Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-02-24

u renectloh or her own long-agn ;a,,
and in the faint glow Of il che ~ ~.
Impeiled to go to her own room ana =
lock the door and look at the old va1
entine. 80 oiu val,
with new, strange tremor abou,
ner neart and an unsteady hand SHE
TOOK 1t out, and when in the light .,
awakened emotion she saw once more
us tlme-stained face and canpb+ 80
nusty odor,she seemed to realize again
Tue very body OF her lost love. and for
the nrst time in all the wears the
fountains OF her sorrow were broken
up ana she sobbed her tired heart ont
over the old valentine.
Ii Miss Jemima had not found low
sne had at least found her heart again
and sorrow. Her life had been 20,
SO long weary, treeless plain that in
the dark depth of the valley of sor-
rowing she realized, as something on1y
from sorrows deeps poor mortals NAV
know it, the possible height of bliss
For the first time since the separa-
ton, she clasped the valentine to har
bosom and called her lovers name
over and over again, sobbing it. with
out nope, as one in death agony. Bit
such emotion is not of death. Ts n
not the rebirth of feeling? So it was
with Miss Jemima, and the heart still
ness that had been her safety during
all these years would never be hers
again. There would never again be a
time when her precious possession
would not have sweet meaning to her
when it would be tanglble embodi-
ment OF the hottest thing her life had
known.
From this time forward, as an Offset
to the budding romances about her.
MISS Jemlma would repair for refuge
and meager comfort to that which,
while in its discolored and fading face
it denied none of life's younger ro-
nance, still gave her back her own.
The woman of forty never realizes
her years In the presence of her con-
temporaries. Forty women of forty
might easily feel young enough to scott
at the bald head, and deserve to be
eaten by bears-but thirty-nine with a
budding maid for fortieth scoffer?
Never!
Miss Jemima, in her suddenly ce-
allied young-love setting, had be-
come, to her own consciousness, old
and of date gone by. Aunt Jemima"
was naturally regarded by her bloom
ing nephews and nieces, as well as by
their intimates who wore their incipi-
INF CT CD NTH hot
scious toplips or dimp1es dancing in
their ruddy cheeks, quite in the same
category as Mrs. Gibbs, who was sixty,
or any of their aunts and grandmotn-
ers who sat serenely in daguerrotype
along the parlor mantel.
But there is apt to come time In
the life of the live single woman OF
forty-if she be alive enough-when
in the face of even negative and affec-
tionate disparagement she is moved to
declare herself.
Perhaps there be some who would
say that this declaration savors of
earth. Even so, the earth is the Lords.
in book, and quite another to be the
bud maiden wears-one thing to be
To-day and another to be Yesterday.
One thing, indeed, it was to own
yellow, time-stained valentine, and
quite different one to be Of the dimp-
led throng who crowded the Simpkins-
Vile postoffice on Valentines day.
81 reckon then young ones would
think it was perfectly re-dic'lous eft
was to git valentine at my time of
life Miss Jemima said, aloud, to her
looking glass one morning. 1t was
the day before ST. Valentines of the
year following her day Of tears.
'But I'll show 'em!" she added, with
some resolution, as she turned to her
bureau drawer.
And she did show them. On the
next day great envelope addressed to
Miss Jemima Martha Sprague came in
with the package of lesser favors, and
Miss Jemima suddenly found herself
the absorbing center of new interest
an interest that after having revolv-
ed about her awhile flew off in suspic-
ion toward every superannuated bach
elor or widower within radius OF
thirty miles of Simpkinsville.
It had been a great moment for Miss
Jemima when the valentine came IN,
and a trying one when, with genuine
old-time bushes, she refused to open
it for the crowd.
How she felt an hour later, when,
in the secrecy of her own chamber, she
took from it's new envelope her own
old self-sent valentine, only He who
has tender knowledge of maidenly re-
serves and sorrows will ever know
There was something in her face that
forbade cruel pursuit of the subject
when she returned to the family circle,
and so, after little playful banter
ing, the subject was dropped.
But the incident had lifted her from
one condition into quite another in the