The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-06-17
miscellaneous.
ASUNDER.
BYR. MACDONALD ALDEN.

Is.
Harpcr's Weekly.
Mrs. Serena Fry sat idle in the calico
cushioned chair in the kitchen. This
fact, innocent at distant acquaintance,
becomes startling to any one knowing
well Mrs. Fry. A robust, industrious
farmers wife, her years, growing fast
to be numerous, sat lightly upon her,
and did not turn her for moment
from her daily work, always cheerily
and faithfully and increasingly per-
formed. So long (ah only the old
kitchen, with its yellow almanac
hanging behind the stove, and its fad
ing dull yellow floor, knew how long
had she on every afternoon gone
about the same round of duties, from
the time when Joshua left the dinner
table to the hour when he returned
from the field, that it was much more
easy to go on with them than it
could have been to pause. Yet there
she sat idly in the old rocker, the stove
half polished, and the brush on the
hearth, while the sun was giving his
last wink above the red barn on the
hill Besides, her usually CHEEKY face
was clouded-not with anger or sor-
row, but with deep perplexity.
Serena she said of sudden, rls-
ing with her accustomed briskness,
''you ought to be clean ashamed of
Yourself. If ever Satan got into any
body, it's YOU. The idee of your sittin'
idle, with the work only half done,
thinkin' about goin' to New York
1t would be bad enough if everything
was done up. Holidays amt for lazy
folks, that's certain" And even as
she spoke, the stove began to smile
out in it's usual polished manner.
When the last bit of work had been
accomplished, and the old Bible, with
Joshua's spectacles on it, was await
ing evening prayers from the lamp
stand, Mrs. Fry sat down, and said
II had letter to-day, Joshua.
"You don't say ~ said he, stopping
in the act of putting on the spectacles.
From John p
NO said his wife from Nephew
Joshua in New York"
"You don't say p said Joshua again.
"Do you want to read it aloud,
S'rena 2"
Il would, but l burnt it up. There
want nothin' secret in it, and knew
right afterwards what a thing it was
to do before you d seen it ; but some
way it didn't seem as if twas right to
keep it. -"
Not right, S'rena? Has Joshua
been dom anythin'?'
mo, indeed" said his wife, hastily.
'And twas a real nice letter. no
ticed particular that he signed his
name Joshua s. Fry as if to kind o
remind himself that he was named
after you. 1t amt worth speal<in' of,
but it was printed j. Sylvester on
the envelope
Il amt a mite surprised said
Joshua, with a kindly smile. Its a
sight handsomer name. But what
did he say ?"
"He wanted me to come to New
York said Mrs. Fry and for her life
she could not have said IL word more.
Her husband waited moment i'll
silence, and then he spoke. ITO stay,
S'rena p
Joshua Fry, how you talk He
amt quite fool. TO make a visit. "
Serena let these short sentences shoot
out from her lips as though they were
loaded. He said he an Susie had
been wantin' me for a long time, an
he thought could be spared from the
farm now as well as any time, SEEM
he remembered the haydn must be
over an SEEM I'd never been to New
York, he did hope I'd come An he
sent railroad pass"
Did you burn that up too ~ asked
Joshua but as he spoke, he noticed
it for the first time lying by the Bible,
and he leaned forward to read 1t.
Once and again did he examine the
innocent document, and still turned it
over in his hand when his eyes were
looking as it were far away.
For five and-twenty years u said
only the old kitchen knew how long,
but bribed it to tell mel had Joshua
and Serena Fry lived together and
worked together without separation
or holiday. Their welded love was of
the old-fashioned sort, and dwelt not
in many words, as it began not with a
wedding tour, but thrived i'll faithful
common toll. They were not only I'M
complaining, but happy.
AS Joshua sat thinking these things,
the sudden invitation of his blother's
boy. who had before shown his kindly
remembrance of the old farmhouse
where he used to come for suWmer
frolics, brought no pang with it's half
told tale of the difference between life
in Green's Corners and life in the hur-
rying city The meadow paths, with
their winged or creeping citizens, We're
Farmer Fry's happy estate, and the
yellow-hoored kitchen his inner heart 5
home. 1t is for this reason that /
most want his swift appreciation OF
his wife's feeling to be felt and prais-
ed. Had the coming of Nephew
Joshua's letter been foretold to him,
he would have expected Serena to
read it cheerfully, and talk over with
him the best way of sending their
thanks for the invitation, and of tell
ing how impossible it was for either of
them to leave the farm. He knew
now from her halfeXcited manner,
from the fact that she had burned the
letter as though it broughtsubtlc temp
tation to wrong, perhaps from stray
sentence which he had once read
about the hidden desires and discon-
tents in the minds of farmers wives,
that the invitation had come to Serena
like a window opened into another
life, and that she had faithfully tried
and was still trying to close it.
There came with his thoughts nc
bitterness or indecisiOn. Serena must
go to New York. The farm and he
could put up without her for a week
or more he thought if she had borne