moment in reflection. A red color. that
might have belonged to a worldly maiden,
leaped to her cheek. Through her mind
ran a thought Of her dependent position, SO
often irksome. and another thought of the
comfortable home of which Nathan Bruce
would make her mistress. He had his
faults, she knew, but be was kind and gen.
erous. He was ruddy and we%ll-looking,
too. She raised her eyes, and said gently:
Il guess thee'lI suit, Nathan
And it was but a week later when Jem-
ina Comfort became Jemima Bruce, and
was installed the neat and capable mistress
of the best house in Brookton.
The first six months of married life pass
ed happily. And then Nathan vent to
election. He stayed all day. He stayed
all night. And next day, when Jemima
had just seated herself to her solitary noon
day meal, he came noisily into the room.
His face was flushed. his step unsteady. He
sat down sulienly.
"Thee's just in time said Jemima
pleasantly.
1t took no more than that to set Nathan
roaring when liquor was in. And he began
to roar. Not loudly at first, but with in
cTeasing volume. The election had disap-
pointed him. He walked across the floor
and kicked JemIma's cat viciously. Jeni-
ima's eyes flashed in a most unquaker-like
way. She demonstrated.
This was Nathan's opportunity. He
would not bear to be demonstrated with in
this condition. He dashed himself into
added rage; he swore, he tore, he knocked a
chair over he thrau a too a. - tha ea~
rideo cat. Jemima had heard before of
Nathan's spells" She knew that they
resulted in broken furniture and dishes,
AMI that these things were generously re-
placed when all was over.
She resolved that the first scene Of her
married life should be the last. So when
the pieces of tea-eup lay shattered upon
the floor, she stopped tothe wood-box, took
up a stout stick of wood, and dashing it in
to the middle of the table, scattered the
dishes far and wide. Then without pans-
ing she flung another stick against the
window, shattering a dozen panes.
Nathan was thunderstruck. His first
wife, twice as big and three times as noisy
as Jemima, had always sat breathlessly
by while he let his temper exhaust itself.
But the quiet Quaker woman who had so
meekly gone to the gate to receive her pro-
posal, SO sweetly accepted it and so gently
filled her place in her husbands home.
was changed into a fierce destroyer. Was
she made crazy by the excitement?
Sobered at the spectacle, the astonished
husband cried: What's the matter with
you, Jemima?'
Nothing, Nathan. / was only sharing
thy spree with thee. A wife should enter
with good heart into her husbands pleas
ures."
The astounded Nathan was not displeas-
ed by his wife's split. Perhaps, too, he
was fearful that ''sprees" shared by a wo-
man might prove too expensive. At any
rate, immediate reform began IN that long
ago family.
Under the care and good management of
Jemima, Nathan at last became a perfect
ly steady man, q devout church member,
and when be died, too lonely TO stay after
her departure, he left four hardy, God
fearing, temperate sons, an honor to his
honored name and to hers. From these
are descended all those Bruces who, fore
most in good word and work, have wrought
so well in their generations, and, remark
ably enough, there has never been a drink