Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-11-07

desired for a wife But he did not ask
her at once. A kind of tender reverence
held him back, for he suddenly OWNED
that Phyllis would not wish it to follow
too quickly on this talk, as if she had
opened the subject
Not the least potent of her charms
was her continually surprising him.
Soon after hehad been thrilled by her
unfinching honesty and purity he was
confronted with an unexpected hardness
that seemed incredible at her age.
It happened this way She was sit
ting in hammock in the back porch
with some light work in her hands when
negro boy came to bring her basket
of peaches. She got up to put them
away and came back with small purse
''How much do owe you, Benz"
"a quarter, please, MISS" with a
bow and grin.
AS she paid him another quarter
slipped and fell near the edge of the
steps. In flash Ben's ragged hat had
fallen upon it with apparent carelessness
as he pretended to search in his ragged
coat for pocket without hole. When
he took up his hat the money had disap-
peared under it.
Phyllis watched him with mirth in
her eyes.
ST didn't owe you two quarters, Ben.
Give it to me. %
The boys face was study of blank
surprise.
''You needn't try to think of story,
Ben, for saw you pick it up. And
how's this? You were going to the re-
vivals month ago. and thought you
said you were converted?"
Ben ducked his head sheepishly
''Dat's so, miss. dat's so but s'posin
dat shiny piece O. silver did 'tice me to
pick it up Use jined the church and
been baptized. "
"Oh, Ben, you cheat me, and then
you cheat God. Perhaps he doesn't like
it any better than do. What them"
''He don mind, miss very cheer
fully. ''I'se been baptized -
Phyllis threw back her head and
laughed with a hearty abandon very
contagious. Yet Thomas did not alto
gether like her mirth or rather its
source.
''All religious people are not like
that" he said as Ben shuff1ed away
happy and unabashed.
AREN'T they? You ought to hear ia
ther talk. He says they are, although
some Of them put it into fine words.
But as she carelessly broke open a
golden peach with crimson heart, 81
don't care for such things anyhow
tSuch things" repeated Thomas
doubtfully.
Religion and that SORT of thing"
indiferently.
'What sort of thing do you care for?"
questioned Thomas, conscious of SEN
sation of moral chillness.
''Why, like sunlight and color and
to smell the clover blooms-and, oh,
just like to live! It's splendid.
Her eyes sparkled, and her red lips
smiled in lovely curve of delight as
she swung the hammock to and fro, for
getting for moment her work-a rare
thing for Phyllis. She was not the ideal
woman of his dreams, but dream
grows pale beside a living, joyous real
ity. And Phyllis was so unconscious of
any evil and so pretty that Thomas for
got to wish her different.
Different from what she was! He
had fallen SO far in love that when she
showed her hot though easily appeased
temper he thought it infinitely sweet
and taking-she never ''put on like
other girls Or pretended to be what she
was not Her frankness at last melted
away his own reserve of temperament,
and he began to talk to her of his early
life and was even won by her listening
and honest eyes to tell her of his lone
liness-his early conversion and back
sliding and comforted by the tears that
flowed without check down her soft
cheeks-of his uncle's terrible anger
and death.
"Oh, how wicked, how wickedl she
exclaimed at the end. Poor old man,
to die with such dreadful thoughts 1t
wasn't his fault He had never heard
anything but those fearful doctrines of
Gods wrath and resentment Oh,
Thomas, if there is any God, what must
he think of his creatures that can say
such things of him?''
Her tone was an awe struck question
ing, and it thrilled him-this thought
of God, patiently bearing, silently for
giving these lies and calumnies from
men he had made.
But the thought passed. God-"if
there was any God," Phyllis had said
with fearless lips-was far off and si-
lent. Close at hand was the lovely face
of woman, all wet with tears for his
trouble. Her voice was full of tender
ness-of that something Of mothers
comforting that womanhood Instructive
ly uses, even in its babyhood, with all
hurt things. Was it not time for him
to tell her that he loved her and that
for him no other woman lived?
They quickly knew that they loved
each other-indeed had known it long
before.
Oh, silent Creator! Thy creatures
forget thee in each other, and thou art
glad, since, being denied of them in thy
self, thou mayest still draw near and
give thyself unseen in the very human
love for which they turned aside from
thee, for all love for another, all forget
ting of self in love, is surely of God.
Thomas and Phyllis were married.
1t was grief to hear that soon after the
marriage her father decided to return
to Maine, but it was blotted out in the
new and absorbing interest of her new
life. First, her husband, and in course
Of time her husband and child together,
filled her full Of love. The sober people
Of the village quite disapproved Of the
boy and girl ways of the household. All
their work was play, and even after the
birth Of the baby, as soon as he was old
enough to be carried, their great delight
was to take long rambles, starting when
the dewy light broke across the shadowy
head of De Priests mountain and re-
turning late in the afternoon, their
lunch basket empty and they themselves
thoroughly tired and happy.
But one morning Phyllis could not
get up. The doctor came and gave his
directions with a compassionate glance
at Phyllis young face, repeating that
she must keep still. Phyllis still, whose
swift movements and blythe voice had
filed the house with stir and life. But
day after day went on, the fever burned