The Penn's Grove record., 1895-10-18

I ~ ~ A~N NAIAC@ 1NN SAAa
lily refrained from his usual ~evenin,
practice of taking off his boots by tn,
ire. When the young man came, how
aver, he was sitting with his stockinget
ieet on a chair.
"Cold out, amt it?" he said, NOV
ng the chair and his legs to face tn,
newcomer where he sat.
His wife had laid down her sewing
ind was looking worriedly from one t.
he other. Austin Brewster had no
lived long in the neighborhood. Hi
vas very tall, with a long, sober fac,
md a silent manner which commanded
certain general respect, though il
vas largely the result of difidence.
In Joel Wilson it always reused q
pirit of rallying drollery; and his
wife waited now in patient dread Of
developments. His venture with Miss
Nash was fresh, and the mood which
lad possessed him then was unas
uaged.
SIS your father feeling any better
If his rheumatism? ?" she put in, pre-
Ientively.
"Yes, he's some better" said the
foung man, returning her smile. He
vas more at ease with her than with
Mr.. Wilson ; he would have said that
le liked her better.
"Has he got out any yet?"
"Yes; he was out yesterday tinker
ng up the cellar windows. I told him
ned better be careful"
"Why, yes; it was damp yesterday.
know enough about rheumatism to
NOW how damp weather makes your
oints creak. Last winter I had these
1nuckles swelled up so l couldn't get o
glove on"
He gave her the vague attention
Ehich the young accord such matters.
But Mr.. Wilson shifted his legs, chuck.
ing as he settled his glasses.
oval, 1 didn't know for certain as
Tou'd get around here tonight" he
laid. ST heard you are going to take
! job. You hain't heard what they
vas saying the t'other day?"
NO" said the young man, unsmil-
ngly. He flushed with apprehension.
lie had beneath his awkward con-
traint enough of an underlying self
'egard to be offended at it's injury.
"Wal, they was taking about the
lection fag-pole down to the store,
nd you was jest going by, and Jim
Taylor said you'd make a 1rst-class
me Jest as you was, if you wasn't on
he wrong side of the question" He
inded indistinctly and fell into cheer
'ul rumbling laughter.
The young mans face famed and
lis jaw dropped; and Mrs. Wilson,
senerically akin to him, thrilled with
,ympathy. She got up hurriedly and
vent to the stair door and called Ellen.
Her escort took up his hat and stood up.
When she came down he was standing
tiff and red-faced in the middle of the
DOM. She thought that his abash-
nent was due to her fathers blue
Iocked feet, conspicuous on their
hair, and with her instructive laugh
he grew red and got to the door
quickly. Her father, looking on with
deficient comprehension, gave a %jocose,
riendly-intentioned parting sally.
81 had the ceiling plastered jest
ately," he said. "You might scooch
lown a little"
Ellen's attendant stalked out grimly.
There was silence for a time when
he door had closed. Then Mr.. Will
ION, looking up guilty, encountered
ais wife's eyes, and dropped his W
md cleared his throat.
81 guess you're going to get every
body in town mad at you," she said,
inally. Her temperatures was more
haunting than tartness would have
been. 81 guess after a while there
won't anybody come here"
But her chief concern lay deeper.
She spoke again with an anxious
luiver in her voice.
'If you've got Austin Brewster SO
mad at you he won't come here again
[ don't know what Ellen IL do" she
,aid. "Joel, I don't It's different
rom what it's been with anybody else
she's we gone around with she feels
iifferent. If she can't get him I don't
know what she'll do" In the privacy
Of her husbands ear her short, moth
erly intuition found full expression.
Mr.. Wilson, sobered and silent, got up
ineasily and opened the stove hearth.
"You don't take it to heart about
Austin" his wife concluded. "Things
slip off from you like water off agoose,
and always did. But you ain realized
how Ellen-why, she thinks the world
and all of him. Joel, you don't
tnow. Maybe if you had you'd have
lone different, and maybe you
wouldn't. I shouldn't wonder if it
vas too late. You got him real mad"
The party at Stella Blakely's was al
eady in full sway when Austin Brew
ter and Ellen Wilson arrived at half
oast eight o'clock. 1t had, indeed, ad-
ranced from the formal stage, when
he girls had taken of their wraps in
he lower and the young men in the
upper bedroom and they had passed
! strained fifteen minutes in the par
wv lne HomPlhS' WAN youvAiuA
Indifference to the season they were
playing Ruth and Jacob in the front
'srd. A lamp in the window sent out
is light, and two roughly-hewn Jack
'-lanterns, set sportively on the
teps, filled the cold air with the pleas
mt smell of burning pumpkin.
Austin and Ellen, when his horse was
litched and they had been passed
through the bedrooms, were drawn
INTO the noisy, laughing and iabber-
ng, swsying ring. Somebody called
ellen inside it, and when, AFTER a roll
ioking period, it was her turn to
moose her Jacob, she took Austin.
lie stepped in, tall and stiff, and sub.
i nitted to his blind-folding grsyely.