The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1896-02-01
WHO CHANGED FIRST

ish. Her mother told her so, signing. and
adding kindly hope that this might
change him. Her elder sister, who was
married, told her the same thing. adding
that all men were selfish, so It didn't make
much difference which one a woman mar
ried. Her brother told her so scoffinqly.
and even Dicks mother said:
Pm afraid you'll find Dick bit cap-
tious, dear. / suppose we've spoiled him
little; but, Of course, you'll be only too
glad to devote yourself to making him
happy"
And Amy smiled and sighed and blush
cd very prettily, which was a way she had
ut IS.
They had been engaged for about six
months when Dick felt that his native vii
lage did not afford sufficient scope for his
talents. He would 60 to New York, he
announced, make a great name and a
large fortune for himself and return to
bear Amy to the metropolis later. Amy
wept when he went away, and sang her
ballads with a sob in her throat for weeks
afterward, and worked diligently on her
household linens, and wrote Dick long
letters In reply to his brief ones.
In about year Dick wrote her that he
felt that their engagement had been a mis-
take, insinuating that a larger life and
more brilliant opportunities than she was
fitted to share awaited him. Then Amy
gave up her ballads entirely, and put away
the household linens, and wept in the soil
tude of her room every night. She told
him In the abandonment of her grief that
she could never change, and that II the
time ever came when he wearied Of the
applause of the world and the glitter Of
life nd fhnf,ohf loncfn.lr- ~ ka- h.
might come back to her, sure of finding
her the same.
Amy's tears had blotted that testimony
to her own oonstancy, and for months her
sobs would not let her sing any song with
"come back" in its refrain. Even Dick
was moved and put the letter away, where
he might refer to it whenever his self es-
TEEN needed bracing.
When Miss Annesley refused him, he
read 1t and thought Of going back to Amy
at once, but pride forbade. Besides he
didn't care enough for Miss Annesley to
make her rejection a blow requiring i'm
mediate soothing. When he was dis
charged from The Monthly Merrymaker,
he came very near returning TO Amy, but
q position on The Magazine of Culture re-
stored his contentment somewhat So
for two or three years he did not really
need Amy.
Yet he was conscious when he met with
the snubs and failures he could not avoid
In q great city that her sweet air of un-
swerving admiration would have been
balm to his wounds; that he needed her
belief In his powers to compensate for the
utter Indifference of the great world. And
when even the pursuit Of pleasure palled
upon him he began to long for her to bring
him comfort and happiness.
One night when the world had been
unusually heartless, when he had been
ignored socially by some one and snubbed
professionally by some one else, and when
Miss Annesley's successor had been as un-
kind as Miss Annesley herself, he wan
dered into a theater where a farce was
of the farces where the play
Is q peg upon which variety ARTISTS"
hang their ''specialties.
He yawned through 1t for awhile. Then
o woman came out and sang BALLAD
ballad Of Amy's-a Scotch song he had
not heard for six years.
he went home and read her letter again.
Then he went back to the village he had
not visited for so many years. He was
happy in the thought Of the joy he was
going to bring to Amy. he hummed the
song jOyously:
Ye banks and braes o. bonny Doom.
How can ye bloom sac fresh and fatrf
How can ye chaunt, ye little birds,
And sac fun, see full o caref
BE fairly whistled 1t as the train rushed |
along, and he pictured Amy sitting In the |
twilight singing to him again
he found her sitting In the freight, |
cumming. She was plump and placid, |
and her girlish sentimentality had changed
10 matronly sweetness She was waiting |
tor the minister, whom she had married
md who, as she explained, had consented
10 live In the old home because OF moth
r." She wanted Dick to wait 10 meet
The minister and see the baby, who was
taking q late afternoon nap. And she
was honestly panied and surprised when
Dick ravsd at her treachery and stormed
about her flckleness.
"But Dick" she protested, you
,hanged first"
"Changedr' cried Dick. "n i had
,hanged, would i be heref"
Always afterward he attributed bis ian-
1res and his failings to the fact that his
LIE had been blighted by woman's faisi-