St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-09-01

Could Aunt Jane be right? Would he
like to read and kneel with her to
pray?
Margarer Carter loved her hus.
band and loved her God but herlove,
like her Indian sha was hidden
carefully away, to be produced only
on great emergencies. Her religion
was of the kind which takes keen de-
| light in great theologic argument.
She thought, indeed, of the Almighty
as an immortal dogma 1t was not
the religion which would find vent
in snatches of fervent hymns or the
constant upward glancing of an eve
to a dear Father who never had
failed to hear her
Her lofty, righteous theory about
wifely duty and love would have
struck terror into a host of western
divorces. But as for running to meet
John when he came in or bothering
the cook about the seasoning of his
favorite dishes. or listening to his
mild jokes, she knew her place and
his place in creation quite too we'll
for any such folly. And, undoubted-
ly, Johns oft-repeated jokes were
tiresome and he was undeniablv fussv
about his food and he had childish,
loving temperament, that made him
happy when he was caressed and
humored, all of which traits palled
upon Margaret.
Nothing could have been more sim
pie or natural, when they were first
married, than for her to put her
Bible in his hand, asking him to read;
or for her to have drawn him down
with her as she knelt to pray. He
would have been glad to kneel and
find again the Father that he used to
know when he was child; for big
whiskered fellow that he was, he
was but boy and lonely boy, at
heart.
But as weeks passed into months
and months into years, it seemed inn
possible for her to do this
She put the thing at last out of her
thoughts. Life was long before
them. If John should be i'll, or lose
all OF his money, or any supreme mo-
ment like that should arrive, she
would bring her faith before him with
victorious effect. She would show
him then how Christian could en-
dure and triumph. But the years
logged on prosperous and dull; no
supreme moment came.
AS time passed there came between
them silence, not of words but of
thoughts and feelings. He probably
did not believe in love which is not
demonstrative. She had an older,
more masculine nature than his.
People who knew John we'll noticed
a gradual change in him. He had
been man full of gentle enthusiams
a man who gave and exacted much
kindness and affection. He had been
perhaps jealous and unreasonable in
this exaction; but he now grew slow
ly Indifferent and cynical to his
trends. There was a wistful look in
his eyes, like that of man who has
lost something out of his life which
he shall never find.
Occasionally he occupied a seat in
the pew which Mrs. Garter owned
IN the church in which she was an
energetic worker, and sometimes
the minister afterward, he
disputed his arguments good-humor-
eddy.
"a most interesting man! !" the rec
tor said to his wife one day. "Full
of keen perceptions and sensibilitiesI
wish we could draw him into the
church."
"Why do you not bring the subject
home to him ?"
Il do in the pulpit. as directly as 1 |
can. He is a man who would require
the tenderest touch. If his wife has |
been laboring in vain all these wears,
what can do?"
So happened, by these easy, natur-
al chances, that when John Carter
asst winter fell i'll and came down to
The edge of that outer darkness which
les so near to us all, nobody had
put into his hands the lamp which
would have lighted his way.
Mrs. Carter nursed him skillfullv.
It was not in intelligence nor energy
hat she failed. But the time came
when the consulting physician with
he usual grave gentle formula sug-
yested that eff there were any
matters of moment which Mr.. Car
-er should attend to? His will,
?"
THAT is done-it is not thati"
gasped Margaret. But must speak
% him. And he does not hear. He
les there in that hopeless stupor."
Its phase of the disease, madam,
IN alarming phase, to be candid"
Mrs. Carter hurried out of the
Dom.
II suppose" said the family doc
or, sit is his religious condition that
he is thinking of. Too late to open
Up that subject to poor Carter. His
'rain stopped working al hour ago."
Miss Tracy, who had helped to
Nurse John, met Margaret in the
lall
What is it? What have they told
7ou ?" she cried seeing her face.
He is dying. Don't touch me. l
60