The Irish standard., 1899-03-18

monstrance was written in these words:
"You sed you wisht I'd shut up my
mouth and keep it shut, and I'm a-going
to do it,"
He bought little blank book, in
which he kept pencil, and all his COM
munications to the world and to indi-
viduals were made through the medium
OF this book and pencil.
The neighbors said that "the Savles
always were queer lot, anyway" that
some of Simeon's ancestors had been
rather eccentric, and that Simeon him
self had never seemed quite like other
men. No matter how true this may
have been, his sister Myra was a
thoroughly well-balanced woman, with
a large fund of strong common sense,
and her brothers freak caused her
great secret modification and distress,
although she had declared at the be-
ginning of it.: "It will be an actual rest
to me to get rid of your eternal scold-
ing!"
"But Simeon had not scolded "eter-
nally," as Myra felt obliged to confess
to herself in her reflective moments.
He was, indeed, somewhat infirm of
temper, and sometimes gave himself up
to prolonged fits of pctulance, but there
had been days and even weeks at a time
when Simeon had been as serene of
mind and as companionable as any
man.
He and his sister Myra had sat side
by side on the little porch over the
frn, - ~
throughout many peaceful summer
evening, quietly talking over the past
and the future. The long winter even
ings had often been filled With Il quiet
happiness and peace for them both, as
they sat at the same hcarthstone at
which their parents had sat. Myra with
her knitting and Simeon reading aloud
or smoking his pipe in peace. They
had nearly always eaten their meals
in harmony; and now, as they sat at
the table facing each other in hard,
cold silence, there We're times when, al
though neither would have confessed
it to the other, their food almost choked
them.
This freak of his is harder to put up
with at the table than at any other
place or time" his sister confessed to
sympathetic neighbor. Sometimes
it just seems as if I'd fly. There he sits
as mum as grindstone. Sometimes
try to rattle away just as if nothing
was the matter, but can never keep it
up very long. I've tried all sorts of
little. tricks to catch him unawares and
make him speak once, but he won't be
caught. One day, just when he'd come
in from the field, l smelt something
burning SO strong that said: 4 do be-
leve the house is on fire. and he opened
his mouth as if to speak, and then
clapped it shut again and whipped out
that abominable little book and wrote:
'Whare@
II was SO put out that l flung the
book clear out into the gooseberry
bushes. I really doubt if he ever does
speak again in this world; and the
prospect is pleasant for me, isn't it?"
The two lived >slone in the old red
farmhouse in which they had been born
so years before. They were without
kith or kin in the world, with. the excep-
..tion of much younger sister named
Hope, who had married prosperous
farmer and had gone out west to live.
1t had been time of great sorrow to
them when this pretty, young sister
had married Henry Norton and gone
from the old house. They rejoiced in
her happiness, of course, andwere quite
sure that Hope had done well,' but it
was none the less hard to give her up.
She was only 81 years old at the time.
and SO much younger than her brother
and sister that their affection for her
was much like that of q father and
mother for an only child. They had
lavished the tenderest love of their
lives on Hope, and their affection had
not lessened by her absence. In the
years since they had seen Hopes pref
ty face and heard her CHEEKY voice they
often talked of her.
Myra had always stood rs strong
wall between Hope and harm or trouble
of any kind, and this loving thoughtful
ness had kept her from writing word
to her sister about her brothers. strange
silence.
II wouldn't have Hope know it for
anything" Myra had said; at would
worry the child so. And there's no
danger of Simeon writing it. He'd be
ashamed to-"
During all of the fall and through one
whole long, wretched winter the IRON
willed Simeon kept his resolve not to
speak, and decided shake of his head
or written "No" was his reply to My
ra's oft-repeated questions: Don't you
ever intend to speak again."
One day in May neighbor coming
from the town brought Myra q letter
that gave to her troubled heart the
widest thrill of JOY it had known for
many day. Hope was coming home!
She had written to say that she would
arrive on Wednesday Of the following
week with her little girl of three years.
and that they would spend the entire
summer in the old home.
Catching up her sunbonnet, Myra
ran all the way to the distant field in
which Simeon was at work, holding the
letter out as she ran and calling out be-
fore she reached him:
80 Simeon! Simeon! A letter from
Hope! She's coming home! She'll be
here next week with her little Grace,
that we've never seen! Only think of it
Hopes coming homc!"
Simeon was blowing. He refined up
his horses with a jerk, and opened and
shut his mouth three or four times; but
no sound came from his lips His face