River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1898-06-09

"THERE! it's stopped" announced
Mrs. Field, soIemnly, as the last
/ lugubrious echo of the meeting house
bell frayed off into the quiet of the
serene summer air and the dismal toll
ing ceased.
what did you make it?" asked her
| daughter, lowering her voice to an I'M
dertone, as if in Difference to the dead,
whomsoever it might be. Il counted
81"
so did I. And l warrant it's Amelia
Thacker. She was 81 last May. l re-
member because her and Brother Seth
was just of an age, and Seth he came
81 the 1st of June. Well, if it's Amelia,
her passing beyond is in some ways a
! blessed release. She's been a dread
/ full 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
ing into an accurate square, DIR.
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 her magma
ton had dropsy and she'd ought to be
tapped hard. He said if Thomas
would do it just ouce-Teal thorough
it would be better for all concerned"
Mrs. Field drew her eyebrows togeth-
er in a frown of disapproval.
Il don't want you should talk like
that, Elizabeth" she said. "Dr. Brad
70, -,
you, even if you are engaged to him.
1t amt professional. And don't you
repeat it. l wouldn't like 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 to
come and paeify her when she'd
dreamed new symptom. But he does
feel aWfully sorry for Mr.. Thackcr
He says his atlment Is genuine. \ real
case of modification. Willard saws it
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 to
make ready for her lover, who was 10
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"
She was glad to get out into the fra
grant country air; glad to be in the
light top buggy with Willard beside
her. Death seemed far off and vague
and impersonal, 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 We're 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 (as it
seemed to herr immutable. Her deli
cate prettness was illuminated by her
inner content until she glowed like a
beautiful, sunlit flower.
As they passed the prim, fast-shut-
tered Thacker place she lowered her
voice and her face grew grave, but
when they had been carried out of sight
and hearing her eyes began to shine
again, and she could not keep her lips
from smiling.
Poor Thomasr' she said: well
never see him again sitting at the sew
ing machine with Amelia standing over
him to see hat he stitched her seams
straight. How she used to make him
run that machine! l 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 Gown-hearted and sad. But of course
! 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 flourished his whip
over the horses back to scatter the
flies before he replied.
u don't know; I'm afraid so. He is
very mghly-organized, and the inces-
SAINT humiliation of his position has
worked on bis mind until he is scarcely
in a normal state. ] suppose no man
would relish being turned into a semp-
stress because his wife had a freak that
she couldn't run a sewing machine.
But a robuster nature would perhaps
have taken il with a better grace and
L., 7 b. g.
he 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 il, l presume he felt il was
scorching reflection on his effeminacy
IA public testimony 10 his inferiority"
They drove on between fragrant
hedges down leafy arcades and
through shated lanes, stopping here
and there before this trim garden or
that, until, at ,ast, 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 ose-drawn blinds the
eager face of Th 1mas peering ont at
them from between the narrow Stats.
He was sitting 10 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-uerveless
and still, and the sewing machine (the
instrument Of his tortured was out of
sight.
He had but an hour ago turned the
key in its lock and carried the table
bodily, with a sort OF stern. triumphant
energy. into the barn and buried it be-
meath all the boxes, bales and barrels
he could lay his hands upon. Itseemed
to yield him a grim satisfaction to