Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1897-05-06


Verses Grave and Gay.
A LTHOUGH he had In addition
~ TO local habitati1n, a name o
Il Il his Own-Peter Dunn to-wit-
he was always known as "the ma!
that married Mary" BY profession III
was plumber Of some repute-that Il
70 say, he knew by heart the mcander
ings and idiOsyncrasies Of every drliI
In the village; and he added to this eX
perience knowledge, for lie had the
sense 70 carry about with him sucl
white lead as was necessary to the full
fillmcnt of his calling, instead of eX.
pectlng the same to grow wild in every
well ordered household false eX.
pectatiOn which obtains among plumb
ers. For six days of the week he
plumbed, but on the seventh Tor rather
the iirst) he dressed himself in Il lit
tie brief authority and sort of black
nightgOwn, and stood revealed to the
eyes Of an admlrlng village as the
verger of the parish church. 1t was
impressive to see him conduct to such
seats as he deemed meet for them the
strangers within his gates. and the
way wheren-durlng the anthem-he
distributed the almsbags among the
recipients for whom they were reserv-
ed was Il function in itself. On one
memorable occasion, when performing
this last mentioned rite. he stumbled
n hat nlnpaI m thn nj. h,,
some unwary stranger, sent it spin
ming up the church, and staggered aft
er 1t in hot pursuit. For one awful
moment 1t seemed that the pillars of
Church and State were alike trem-
bling: then the worthy verger righted
himself, restored the stumbling block
to It's owner, and concluded the func-
tiOn, to the unfeigned delight of the
sons of the rector, who longed ever
afterward to present testimonial to
the unknown author of the catastro-
phe. The inhabitants Of Cheriton did
not wear top hats, and if they had
they would have known better than TO
place such obstacles in the path of the
that some alien brow had been. so to
speak, the head and front of the of
Tending, and they blessed that brow
accordingly, and never forgot the great
'kick-oif ut I O'clock" as they called
1t.
But all these paltry honors and dig
mites paled beside the fact that Peter
Dunn c'plumbing verger" or "verging
plumber" whichever one was pleased
10 dub HIM, was above all things the
man that married Mary" Beside this
crowning distinction all meaner hon
ors sank into insigniiicance. Mary had
been the reigning beauty of Cheriton
Tor more years than she would have
cared to confess to, when she arrived
at the conclusion that leading apes"
was not so satisfactory an occupation
as marrying plumbers. and so decided
TO eSpouse her devoted adorcr. Peter
Dunn, who had regularly proposed to
her every Saturday afternoon for
well, at least go SATURDAYS, at the
lowest computation. With her office
AS relgning beauty of Chcriton Mary
Mills had combined the duties of vii
lage schoolmstress. She was good
girl, and did her work well. but she
had no natural love of teaching and
she was very thankful nj last to law
her occupation aside and become Mrs.
Peter Dunn instead. Mary felt Cas in
deed did all the village, Peter includ.
edl that she had conferred an mspcok.
able favor upon her husband in mnr.v-
Ing him, and to the day of her death
she treated him more us a King cnn-
sort than rs verger and plumber in
MS own right, which he undoubtedly
was, FOR Mary was what the yillorerS
call "genteel,' and founded her ideos
OF men and women upon the heroes
ana herolnes Of such silly and seusn-
tlonal novels as came in her way. and
Judged according to that standard. Pc
Ter certainly fell short of ideal man.
mood. AS long as she lived Mary mems
ured Peter by these stupid measure
mentS and found him short and plain
and commonplace and rough manner
cd; afterward she probably learned to
measure him according to the measure
OF a man-that is, of the angel-and
discovered that her plain little plumb
er was more Of II hero than all the
men of straw she had delighted to
read about In the foolish days of her
flesh, but of this we have, of course,
no record. Poor Mary, however. will
not be the only one who will find the
standards of this world all wrong in
the light of the next one; and there is
much comfort in this thought.
But, though she looked down upon
him ON account of his rougher man.
ners and Inferior education, Mary
Dunn was sincerely attached to her
good little husband, and succeeded in