Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-06-16
MRS. GRANTS TROUBLE.

Hers was such common trouble,
so insignificant to relate, and had
such strong flavor of the ridiculous
withal that no one thought of the
tragic element it possessed. She was
growing stout She had always
been prettily plump, but in the fifteen
years which had elapsed since her
wedding day she had gained flesh so
steadily yet so imperceptibly that she
had never realized her increasing
weight. She might never have done
SO but for the chance remark of a
careless friend, who told her that an
other acquaintance, wishing to dis
tinguish her from her sister-in-law,
had spoken Of her as "the stout Mrs.
Grant" What me?" she had eX-
claimed, and her friend had remarked
smilingly: "Weil, you are u little
stout, you know" The poor woman
made no answer, but when she
reached home she went straight to
her room ana studied herself in the
long mirror. Yes, there was no
doubt of it, she bai grown stout.
From that day she began to be
sen tive about her weight, and con-
sequently she frequently heard Cor
thought she did, sighting remarks
about it. One evening her husband
told her that it was harder TO en-
brace her than it had been ten years
before, and her little boy added:
"Yes, and mammals chair is getting
too small for her, too" meaning the
little rocker her husband had given
her on her 1irst married birthday
Somehow the remark stung her, and
for the first time in his life the child
was told mot TO talk so much. y
Both husband and child were sur
prised, for how could they know how
she suffered every time her growing
size was mentioned? Not even the
pang which she, in common with all
her sex, had felt when she first heard
herself spoken of as "still young"
had been half so sharp as this later
one. Another time her least little
girl. the baby, hearing her aunt and
grandma discuss the subject
in her mothers absence, asked
her: "ls you goin' to
be big like Aunt Sukey (the colored
washerwoman), mammal" She shed
bitter tears over that innocent ques-
ton; and when, her dressmaker, who
had fitted her ever since she had
worn Iong dresses, told her that ''she
wasn't as easy to fit as she used TO
be-" something very much like de-
spair entered her soul She was full
of life strong, well and only SO, yet
she felt herself relegated to the ranks
of the "frumps" every time she
thought of herself as stout And
there was no hope for her of course;
her grandmother had died at the age
of 80 years, but she had been an un-
wieldy burden to herself for the last
twenty years of her life. To be sure
her form was still good, her skin
fresh and sweet, her hair abundant
and glossy, and her hands and feet
slender; but then, all these charms
would go. Of course, and she would
grow red-faced and clumsy.
She felt as if her heart would
break. Once she limited something
of her trouble to her husband. but,
man-like, he laughed at her for
''making mountains out of MOLE
hills" and his ridicule hurt her so
much she hardly noticed his affec-
Tomato assurances that she was not
really too stout at all. With her
v,nnthnr ~ Tho afn1
the family doctor told her he thought
it was constitutional, and he could do
little to help her. even if she grew
to need his assistance, which at pres
ent she did not Then she tried
dieting, but she only grew weak, and
her wedding dress (Which she had
tried on regularly ever since she had
begun to worry over her size) still
refused to meet. much less fasten.
And when her last hope had failed,
she shut up her trouble in her own
heart and-grew morbid.
BY degrees she took less and less
trouble with her personal appear
ance, for what did it matter how she
looked or If her clothes were stylish,
when she grew stouter every day.
Then her sunny temper fed, and.
though she never became actually
ill-tempered, she was often sad and
unlike herself. The children began
to be silent IN her presence, and her
husband went oftener to the club
nights. 'to get some one TO talk to, 4"
he said All these changes she laid
at the door of her "cruel deformity. -
as she bitterly termed it, and life
seemed TO her TO have lost nearly all
its joys. Even the pretty. soft voice
which her friends had so enjoyed
and gloried in did not seem the
same, for she continually thought of
the fast-coming time when it would
grow husky, and she would have
trouble with her breathing. Be-
sides. how could she stand up and
sing for people when she knew they
were smiling at her large waist.
Soon she ceased TO go into society at