The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-02-26
SERENA'S VISIT.
How She Accepted the Invitation
from Her Nephew.

Mrs. Serena Fry sat idly in the cal
ico-cushioned chair in the kitchen.
This fact, innocent at distant acquain-
lance, becomes startling to anyone
knowing well Mrs. Fry. A robust, in
dustrious farmers wife, her years,
growing fast to be numerous, sat light
ly upon her, and did not turn her for a
moment from her daily work, always
cheerily and faithfully and increasingly
performed. So long (ah! only the old
kitchen. with its yellow almanac lang
ing behind the stove and its fading.
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 re-
turned 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, rising
with her accustomed briskness, ''you
ought to be clean ashamed of yourself
If ever Satan got into anybody. it's
you. The idea of your sittin' idle. with
the work only half done. thinlsin'
about goia' to New York! 1t would be
bad enough eff everything was done up
Holidays amt for lazy folks, that's
certain" And even as she spoke, the
stove began to smile out in its usual
polished manner.
When the last bit of work had been
accomplished, and the old Bible, with
Joshua's spectacles on it, was awaiting
evening prayers from the lamp stand,
Mrs Fry sat down, and said:
IL had a letter to-day, Joshua"
You don't say!" said he, stopping in
the act of putting on his spcctacles,
"Erom John?"
No" said his wife: from Nephew
Joshua, in New York"
''You don't say!" said Joshua again.
"Do you want to read it aloud,
S'rena?"
"a would, butt burnt it up. There
want nothin' secret in it, and knew
right afterwards what thing it was to
do before you'd seen it, but someway
it didn't seem as if twas right to keep
It."
Not right, S'rena? Has Joshua been
ioin' anythin'?'
mo, indeed" said his wife, hastily.
''Twas real nice letter. | noticed
particular that he signed his name
Joshua 5. Fry as if to kind O. remind
himself that he was named after you.
1t amt worth speakin' of, but it was
printed j. Sylvester on the enuelope. -
II amt mite surprised" said
Joshua, with a kindly smile. Its a
sight handsomer name. But what did
he say?"
ale wanted me to come to New
York." said Mrs. Frye; and for her life
she could not have said word more.
Her husband waited moment in
silence, and then he spoke again: ITO
stay, S'rena?"
Joshua Fry, how you talk! He
amt quite a fool. To make a visit y
Serena let these short sentences shoot
out from her lips as though they were
loaded. "lie said he an Susie had
beer wantin' me for 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 secin' I'd never been to New
York, he did hope I'd come. An he
sent me a railroad pass"
Ibid you burn that up, too?" asked
Joshua; but as he spoke he noticed il
for the first time lying by the Bible,
and he leaned forward to read it Once
and again did he examine the innocent
document, and still turned it over in
his hand when his eyes were looking,
rs it were, far away.
For five-and-twenty years Il 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 in faithful
common toll. They were not only un-
complaining, but happy.
AS Joshua sat thinking these things,