Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-11-30
TOM WINSTON'S VOW.

hangs over your house know that 1t IS
NINE" Tom Winston said to Theo
Thorpe the day the latter brought home
his young wife, Lucy Lane
Theo only answered:
I'D be sorry to believe that, Tom, and
some day you'll be thankful to remem-
Der that the curse causeless shall not
come
And then he went quickly into his
mill
The millers cottage stood in a verdant
hollow beside the millpond, where APP
plies. plums, peach and cherry trees ran
down the sunny slope in front and hon
eysuckle clambered up the walls to deck
them with russell perfume, while up on
the windy hill across the pond stood Tom
Winston's house, with never tree to
shelter it from the winter storms nor
flower to drape its bare walls, nor
womans face to warm its cold hearth
stone and chase away the black shadows
from about Toms heart.
None but little baby Maysie, the two
year-old child of sister Bessie. whom
folks said he had loved with no common
love. His gloomy face softened to none
but MaYsie, and perhaps he would have
forgiven Lucy easier had it not been that
Bessie's baby wanted IL mother so badly.
"I'll get the bette of him yet" vowed
Tom, shaking his fist at the blue smoke
curling up from the Enllow, on the even
ing Of that homecoming. My curse.
bitter and everlasting, on bed and hearth,
and every stick and stone belonging to
Theo Thorpe!
f., = how.
old lover was going about vOwing VEN
geance, she laughed in gay defiance, and
declared that twenty Tom Winstons
would not brighten her
At the same time she looked with
quite a new interest from under her
lashes ut Tom when sometimes she en-
countcrcd him on the road as if she
would have said,
lis the hart so very bad, Tom"
But Tom seemed to be stone blind as
he passed on his side of the way Lucy
was very pretty and foolhardy, and So
well, being Il woman, she set herself to
conquer him
One day she came home with her bas-
kct full Of wild berries, and her black
hair was full Of corn flowers, and burst
ing open the old mill door, she stood in
the stream Of sunshine, with her hazel
eyes full Of triumph and her merry. care
less face full Of laughing dilnpleS
"What do you think" cried she, dane
ing on her little feet. Il met Tom Win
!&on and that baby up the wood, and
made Tom speak to me. and | just up
and told him what mean, cnviOus fell
low he was, and how for all his ugly
+lro,+, i,, rs
bone Of my body"
"HOu told him that" exclaimed Theo
yes; and he looked hard at me, and
said that was true; and then we shook
hands on it, and took the baby"
"Now, don't know anything that
could please me so much as that" said
Theo earnestly. TO hear of Tom com
ing round, and by your means, dearl
But nobody could withstand you"
This was Il beginning of truce be-
tween the house on the hill and the
house in the hollow. Tom did not thaw
very percpptibly toward Theo, but he
did become quite cordial with Lucy.
Indeed, to Theo's heartfelt satisfaction,
he would sometimes hear from Lucy
that Tom and the child had been at the
| house those evenings that he happened
to be in town with his loads Of flour.
And soon Lucy used to go up to Tom S
house and take Maysie down to spend
| the day with her, and never did she look
more winsomc in her young husbands
eyes than when sitting under the apple
trees with the child on her lap.
The first year passed. y tiny, name
less grave was in the churchyard, and a
little face, never seen in life. was cher
| ished in Theo's loving heart
"Ah, no, Toms curse couldn't hurt
u.s." Theo had answered in humble faith,
while his Lucy in her illness and sorrow
had muttcred with fevered reiteration:
elf it hadn't been for him--if it hadn't
been for him."
Lucy was in the cornfelds again pluck.
ing the scarlet peoples and the blue corn
flowers, and she chung to little Maysie
more than ever.
"What comfort she is" Theo would
say, as he watched his wife's xad face
glow into brightness at the sound oil
Maysies prattle land how | tha1ls Tom
for lending her so often to u.s."
Words like these often made pool
Lucy weep as she carried the child alone
still alone-tO the house on the hill.
1t was the anniversary of their we'd
ding day, aud Theo was Fastening home
from his days business in town earlier
than usual to honor the day by present.
ing his wife with pretty gift and Their
take her over to spend the evening at his
fathers.
No Lucy standing in the rose girdlet
porch to welcome him. So much the
| better. He could turn the horse into the
pasture and write her name in the pres
ent before she would dream he had come
home and hasten back from her ramblt
with Maysie.
Going into the kitchen Theo I'm
wrapped his present-a pretty little
Bible, in scarlet Russian leather, will
mother, of-pearl back-and wrote care
fully on the fly leaf:
ITO my dear wife, from Theo He
ways are ways of pleasantness and al