The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-01-06
JOE GRANTrS MISTAKE.

days that Milly Ainsworth met Joe
Grant at the commencement exercises
at Elmwood Academy. She was as
pretty as most graduates are, in dainty
white muslin and azure ribbons, and the
position she filled on the days pro-
Cramme spoke we'll for the interior of
the little golden head; yet at the first
wave of Joe Grants hand she became
his willing slave.
1t is one of the problems of life that
/ have neither time nor ability to solve,
why a woman of average intelligence
three times out of five marries man
several degrees below her mentally, and
then attempts the impossible feat of
looking up to him, accepting his deci-
sions on all matters as infallible.
Within three months of that bright
june day, NIilly had become Mrs.
Joseph Grant, number two-for Joe
was widower, who had lost his wife
some two years beforehand found a
house ready furnished according to the
taste of Mrs. Grant, number one. As
she was sensible little body, the fact
of another's having selected her furni-
ture did not render it worthless to her,
! so long as the articles themselves were
not Objectionable.
AIilly had fallen so irretrievably in
love that it was a long time before she
regained her mental equilibrium suffi-
GENTLY to really understand just what
kind of a bargain she had made matri-
monially. The fact was, like most
schoolgirls, she had an ideal in her fool
ish little head-foolish in spite of her
proficiency in language and mathe-
matics-and that ideal she blindly
worshipped under the guise of Joe
Grant
Now Joe was narrow and mean, but
handsome as Greek god is supposed
to have been. and Miily gave him de-
votion that better men would give their
lives for but seldom receive for your
really good men are rarely mated with
women who appreciate them. Perhaps,
however, this is fortunate, for if very
good men mated with the very good.
and the very bad with the very bad,
the next generation would stand q fair
chance of being angels or demons in.
stead of average human beings, as they
ale at present.
AIilly found her greatest annoyance
in Joe's propensity to habitually refer
to his first wife. No matter how earn
eatiy she tried to please him his lost
Alice had invariably done better; and
poor Milly cried herself to sleep many
ii night because she felt that she could
never i'll the place in Joe's heart that
his first wife had filled. Joe was by
nature tyrannical, and finding that q
reference to the dear departed" would
goad Milly to almost superhuman eff
tort to please him, he rarely let an op
portunity pass, until the child learned
10 hate the name of Alice.
Occasionally the idea would suggest
itself to her that it was anything but
manly to so family praise her best ef
forts and to quench all the light and
hope in her heart. Yet, though she
began to dimly perceive that not only
the feet of her idol but the most of his
anatomy was clay, she remained very
| laltllIul Ill uer dlleSlanco.
Any one who had known Milly in hel
girlhood would hardly have recognized
her after she had been Joe Grants wifi,
for five years. Not that he had eve
struck or starved her, but she had ivet
so long in an atmosphere of chill ani
repression that a weary, worn ou
woman had taken the place of the
bright, gentle girl who had so trust
insly laid her hand in Joe's and prom
ised to love. honor aud obey.
Right faithfully had she kept he
VOW, and but for one little mistake OIL
Joe's part would probably have con
timed his abject slave till her body, a
well as soul, was worn out in the un
eIual contest, when she would hav,
lain down quietly in the churchyart
AMI left him to sing her praises t.
number three. But fate had rod il
pickle for Joe, and Milly's emancipation
was at hand,
She was going, one morning, to vii
lage some three miles away, to do SOM
trading; she intended to be absent TO
several hours, and visit some friends
but that day Joe, as if grudging he
even that pleasure, said;
Don't go to Lamars' and stay half
day gossiping You can just as well ge
your groceries at Hamlin's, at the enc
of the village, My poor lost Alic'
thought it sinful to waste time in idl,
gossip"
Milly was buying sugar and coffe
with as much care as if her life de
pended on the selection, for if tn
flavor was no. % her lords taste sh