The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-03-29
ALFRED'S PIPE.

do not feel out the truth as women do
They trust to their senses and their rea
son, and therefore women cheat them
at is the dear mans own fault,
Charlotte Hubbell had said to hersel
when she was young wife, "and he
shall never know that dislike it."
For more than forty years she haG
lovingly deceived him. After supper
she would bring his slippers and hi:
pipe and he, stupid lover, would puf
and toast his feet and say and feel:
"Here is peace that passeth under
standing"
Then he would look up into the
lightly curling smoke and try to think
how miserable he should be if he haC
found wife whose tastes were not thu:
suited to his own. And would lay hel
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 q
man and family caught the odor of hi:
freshly lighted cigar. She rather liked 1t
"If Alfred would smoke cigars !' she
thought.
Shyly she laid away spare money un.
til she had enough. Then one day she
called the judgment of friend into
service, and that evening she brought
the slipper and box of choice cigars
Her husband took her in his arms
and blessed here for her thoughtfulness
"Always thinking of my pleasure" he
said. "But, sweetheart, you should
have purchased something for yourself
instead. The pipe is good enough fol
me-"
Nothing but the best is good enough
tor you," she said, honestly and proudly
She had really forgotten that she had
bought the cigars for herself.
"You precious woman !" he replied,
still holding ber in his arms, and there
in sweet, deep silence they drank the
joy that blesses only such immortal
souls as merge thus, two in one.
"But, my darling" he at length con-
tinued, 81 am not going to smoke these
cigars. They are too choice, too ex,
pensive. | cannot afford such luxurles.
We will keep them for special occa-
slons, when our friends come to see us.
The old pipe is good enough for me. j"
He thought he had said 1t 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
an extravagant habit, unless indulgence
of a generous nature be extravaganza.
He was a furrier with we'll established
trade, but he was honest and charitable,
and these two qualities are seldom
united with that other quality which
piles up fortunes. Yet he was content
and his wife was content, and after ali
contentment is the only real wealth.
only pipe Is the only luxury l wish, :"
he said.
ellis pipe is his only vice." said she.
When he had his smoke in the even
ing 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 clung to one un-
til it was so saturated with tobacco oil
its odor was unspeakable.
The children of the neighborhood
had learned to love her and call her
"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. Ex-
perience alone can know the thrill OF
motherhood, the purifying sorrow OF Its
loss. She was everybody's gran'ma
now that she was and ever must be
nobody's.
When the financial panic swept like
a blight over the county the furriers
were the first to feel its damning breath.
When economy becomes necessary to
men accustomed to the luxuries, they
buy more wine, they go oftener to the
theatre, they get faster and costlier
| horses ; these are the diverting iphu-
ences that keep their minds turned
from their troubles. But 1t IS the wo-
men who support the furriers, and wo-
men suffer losses in another way-a
harder and braver way. Man runs
away from sorrow woman faces 1t and
bears it. He fees and frlghtens 1t with
laughter she stays and welcomes it
with tears. He spends she saves.
Mr.. Hubbell now passed his evenings
down town. The presence of the men
he met inspired him with the courage
he felt he soon should need, for men
are brave only in groups. Pride is the
bravery of man.
When the sheriff put his paddock on
the Hubbell store the proprietor felt
better, more at ease. The worst had
come. The agony of expectation, at
least, was at an end. Then, too, he
had been providing against this situa-
ton, and had engaged Professionally
with wealthy Eastern house to 60 to
Hudson Bay and sp md the winter buy
ing furs for 1t. Gran'ma, too, had been
prepared for this. She had wept in
secret over the dread prospect, and
bravely smiled when he was near. Ii
was their first parting.
"And he so old and feeble and ac-
customed to his home," she sadly
thought 81 iear-I fear.
sThe trip will do you good" she