The Winslow mail., 1897-07-17


TIC answer to thy questions, "All is well"?
Perchance in heaven.
Verses Grave and Gay.
A LTHOUGH he had, in addition
/ u to local habitation, name Of
Il n his own-Peter Dunn to-wit-
he was always known as ''the man
that married Mary By profession he
was plumber of some repute-that is
to say, he knew by heart the meander-
! ings and idiosyncrasies of every drain
in the village; and he added to this ex-
perience knowledge, for he had the
sense to carry about with him such
white lead as was necessary to the full
fllment of his calling, instead Of ex-
pecting the same to grow wild in every
well ordered households false eX
pectatiOn which obtains among plumb
ers. For six days Of the week he
| plumbed, but on the seventh (or rather
the firsO he dressed himself In a lit
tie brief authority and sort Of black
nightgown, and stood revealed to the
eyes Of an admiring village as the
yerger 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 wherein-during the anthem-he
distributed the almsbags among the
recipients for whom they were reserv-
ed was a function in itself. On one
memorable occasion, when performing
this last mentioned rite, he stumbled
over a top hat, placed in the aisle by
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 yerger righted
himself, restored the stumbling block
TO it's owner, and concluded the func-
ton, 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
just; so the rector's boys concluded
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-off at O'clock" as they called
IT,
But all these paltry honors and dig
mites paled beside the fact that Peter
Dunn (''plumbing verger' or "verging
plumber" whichever one was pleased
TO dub HIM, was above all things ''the
man that married Mary" Beside this
crowning distinction all meaner hon
ors sank into inslgnificance. Mary had
been the reigning beauty of Cheriton
for 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 adorer, Peter
Dunn, who had regularly proposed to
her every Saturday afternoon for
well, at least 250 Saturdays, at the
/ lowest computation. With her office
as reigning beauty of Cheriton Mary
Mills had combined the duties of VII
lage schoolmistress. She was a good
girl, and did her work well, but she
had no natural love of teaching, and
she was very thankful at last to lay
her occupation aside and become Mrs.
Peter Dunn instead Mary felt (as in
deed did all the village, Peter includ-
ed that she had conferred an unspeak-
able favor upon her husband in marry
Ing him, and to the day of her death
she treated him more as a King con-
sort than as 4 verger and plumber in
his own right, which he undoubtedly
was, for Mary was what the villagers
call "genteel," and founded her Ideas
I or men and women upon the heroes
and heroines Of such silly and sensa-
tional novels as came in her way, and.
| judged according to that standard, Pc
ter certainly fell short of ideal man
hood. AS long as she lived Mary meas
ured Peter by these stupid measure
ments and found him short and plain,
and commonplace and rough manner
ed; afterward she probably learned to
measure him according to the measure
OF man-that is, of the angel-and
discovered that her plain little plumb
err was more Of a 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
making the few years she was spared
70 him years of radiant bliss for Pc
ter. AS for him, he simply worship
ed the ground on which his wife walk
eded. Mary had n younger sister of
whom she was inordinately proud,
who was governess in Il gentleman's
family. She was, according to Mary.
quite the lady," and would, so Mary
thought, consider 1t degradation to
visit so humble a home as the Dunns'.
which showed that poor Mrs. Dunn's
standards of good breeding were as
erroneous as her standards of other
things. Therefore, though Mary some
times went to see the beloved Amy,
Amy npVQr NyaS allowed to cnp,a 70