The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-16

sun continued to rise and set on Reuben
Marsh, and still Mrs. Marsh hectored
him from morning to night, and occa-
sionally reminded him of what mother
suffered in the loss Of a child. She said
she s'posed a father had some feelings,
but how could father know a mothers
heart?
Evidently there was no answer to this
question. Certainly Mr.. Marsh attempt
ed to give none.
Mrs. Marsh talked great deal to her
husband and to the neighbors generally
about the fact that all her children had
been born without any constitutions.
She didn't know why it was, for all her
folks were made of iron. She often in
quired how it was that child with no
constitution at all could be expected to
live. She told Reuben it was too much
to ask She gave every one to under
stand that Reuben seemed to believe
their children ought to live, but she knew
they couldn't.
AS the years went by she made Mr..
Marsh keep those little graves, and their
headstones, and their lettering of dor
india, daughter of Reuben and Dorinda
Marsh" more and more ''trigged up"
When Mr.. Marsh way not at home nor
at the store it was well known that he
must be ''to the cemetr'y triggin' up
them graves"
1t was one mild day in winter that
Mr.. Marsh put on his overcoat and his
rubber boots. He said he was going
down to the store and guessed he should
just stop in at the graveyard before he
came home. The hill sloped to the
south there, and it was warm and sunny,
almost like spring day.
The man had it in his mind that there
was just chance that some snowdrops
might be blossomed, or at least budded.
But if he should find a bloom he was
not so crazy, he told himself, as to take
it to his wife, who would only consider
it as some kind of Glitter" He should
stop at the store, as he said, and he
should probably see Tom Ryder's for
lorn little girl shivering about, and he
should give the flower to her. Then her
small, pinched face would suddenly
! tighten, and she would smile in that ra-
diant way that always went like knife
! to Reuben Marsh's heart. He wondered
if any of those Dorindies, if any had
lived, would have had such face and
such smile as that. II they ''took
after" their mother they surely would
| not.
Once after Mr.. Marsh had seen this
transformation take place in the face of
Tom Ryder's daughter when she had re-
ceived a kindness he had ventured to
speak about her to his wife, with wild
hope in the bottom of his heart that they
might adopt Ryder's child, for Ryder
was only drunken wretch whose wife
had long since died of broken heart
and too much work.
Mrs. Marsh made it very plain indeed
to her husband that she had no opinion
whatever of that nasty Belle Ryder
Mr.. Marsh had fallen into his ordinary
home mood of dull, cowed silence. He
sat with his slippered feet On their wood
en- cricket, and hung his head, pulling
his beard slowly and wondering what he
was living for.
He supposed men never hated their
wives. He supposed there was no man
in the world whose wife was such good
cook, who kept her husbands clothes SO
well mended and so clean as D'rindy
did, but he said plainly to himself that
"he'd ruther be logged than to be where
she was"
Often, as he sat there pulling his
beard and watching D'rindy as she made
everything painfully clean, he told him
self that he must have been even moro
of a fool than most young men to have
fallen in love with a girl who could turn
out to be such woman as that He
also asked of his own soul how it would
be with him if it were possible for
man to hate his wife
When he walked slowly through the
mud of the main street he was conscious
that there was more than the ordinary
bitterness in his heart He stamped
down his heavy feet with an air Of bra
vado when he reached the store. He
took in large quantity of mud, and he
talked so loud and spat so emphatically
that the storekeeper winked at the man
next to him, and said in a whisper that
Drindy must have been carryin' an I'M
common high hand with Reuben that
day.
But for all this extra swagger Mr.
Marsh was aware that he was greatly
depressed. 1t did not seem to exhilarate
him to have his heels on the stove. He
did not understand himself today, and
he left the store much earlier than was
his custom. One of the men actually
got up from his broken backed chair and
went TO the window to watch the re-
treating figure.
Something or others the matter of
Reub Marsh" he said pityingly. Il
never seen him miss his aim Aspirin be-
fore, n he missed it every time today"
The storekeeper was chopping of a
piece of tobacco. He nodded his head.
He said he was sorry for Reub. He
sposed he was goin' up to them graves
now. He hoped it want wicked. but he
did think 'twould be jest as well if there
was a sixth grave in that row and
D'rindy was laying in it. For his part
he'd like TO help trig up D'rindy MarSh's
grave, whether twas wicked or not.
Then they fell to talking about Tom
Ryder, and of the fact that he had been
gone week, nobody knew where, on a
worse spree than ever.
Il guess they'll have to take the little
one to the poorhouse this time, and no
mistake. Somebody ought to speak to
the selectmen, n have her seen TO-"
Mr.. Marsh walked on mechanically I'D