Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-05-19
Suppose I 1uas to qtve e tea part1rF''


 compiected as a lemon"
 Mrs. Whitcumb intimated that her nights were bad. She was suffering from a new tangled disease called 'tin- sonny" The Bath farm was lonely place, with no very near neighbors, and she had come away for change of scene and to see something of life.
 As it turned out, not many people called on Mrs. Whitcumb, and no one for the first day or two except Miss Forbes, a weedy woman, who wore a deprecating set smile that looked as if it had been painted on. Miss Forbes was on the church social committee, and it was part of her duty to visit strangers. Ann showed her into the dining room and opened the inside wooden shutters just a crack to let in a thin stream of daylight. Miss Forbes call was not very exhilarating, and Mrs. Whitcumb tacitly acquiesced in Ann's judgment that it was not worth while to open the parlor for her. The formidable room was not opened therefore until one day when Ann by mistake showed in book agent to the subduing gloom of the place and called Mrs. Whitcumb down stairs. It was rather painful incident for the book agent, who was shown to the door with scant ceremony.
 In confidential chat with Ann, Mrs. Whitcumb let fall a hint of her surprise that the neighbors seemed slow about coming in. Ann opined, as she prepared baked squash and scalloped tomato for dinner, that they were getting their chil- dren ready for school, and putting up fruit and vegetables for winter use. Mrs. Martha was restive. She had brought a new silk gown, that rattled as she walked with the stiffness of sheet | tin, and her best bonnet had been trimmed over for fall with high nod ding red flowers in front. There was | jet trimming on the silk that had been put on almost entirely with view to social calls and the invitations to tea she was to receive in Littlefield.
 It was therefore awkward for Mrs. Martha that she had arrived in town ] at slack time for entertaining, when the summer languors were hardly over and the fall stimulus and energy had not awakened. There are always periods of social stagnation in village life, when the neighbors do not care to see much of each other, or to entertain strangers. Then kind of dreary wondering reigns, and the brisk emulation of "tea fights'' and receptions is not known. Mrs. Martha had lighted down on one of these waste and barren places, and it looked, after three or four days of stagnation, very much as if the new black silk with its bead trimming and the red arti6cials would be wasted on the desert air. She had gone to church on Sunday in all her | glory, and had been greeted with few mods and smiles from old acquaintances, but it was communion Sunday, and Mrs. 1 Whitcumb did not commune, and there was but little opportunity for gossip and inquiries on the church steps after meet ing.
 To be sure, Mrs. Wood had called in | greeting across the road to her. The Woods were all rather noisy, out-of- door kind of folk, and fulfilled most of their social duties over gates and fences. The house was so near she could catch the drip of conversation from the win dow, for the family all had shrill, high voices. It was edifying to hear Angie Wood, though the country was suffering from long dry time, express the wish that the rain might hold off until after Sunday to allow her to wear her new dress to church. But Mrs. Whitcumh was not even amused by the thought oi the upper spheres obeying Miss Angles wish relative to her new gown. She had often put up the same petition to the weather god in reference to her crops, and the thought had never oc- cured to her that it was in the least un. reasonable.
 There was tennis court at the side ot the Wood mansion, and Mrs. Whitcum1 found 8 certain resource in watching the play. "Mintie's beau" came ovel every afternoon except Sunday, and il seemed as though the Woods were hold ing public festival for the benefit oi the neighborhood. Miss Mayhew di6 not spend much time with her sister-in law. After family affairs had beer talked over they did not seem to have very much to say to each other, and gradually the invalid faded out of ob servation. At first it was one of hel s'bad spells" that confined her to hel bed for two or three days, and then sht continued to take her meals in her owI room, passing from the bed to the couch Her chair by the sitting room window was empty, and the school childreI missed her nod and smile as they passed by.
 The whole house was open to Sistei Martha, all but this shaded room, anG when she knocked there the door wa sometimes locked and there was no re sponse. Ann cooked her best dishes foI : the visitor, who, rather than take then alone, ate with her in the neat kitchen
 Mrs. Whitcu1nb did not mind eating : with Ann. She always shared he
 meals with her own 'helps at home, bu laor risit on fhe whole wss turning nu Inrtf okot4 661 fSffd her Ii