The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-12-05
AlRHE EAMlEYT HOME,
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"She has made your home comfort
able, your hearth bright and shining,
food agreeable. For PHYS sake tell
her you thank her, if nothing more.
She doesn't expect it; it will make
her eyes open wider than they have
for ten years; but it will do her good,
for all that, and you, too"
1t seemed to Andrew as if this
sentence were written for him, and
just for the occasion. 1t was COM
plete answer to his question, Praise
her for what?" and he felt it to be a
rebuke. He read no further, for
thought became too busy, and in a
new direction. Memory was convict
ing him of injustice to his wife. She
had always made his home as com
Portable as her hands could make it,
and had he offered the slight return
of praise for the comfort he had ex-
perienced? He was not able to recall
the time or occasion. AS he thought
thus, Mrs. Lee came in from the
kitchen, and taking her work basket
from the closet, placed it on the
table, and sitting down without
speaking, began to sew. Mr.. Lee
glanced almost stealthily at the work
in her hands, and saw that it was the
bosom of a shirt which she was
stitching neatly. He knew it was
for him that she was at work.
praise your wife," The words
were before the eyes of his mind, and
he could not look away from them;
but he was not ready for this yet.
He still felt moody and unforgiving
The expression on his wife's face he
interpreted to mean Immature, and
with Miniature he had no patience.
His eyes fell upon the newspaper
spread out before him, and he read
the sentence:
ga kind, cheerful word, spoken in
a gloomy house, is the little rift in
the cloud that let's the sunshine
through"
Lee struggled with himself while
longer; his own Immature had to be
conquered first; his moody, accusing
spirit had to be subdued. He
thought of many things to say, yet
feared to say them, least his wife
should meet his advances with a cold
rebuff. At last, leaning toward her
and taking hold of the linen bosom
upon she was at work, he said, in a
voice carefully modQlated with kind
ness, "You are doing this work very
beautifully, Mary"
Mrs. Lee made no reply, but her
husband did not fail to observe that
she lost almost instantly that rigid
greatness with which she had been
sitting, and that the motion Of the
needle had ceased.
my shirts are better made and
whittier than those of any other man in
the shop" said Lee, encouraged to
go OH.
"Are they'" Mrs. Lees voice was
low, and had in it slight huskiness;
she did not turn her face, but her
husband saw she leaned little to-
ward him. He had broken the ice
of reserve, and all was easy now. His
hand was among the clouds, and a
few feeble rays were already strug-
Cling through the rift it had made.
"Yes, Mary" he answered, softly,
land I've heard it said more than
once what good wife Andrew Lee
must have"
Mrs. Lee turned her face toward
her husband. There was light in
it and light in the eye, but there
was something in the expression of
her countenance that puzzled him.
do you think so9" she asked,
quite soberly.
"What question:" calculated An
drew, standing up and going around
to the side of the table where she was
sitting. "What question, Mary"
he repeated, as he stood before her.
eyes, darling" was his warmly
spoken answer. "How strange that
you should ask mel"
'If you would only tell me SO, now
and then, Andrew, it would do me
good"
Mrs. Lee arose, and leaning her
face against the manly breast of her
husband stood I'd wept.
A strong light broke in upon the
mind of Andrew Lee. He had never
given his wife even the small reward
of praise for all the loving interest
she had manifested daily, until doubt
of his love had entered her soul and
made light all around her thick dark
ness. No wonder that her face grew
that he onnui6or