The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1899-04-04
A LABOR OF LOVE
BY JULIE N. LIPMANN.
Copyright, 1898
HT7HERE! it's stopped" announced

4 'HEhE! us stopped! dHnouhceu
Mrs. Field, solemnly, 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 un-
dertone, as if in Difference to the dead,
whomsoever it might be. Il counted
So"
so did l. And warrant it's Amelia
Thacker. She was SO last May. l re-
member because her and Brother Seth
was just of an age, and Seth he came
SO the 1st of June. Well, if it's Amelia,
her passing beyond is in some ways
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 once-real thorough
it would be better for all concerned"
Mrs. Field drew her eyebrows togeth-
er in frown of disapproval.
81 don't want you should talk like
that, Elizabeth" she said. "Dr. Brad
ley hadn't ought to say such things to
you, even if you are engaged to him.
1t amt professional. And don't you
repeat it. 1 wouldn't like you should
have circulated such report when
Amelia was alive, and now she's dead
it would be twice as bad"
"Oh, Willard didn't mean anything.
He 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 pacify her when she'd
dreamed a new symptom. But he does
feel awfully sorry for Mr.. Thaeker.
lie says his ailmeut is genuine. a real
case of modification. Willard says 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, ard 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
CT afternoon visits. 1t was diversion
whereof she was very fond; the doctor
called it playing hitching post"
She was glad to get cut 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 impeTsonal, 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 (as il
seemed to herr immutable. Her deli
cate prettiness was Illuminated by hel
inner content until she glowed like {
beautiful, sunlit flower.
AS they passed the prim, fast-shut
tered Thacker place she lowered hei
voice and her face grew grave, but
when they had been carried out of sigh
and hearing her eyes began to shine
again, 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 ovel
him to see that be stitched her seam.
straight. How she used to make hin
run that machine! 1 never passed th,
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 cours,
knew better. Don't you suppose h,
would have broken down and cried
Willard, if anyone had let on they saw
him?"
The young doctor flourished his whiI
over the horses back to scatter tn,
flies before he replied.
Il don't know; I'm afraid so. He il
very higbly-organized, and the inces
SAINT humiliation of his position ha,
worked on his mind until he is scarcel,
in normal state. suppose no mar
would relish being turned into a semp
stress because his wife had a freak tina
she couldn't run a sewing machine
But robuster nature would perhaps
have taken it with better grace anC
put laughing face on it. Thomas may
be aware that he's not very virile a
best, and when Amelia put him at tn,
sewing machine, and, what's more, KEEP
him at it, l presume he felt it was
scorehing reflection on his effeminac,
"a public testimony to his inferiority
They drove on between fragran
hedges, down leafy arcades anC
through shaded lanes, stopping her,
and there before this trim garden o.
that, until, at last, the list Of visits wa,
complete and the doctors daily duty
done.
The sun was setting as they passed
the Thacker house on their homewart