The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1898-08-30
LABOR OF LOVE |
nrTrHEREl it's stopped" announced
BY JULIE N. LlpMANN.
Copyright. is's

serene summer air and the dismal toll
ing ceased.
swhat did you make it?' asked her
lowering her voice to an I'M
dertone, as if in Difference TO the dead,
whomsoever it might be. 4 counted
ST.
$50 did l. And warrant it's Amelia
Thacker. She was 50 last May. / re-
member because her and Brother Seth
was Just Of an age, and Seth he came
So the list Of June Well, if it's Amelia,
her passing beyond is in some ways a
blessed release. She's been dread
fui sufferer Of late years, and Thomas
he's been a sufferer, too-in conse- !
quence, you might say"
Mother" said Elizabeth. rising and
folding the napkin she had been darn 4
ing into an accurate square, "Dr.
Bradley told me Amelia Thacker hadn't
a living thing the matter with her ex-
cepting whimsey. He said she was as
sound as a nut, but that Der imagina-
ton had dropsy and she'd ought 10 be
tapped-hard. He said il Thomas
would do it just once-real thorough:
it would be better for all concerned"
Mrs. Field drew her eyebrows togeth-
er in a frown of disapproyal.
Il don't want you should talk like
that, Eliza BETH she said. ''Dr. Brad
ley hadn't ought 10 say such things to
you, even if you are engaged to him.
1t amt professional. And don't you
repeat il. l wouldn't ike you should
have circulated such a report when
Amelia was alive, and now she's dead
it would be twice as bad"
"Oh, Willard didn't mean anything.
lie was always as patient and kind as
could be TO Mrs. Thacker, and never
complained no matter how often she
had him routed out OF bed nights 10
come and pacify her when she'd
dreamed new symptom. But he does
feel awfully sorry for Mr.. Thacker.
He says his ailment IS genuine. A real
case of modification. Willard says il
often sets in after a fracture, and
Amelia's broken Thomas spirit, and
now he has psychic gangrene.- She
laughed softly as she spoke, and laid
the folded napkin neatly beneath the
Others in its pile in the linen press.
! going thereafter TO her own room 10
! make ready for her lover, who was TO
/ call and take her with him on his round
Of afternoon visits. 1t was diversion
whereof she was very fond; the doctor
called it playing hitching post"
Size was glad TO get out into the fra
4 grant country air; glad TO be in the
light top buggy with Willard beside
her. Death seemed far of and vague
! and impersoEal. like the distant clouds
that she saw shelving the horizon and
that carried no threat of storm in their
placid bosoms. The things that seemed
near and real were the calmness and
serenity of the summer day-the soft
ness OF the air, the Pickering of the
shadows, the wistful sound of the bird
notes from meadow and branch and
the sense of her own immediate happi
ness-so close, SO complete, so las il
seemed to her) immutabIe. Her deli
cate prettiness was illuminated by hel
inner content until she giowed ike {
beautiful, sunlit flower.
As they passed the prim, fast-shut
tered Thacker place she lowered hel
voice and her face grew grave, bu'
when they had been carried cut Of sigh
and hearing her eyes began to shin,
sgain, and she could not keep her lip
from smiling.
Poor Thomas," she said: ''wel
never see him again sitting at the sew
ing machine with Amelia standing owe
him to see that he stitched her seam
straight. How she used to make hin
run that machine. 1 never passed tn
house but there he was sitting, tread
ing away as if his life depended on i;
/ always used to want TO stop and sa,
something cheerful 10 him. he lookes
so down-hearted and sad. But of cours
/ knew better. Don't you suppose b
would have broken down and cried
| Willard, if anyone had let on they say
; him2"
The young doctor flourished his viii
over the horses back 10 scatter tn
flies before he replied.
II don't know; I'm afraid so. he
very higbly-organized and the inees
SAINT humiliation of his position ha
worked on his mind until he is scarcel
/ III >uHIN>C 10 AuA
would relish being turned into a semI
stress because his wife had freak tina
she couldn't run sewing machine
But robuster nature would perhap
have taken it with better grace an
put laughing face on il. Thomas ma
be aware that he's not very virile a
best, and when Amelia put him at tn
sewing machine, and. what's more, ker
him at il, l presume he felt it was
scorching reflection on his effeminac
/ "a public testimony 10 his inferiority.
They drove on between fragran
|. hedges, down leafy arcades an
through shaded lanes, stopping her
and there before this trim garden Q
that. until, at last, the list Of visits wa
complete and the doctors daily dut
done.
The sun was setting as they passe
the Thacker house on their homewar
: way, and though Elizabeth peeped cur
ously back as they went by she did nc
q see behind the close-6rawn blinds III
eager face of Thomas peer.ng out d
them from between the narrow Stats.