Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-02-15

book of new emotions. Love and trust
We're uppermOSt. but there were also
the sign marks of a certain timidity.
a shrinking from the new, untried life
that was about to begin, and a half
been left behind in that little jay town
a hundred miles away.
''They walked ahead of me through
the main street of the town and pass
ers-by would raise their hats. then
nudge each other knowingly. BY this
pantomime 1 concluded that the groom
must be a resident of the place and
found later that my Surmise was cor
rect, for at the one hotel in the town
all the talk of the bar oom lOungers
was of Ezra Tappen's bride. He was
one of the first settlers in Belleville
having ONE with his parents when he
was but a year old. and twenty years
in n mushroom city counts as much as
sixty in New York. They talked of the
new home he had built for her: they
told of the diamond ring he had given
her; they dilated on her good fortune,
but said never a word of his in secur-
ing such a flower of purity and inno-
cence.
Il didn't know what made me do
it, but next day I walked out by the
new hOme-you know the type, a built
in-a-day sort of affair, With no trees
or shrubbery anywhere around and
the paint so fresh it makes you wink
to look at it. She was out on the porch
as l passed, and just that glimpse of
her made the place look more home
like. She was the kind of woman to
make things look that way-a woman
born to be a happy wife and mother.
You know what / mean, boys" he add
ed, alphabetically, as though they
might think him getting too sentiment
al.
Il didn't see her again until my next
trip, and then her husband introduced
us. He was prospecting finely and their
home was just the contest nest you
could imagine. There We're some
iiASBNi NV hS q ullllNlIiS
heavily, but / saw no signs of it, and
certainly, Nellie-that was what he call
ed her, seemed too happy to have any
worriment of that sort in her life.
II can hear her laugh now as | told
her Of the first day I saw her, and she
would smile as her husband ioked her
about the rice, declaring that there
was enough in her Ionnet to supply
him with pudding for a year, intimat-
ing to me that that staple constituted
their principal diet until not one more
grain could be discovered in umbrellas
or hat bands. y
"When / came again there was Il
baby boy in the new house, and Nellie's
face blOOmed with that wondrouS digni-
ty of love that comes with motherhood.
Her husband was going it a bit too
hard, but as a man is privileged TO
make a fool Of himself over his first
child I didn't think much about it, but
on my next visit I saw that matters
III the Tappen household were not
what they should be.
Ezra was losing trade, he gave me
no order this time and Nelie's eyes
looked troubled. The baby wasn't
strong and I could see that worry vas
taking pounds of flesh from the moth
er's pretty figure and setting it's mark
upon her smooth brOwA She never
complained; she was too proud for
that. Her loyalty to her husband
would have kept her lips sealed under
all circumstances, but /, who had not
see her for six months, could readily
detect the havoc that financial and
mental worries had wrought.
Il didn't see her again for a year.
In the meantime the baby had died
and 1 found her trying 50 hard to be
brave, yet bending before the weight
Of her troubles like a reed in Il strong
gale. The boys death had caused Tap
pen to drink all the harder, and things
were going from bad to worse. The
house had been mOrtgaged, business
had fallen off, there being no one but
a boy half of the time at the store, as
Tappen was always down at the hotel
lounging in the bar room ready to drink
with anyone who came in.
zone day 1 tried to talk to him, but
you know a man can't preach to an
other one about what is nom of his
business, and he didn't take in good
part the little l did say, so / gave up
in disgust, but / was troubled about
Nellie just the same. When 1 reached
Kansas City a dispatch was handed
me. 1t told of Tappen's death. /
couldn't 60 back then, but [ wrote TO
Nellie. and her answe told me that
Ezra had been run over one night when
he was coming home late. You see,'
she wrote patheticaliy, he hadn't been
very well for a long time, and was a
little dizzy that night, and so didn't
see just right which track the eastern
express was on Blind drunk was
my comment. but I wrote her as gently
as I could, and Here the narrator's
voice broke. And from that day /
worked with a new will, hoping that
the Lord would be good enough to me
to let me win Nellie for my wife. She
STAYED on in the little house, and eked
out a livelihood by helping the village
dressmaker.
1--WE wrote to each other regularly
and / thought /. could trace a little
love for me growing between the
lines. l never mentioned the hope that
was in my heart, but a Woman wodld
have had to have been far more dense
than she to misunderstood my feelings
I am just back from hat little town,
BOYS. I went there expecting to re-