The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1894-06-30
u LAFAYETTE, La, SATURDAY, JUNE 80, 1894.

at home nights and Sundays. but oh,
the blcssedness Of being screened from
a busy world on hot Sunday afternoons,
when he sat behind the shru bbery UNI
der the broad sheltering trees, and,
yes, though they had been married SO
long. made love to his silver-haircd
wife! #E
Dear" she said, softly. on one of
these occasions, ''why could we not
have city water put in our house? It
would save SO much strength
NO water like that from the old
well" he replied, and enlarged upon it
for some time e1oquently. Besides, it
would tear up things, and we are SO
peaceful and serene that I should dread
the general Disturbance
Again, being left without q servant
for several days. she said, pleasantly,
VIC had gas in the old home, rs in your
handsome tenements. The cleaning of
SO many lamps every morning would
become unnecessary"
."I hate gas Ii ght," he exclaimed.
Nothing like nice. well shaded kero-
scne lampsI' @-~- s.-.--s----a- $500. ~ '-
He did not have to keep them in
order, and suddenly thinking SO. he
added. considerably, Don't light 80
many, my dearest You sec we'd have
to have q long spell of tearing up to
get the pipes in, aud it would be .
nuisance. besides destroying much of
the wall paper, etc. that we are at
''Yes. that is so. " said Mrs. Van Dyke
meekly. But the very next day, in
spite of her lame muscles, she drew
three pals OF water, pumped five,
cleaned eight lamps, picked Aeveral
quarts of berries. and cooked meals for
&~., A.
Dykes, who had arrived for q weeks
visit
There was not. literally, q single fca-
ture of the old home which Mr.. Van
Dyke enjoyed that did not tax the ply
steal endurance of his so greatly loved
wife. The light, the water, the shade,
the privilege Of entertaining his friends
were all pleasurable to him. But If he
had for one day had all the water to
draw and pump, all the lamps to care
for. all the berries to pick, all the meals
to prepare, perhaps he would have
said: Let us have modern conven-
fences, no matter at what cost or saori-
fee" For he loved Mrs Van DYKE de.
votedly. .--.-.--.
But this is not to be a long story. 1t
is merely an argument to provo how
devotcdly Andrew Van Dyke did love
his wife.
She was terribly shocked one day
"HCh nc WAS l<llIcO a runaway aCC1.
dent. More than one cOnsoling and
sympathetic voice reached her after the
funeral services were over: You have
lost n devoted husband
''Ah, yes, indeed l have,'' said Mrs.
Van Dyke. sincerely, as she copiouslr
wcpt.
You have one great source of con-
fort. He is gone now, but when here
he loved you devotedly."
Oh. yes, devotedly," she murmured.
In a little less than two weeks, and
while her eyes were still fearful, and
she seemed to be plunged into a state
of most hopeless grief, Mrs. Van Dyke
den, clad in deep black, and resting he,
rheumatic figure against n large tree
She was saying: ''You may leave thir
one. Cut down all the Others"
few days later. many workmeI
were busy. for water pipes and gae
pipes and bathrooms and a solariun,
were occupying their attention..
. There was a grand transformation.
In a few weeks the old house was
flooded with sunlight. Mrs. Van Dyke
was as com Portable at least a. her mar
ried daughters in their mc,lern resi-.
dences. or as her husbands country
cousins who had enjoyed modern i'm
proVements for ten years in advance of
her, or as the tenants who paid her
high rents for their luxuries, not know
ing that anyone else had the right to
collect. In the midst of her new bless
ings she heard such sentences as the
following: ''Oh. grandma, how beau
TRULY you have arranged every thing!
How nice not to have any more Jumps
to clean and no more water to draw
and everything SO handy! How glad
grandpa would be if he saw you SO
comfortable and SO free from rheuma-
tisn1, now that the sun gets in!'
Yes, it would make him very hap
Py," said Mrs. Van Dyke, signing
drcamily. 'Your grandfather loved
me otedly.'-Harper's Bazaar.
THE SOClABLE MOOSE BIRD,
Flo Camps with Hunters and shares Their