Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1894-08-23
THE REcToR's BANE.
By Sarah Grand.1

THE REcToR'S BANE.
By Sarah Grand.]
- HE rector was in f1utter from
III earliest dawn. 1t was like a
tree full of sparrows in the
and hustle. For the only
daughter of the house was to be
married that day by the bishop to the
only son of the wealthiest landowner
in the neighborhood.
When the bride awoke in the morn
ing her mind was filled with the words;
"For whittier thou goest, l will go; and
where thou lodgest, / will lodge" No
more. But she told her mother, and
her mother thought it good omen,
most appropriate and very beautiful,
and told the rector, who smiled benign
ly, being just as much elated as the
ladies, although he thought it becom-
ing to hide the fact. But he blessed his
daughter and melted when he thanked
God for the happy and brilliant pros
pect in store for her
marriage is the most sacred Of insti-
tutions," he said, unctuously. 'Those
whom God hath joined together, let no
man put asunder. 1t has been my
earnest endeavor all my life to walk in
Gods way. To be humble follower
of Christ was all l asked. And the
Lord has amply rewarded me-"
At noon the joy bells rang out from
the square church tower, and the sun,
shining on bare brown branches, struck
sparkles from the delicate silvering of
frost with which they were appropri
ately bedecked, as for the occasion.
Two toil-worn women passed the
church as the bridegroom handed the
bride into her carriage. One of them,
a dark-skinned, black-haired, vivacious
woman, with gypsy blood in her, prob
ably, and the disposition to be easily
amuss d that goes with it, held back to
see the sight, and the other stopped
too, as if constrained, and looked on
moment in evident resentment.
my! them tiowersW the dark one
cried in admiration.
ly. "They cost so pounds if they cost
d penny, them flowersW
isFffty pounds!1 the other calculated.
"Ay, so pound. AS 'ud keep a poor
mans family in comfort fur year.
All pleasure in the pageant went out
of the dark face, and with one accord
the two women turned their backs up
on it and continued their way to where,
on the other side of the church, and in
the shadow of of it, but half turned
from it, as one in despair turns from
powerful person who could help but
will not, was small, clean, poverty
stricken cottage. The women knocked
and entered. At that time of day they
might have expected to find the good
wife getting the dinner; but alas, no!
there was no sign of cheerful prepare
ton here. The fire which should mean
to men all that this world can know of
love and comfort, the fire by which hus-
band and wife sit in their young love
days. to which the children come by
degrees in after years, and from which
they go again with tears and blessings,
leaving their hearts, however, at an
Choir beside it, the sacred fire which
holds the home together and is the due
. of every honest man and woman was
out, and only the ashes of it remained
on the cold hearth. Yet even the
ashes were tidily swept up, SO inveter-
ate is orderly habit among the decent
poor. The clear, crisp, frosty morning
which had walked the happy bride at
the rectory, had broken with cold COM
fort for the old pair in the cottage. All
lu0 lOIlR ukAb tnCy hdA AlOAo you'll
others hands, for it was the last in all
human probability they would ever
spend together on earth. They were
an old rOad-maker and his wife. He
had done his last days work. Wet or
fine, ill or well, week in and week out,
he had toiled for mere pittance, which
the thrifty wife at home had made the
most of uncomplainingly A sober, in
dustrious, long-enduring, law-abiding
pair, such as any country should claim
for it's own with pride; married 40
years, and parents of three soldier sons;
there the neighbors found them sitting
on an old trunk, almost the only thing
left in the cottage, still hand in hand,
those whom God had joined together,
according to the rector in the character
of humble follower of Christ, waiting
to be turned out of their little home,
and driven off like cattle to the work
house, where they would be separated
for want of proper accommodation fol
them, with the full approval of the rec.
tor in the character OF man and guar
dian of the poor.
When the two women entered the
old pair looked up at them by way Of
greeting, as dumb dog does when in
pain if human help is at hand. The
woman who had turned resentfully
from the waste of wealth at the wed
ding carried little bundle in which
she had brought a bottle of cold tes
and some scraps of bread and bacon
The old people had tasted nothing that
day and she tried to persuade them te
eat. They did their best out of pure
kindly courtesy, but it was easy to sex
that the dry morsels choked them.
The old woman begged her friends tt
be seated on the brick window place
hut after that no one spoke for little
indeed. there was nothing to be said
nothing 10 be done, only sympathy t.
be shown, and that the zig occasional
tear drop which fell from an old eye
onto a wrinkled hand was more elO
ouent of than any word could be; ant
it also showed hopeless resignation.
The old pair sat On hand in hand-or
rather, the old woman held the ole