Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1898-07-07

Etralght, HOW Sle used TO make him
run that machine! / never passed the
house but there he was sitting, tread
ing away as if his life depended on it.
always used to want to stop and say
something cheerful to him, he looked
so down-hearted and sad. But of course
l. knew better. Don't you suppose he
would have broken down and cried.
Willard, if anyone had let on they saw
him?"
The young doctor fourished his whip
over the horses back to scatter the
flies before he replied
81 don't know; I'm afraid so. He is
very highly-organized, and the inces-
SAINT humiliation of his position has
worked on his mind until he is scarcely
in a normal state. l suppose no man
would relish being turned into semp-
stress because his wife had freak that
she couldn't run a sewing machine.
But a Tobugter nature would perhaps
have taken it with a better grace and
put a laughing face on it. Thomas may
be aware that he's not very virile at
best, and when Amelia put him at the
sewing machine, and, what's more, kept
him at it, I presume he felt it was
scorching reflection on his effeminucy
"A public testimony to his inferiority" :"
They drove on between fragrant
hedges, down leafy arcades and
through shaded lanes, stopping here
and there before this trim garden or
that, until, at last, the list of visits was
complete and the doctors daily duty
done.
The sun was setting as they passed
the Thacker house on their homeward
way, and though Elizabeth peeped curl
ously back as they went by she did not
see behind the close-drawn blinds the
eager face of Thomas peering out at
them from between the narrow Stats.
He was sitting in the living-room, in
the very spot where for so many years
he had writhed under the task imposed
upon him by his iron-willed wife. But
now she was lying upstairs-nerveless
and still, and the sewing machine (the
instrument of his torture) was out Of
Sight,
He had but an hour ago turned the
key in its lock and carried the table
bodily, with sort of stern, triumphan
energy, into the barn and buried it be
meath all the boxes, bales and barrel
he could lay his hands upon. 1t seemed
to yield him grim satisfaction t
serve it so. 1t was like a retaliation
i The key was in his fingers now and, a
he gazed out into the vivid world, the.
fumbled at it nervously, He had mean
to drop it in the well as he came bacl
from the barn, but somehow he had no
done so. His fine alert eyes moved rest
lessly from one object to another tina
q came within his field of vision; hi
\ clearly chiseled lips. twitched nervousl,
and a lock of his white hair fell forwar
eoyer his brow when, in his strenuou
thinking, he unconsciously shook hi
Shead
4 "Nos / won't drop it in" he sale
within himself. 81 won't drop it in. Blu
All lose it somewhere about the hous
e's III never find it again. ! neVe
q lSwart to see the drafted machine again
~ never want to hear it! I'll neve
fdouch it to sew another stitch, not fc
toye or money, so help me-"
"A gentle hand was laid on his shou
der He started guiltily.
n "Oh, Fanny" he said, with a sort {
nervous laugh, that you, dear?
!. didn't hear you come in. was just 81
ting here resting for a minute an
4 l4hinlling about" his voice faltered.
'e "I know it, Uncle Tom," interpose
hR girl, softly, stroking his hair baC
n his temples; well both miss he
lt We must try to bear up, dear, an
8 not-let ourselves give way. She-si
3 Nas very good to me-"
ea Fa"ly was a slender slip of thin
sricRst turned 16. Youth was in ever
y u1lrye of her figure, in every line of HI
old De, She knew just enough of life
INK death its one shattering force.
Sers. sined to her that as long as there WI
t IRE there must be hope, and as long
q therewas hope one must be happy 81
= telt deeply sorry for her uncle-sl
e tried to comfort him.
q The weeks slipped away, and Il
e months. The autumn came and Il
. winter followed. Then spring arrive
and the tulips in Amelia's garden beg'
; to blossom. Thomas watched them e
g 4 ultautly. He seemed to see them f
the first time in his life growing calm
and silently and not from over a mi
of jigglng machinery and amidst t
! ter of winking wheels
2 Fanny bowed the shutters of the Il
e Fing-room as Aer aunt had been won't
e Go, but Thomas no longer sat with
s Faem bending laboriously over
. Toathsome task, a byword and a his
y i5ng, as bsSthought, for all the wor
dHThc machine had never been broug
d sback frour the barn, and no one b
4 Thomas Anev where IL was. Fan
Ie wished shesdared ask. Il would hs
d been worth worlds 10 her to discover
ID iust now for tben she could have -
d. up" neE graduation dress in a twir
It ling, Which now she was trying to 81
u by hand, tstitch for stitch, in {
sr meager hours after school and hou
a bold iaslaaiveie done. II was all Z
o1t and basted, but the time few ia
q eF Nan her needle could, and al lenf
b The week fairly arrived and still
lt fapck was SCARCELY more than beg
IT. of herself the tears would =
e6rhe sat trying to finish