Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1897-08-19
Ft Evening Cine,
Ay In1IAx CUTLER cOUcH.
deter PENRUDDocK's mouth was

the weight of a six-oays' sorrow was
insufscient to press out the molding OF
N9o wears. So the curves OF his lips were
but partially Strengthened as he stood
with one hard, toil-shapened hand rest
ing heavily upon the table and looked
upon Martha, his wife, though the light
of rood content might be shut from his
ewes and the ache in his heart seem un-
ending.
The face of Martha Penruddock had
been slowly nodded by an uneventful
happiness into curves of calm satisfac-
ton, but on her the weight Of the six
DAYS sorrow had left deep dentings,
and her eyes were awful with the shade
of a cold, voiceless misery as she stood
straight and motiop1ess at the window
and looked down across the sunny slope
to tho spot where her son, her one,
comely son, had just been laid, dead.
Outside, the afternoon sun blazed
down upon the square gray walls and
hardened tbc, bAsters already raised up
on the green front door. In days now
passed fat baby hand had pressed the
blisters on the lower panels and baby
heart bemoaneda lack Of inches as baby
eyes gazed higher. But with growth
came indifference, and the blisters OF
the upper panels were still unmuti-
lated, standing out as so many protests
against tbs suns immoderation. In the
trim front garden, however, there were
no such protests. The sunfiowers, the
dahlias, the hoLyhocks, the roses, all
opened their glorious hearts 10 receive
his fire and loved him for his ardency.
While mignon&tte and marjoram, Law
ender ard nasturtiums, candy tuft,
sweet peas and bold-eyed marigolde
mingled their charms to the making
Of a glowing, growing pomander,
stretching on either side the gravel box
edged path, from bltstered door TO gar
den gate. And the bees buzzed desul-
forily, slipping honey as if there were
40 need for haste; and the big rides
cent flies rested, still andgleaming, on
the hot gray pillars of the porch.
Beyond the house. and the garden,
and the dusty white road along which
the black-suited villagers had passed
80 short time ago. sloped down tawny
cornAeld, where the reapers bent to
their labor, leaving the grain in long.
fallen swathes behind them as they
passed upon their way. And beyond
this slope, dotted with life and spread
With the means Of fife, lay the peaceful
acre Of death, with one brown mound
among the grassy mounds, beneath
which lay the gladness OF woman's
life.
And the afternoon wore on. The sun
moved slowly across the clear. still sky.
leaving shadow pillar atbwart the
gray stone doorstep and grief in the
heart OF the sunhowers. The bright
square. too, which had blazed through
the par!or window on to the rose
wreathed carpet. had Travelled and trav-
eled by slow degrees along the floor,
then climbed the damask-patterned
wall and finally disappeared in the
scroll work of the cornice. And Peter
penruddock's lips seemed to grow
straighter and narrower as he looked
upon Martha, his wife. And the tall
clock in the stone hall licked the mo-
meuts sway-always the same, no bur-
nv, no change of tone, no relenting.
Sweet is the scent of pink clover by
the path across a short wheat field,
when the evening dew falls gently and
damps the full-blown petals. Peaceful
and kind is the twilight when faint
breeze sways the slight gossamers, cool
ING the sun.scorched verdure and re-
giving faintsng land. Yet scent and
light were as nothing to the senses OF
Peter Penruddock as he stood by the
gate Of his rick yard and gazed at the
steep. winding field path up which Mar
tina had slowly gone an hour ago.
It was so terrible. this great silencing
Grief which had shut him, her husband,
from her heart and care. His sorrow
surely his, If hers-could have been
ensed by speech and softened by sym
patty; hut the wife had taken 1T 9TH
erwise, had held her heart and lips
tight shut against words OF comfort,
leaving him to mourn alone, outside.
But II was not OF this that Peter
thought as he looked up across the
steep wheat field; he was not given to
the weighing Of his rights and his
wrongs; only to him the pain OF her
anguish was pnbearabIe. a sorrow even
greater than the other sorrow, mas
much as 1t was living and more in
tangible.
With wisttul eyes and weighted heart
be left the rick yard and turned up
wards by the clover edged path through
the bare brown Held at the back Of The
ersy farm house. he knew where he
should And her; he knew how shewould
receive him: this last was knowledge
which had come to him within the past
dark week. She had no need OF him;
she chose to suffer alone-silent. and
Lard and uncontrolled.
On the old wooden seat at the bend
OF the sloping field he found her; her
shawl had fallen back from her shout,
ders; her eyes. wide and expression
tsss, fixed on that peaceful spot beyond
the new-reaped cornfeld in the val
iey below, She did not stir as he drew
near nor move her eyes as he sat on the
bench beside her and took one cold and
snresiEting hand in his.
"Patty." he said. gently. "Patty, dear
Wife"
But it was as II she did not hear. And
the lines Of her face were deep and
T4gid, as If she were cut from stone.
"Patty." he pleaded, 'the spot down
yonder mus,n swallow all your love
Dear heart, look back awhile and try tc
mind the days before he came. Can ZEE
mind" he went on. "the first day you
cay the old house, when we came-jusi
sou an mean made It home? An
you frcvvned at ita poor old straight
walls TO vex me, an laughed at nay ieaG
looxa when you'd done It,. An how w