The National tribune., 1898-04-07

pet on the sitting floor, over the
choice of which the brains OF bride and
her feminine relations reeled there were
the comfortable but less snowy rag car.
pets on the bedrooms, presents frsm the
brides mother, and in whose parti-col-
ored woof of woolen, cotton, and linen
all the garmsnts worn by the family for
decade were represented.
There were the curtains of bright
calico, the inevitable canton-fiannel
dove, with its bead eyes, swinging in the
center of the lower sash, the framed steel
engraving of Washington crossing the
Delaware, and " DeSoto discovering the
Mississippi" hanging against the un-
papered walls; there were the snowy
chairs and tables, still shining in the
bright gloss of the shop, as yet unmarried
by the mischevous little hands that were
to fill the house with cares and joys in
nearly equal proportions and closing
the view was the dainty little kitchen,
with polished stove and glistening array
Of tin-ware.
Walters keen eyes took all this in at
one quick glance, but his was not the
experienced eye | have alluded to
above.
He did not see it with your eyes, my
superfne lady. which, accustomed to
rest only on silken tapestry and gilded
garniture, would have withdrawn dis
dainfully from the contemplation of any
thing SO cheap and common"
Nor did he see it with your and my
eyes, good reader, which, wise with the
seeing Of the best part of lifetime,
| beam shrewdly and humorously, but
| always with tenderness that frequently
| dims them with moisture, upon the in
| congruous gathering of straws and inept
| arrangement of materials by young
| couples in their first attempts at nest
building
No; Walter enjoyed this as a glimpse
| of an ideal home. Beside the sitting
room of his boarding house this one was
sumptuous salon; beside the room in
| which he slept, these dormitories we're
couches Of ease and luxury; beside the
place where he took his meals, this
| dainty kitchen, with its singing kettle,
and its delicious odor of STEPPING tea,
was a refectory fit for King; beside
the dowdy "dlning- girls" whose
ill-looks seemed to be intimately con-
neeted with the indigestibiIity of the
viands they served, trim Susan Bronson,
in her neat calico, dress and housewifely
check apronI with barred arms, and with
face beaming with interest in her occu-
patton, seemed 'ministering Hebe.
Contrast was the magician that
wrought this cham. Bronson's was the
first home that Walter had been adj
mitted to since he had left his own, five
years before, it was the last he was to
see, for several years more, and so the
picture was to remain imperishably photo
graphed upon his mind. as one of the most
delightful of his experience.
The picture was filled out to perfect
symmetry by al simple little supper
which seemed to him exquisite by
Susan's talking to him in a friendly, ull-
restrained way, that his abstention from
woman's society made 80 novel sensa-
ton as to be almost Intoxicating and,
finally, by Bronson's producing their
sleeping infant, over which both the
proud parents exulted until the last
remnants of the shadow of the war
waited off Bronson's mind, and Walter
was made to feel that in that child of
present unparalleled excellence and still
more wonderful promise he had in some
way the interest Of kinship.
After supper Walter and Bronson
started down town. The signs Of
great perturbation became unmistaka-
bic as they reached Madison street.
10 be continued.l