Middletown transcript., 1891-03-19
A LATE TEMPTATION.
BY ELIZABETH CUMMINGS.

" Ii We nau b Httl6 mOlO no
spend, / think, Mrs. Westwood, !
would buy myself new wig;" and
the Rev. Jonathan Westwood paused
in his labor of dusting, and looked
inouiringly at his wife who was seed
ing raisirs in the next room.
at is DID," admitted that lady,
looking sharply at the article in ques-
tion over her spectacles. :" have
grown SO used to it ! have not noticed
It as ought. Why did you not speak
OF it before l took my silk to Miss
JAY? i shall have to pay her two
dollars, and if that will not buy a
wig it will count"
9 You did quite right to have your
gown improved, my dear, tho it was
born in upon my mind when / last
saw it, that a little new material Is
necessary at certain intervals to keep
a lady's wardrobe up to the mark, /"
and Mr.. Westwood chuckled to him
self. aI only spoke Professionally
about wig. What man needs and
what he wants, are different matters. !"
GA wig may not be necessary to
your existence, but it is to your decent
appearance" said Mrs. Westwood (.
who liked to set her husband right in
minor affairs Z" and decent appear
ance is q duty. Indeed, I think there
is a consolation in good appearance
not to be found in anything else.'
The old gentleman resumed his
dusting, and the newspapers and
dictionary heard him sigh and knew
his mind was troubled. Father West
wood as he was usually called, was in
his eighty-third year. When '34 ht
had graduated from Kingston Univer
sity his hair was a bright auburn.
When be bought wig he naturally
selected auburn. It was Of course .
wlglike auburn, art not being quitt
equal to Nature. His hair had never
contained white thread. His wig
in the twenty years or more that b,
had worn it, had not covered an ole
feeling. But his life had not beer
easy. Most men at his years ant
with his experience behind them
would feel as old as Methuselah.
When he and Ruth Ann went ives
in '38 their friends expostulated
!" You are not fitted for the life o
people you will find in The northwest,
they argued. But Jonathan persist
ed that he was called to the hom
mission field, and as Ruth Ann tel
called to 90 with him, after lon
journey, part Of which Ruth Ann en-
dured in a crockery crate we'll flle'
with prairie grass, the two set U
| housekeeping in small western ham
let called Tammasset. If they eve
regretted their undertaking no on
knew it. In time they went to othe
little places, being missionaries, an
worked hard, denying themselve
:" like good soldiers" Six childre
were born to them, and six littl
mounds in the Tammasset burying
ground were all they had to comtol
their old age. But with all their sell
denials, and crosses, and losses, the
had both preserved certain youth
fnlness difficult to describe. Bot
had beautiful manners. Fathe
Westwood was as courteous to Rut
Ann as be was in the days Of b
courtship. 1t hurt his romantic ol
heart to hear of a woman's secon
marriage. It was perhaps excusab
in man who had a family Of chil
dren to bring up. But a woman
1t was unseemly in his opinion for
woman to marry more than once. ID
observed Ruth AIMS birthdays.
| he could not do more he gave her
a nosegay. As for Ruth Ann. peop
said she was big feeling" and tn
she treated her husband just as If
were company. At seventy eight 81
still loved pretty bonnets, and new
had permitted herself to appear be
fore her husband with an uncombt
head. Time had contented himse
with only fading her soft, light hal
2 Her step was as elastic as ever, al
till ten years before the date OF Il
events about to be related she hs
thought OF herself and her Jonath'
as middle-aged. When she owe
heard the senior deacon at Scoda'
telling the junior deacon that Faith
Westwood was getting too old to j
terest the young people, and N
Geggy, the junior deacon had r
Piled II think myself we need
man more in sympathy with 7
modern trend Of thought" she h
| nearly tainted. But she did not.
g would have betrayed her. lnste
she bravely forestalIed the action
the dissatisfied deacons, and persua
ed her husband to invest the +
hundred dollars they had BY sol
with-craft saved out of their half-ps
salary in tiny cottage in the OF
}, skirts Of Tamasset, now grown Ct
with water-works, electric lights a
a mayor.
The board of ministerial rel
granted him a stipend Of 5000 year
the best they could do, and so W
did the two old people divide the 81
among the mosaic Of their needs,
one thought Of them as poor. Me-
favor did they ask or receive q
more than did their neighbor, Jue
y Bassett, who was worth most q n