The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-10-20

| can t You ten US what yofI THINK
Ills father did not take his eyes off
| the rycGcld. I'm thinking, he answered,
| in the same old fashioned way, that I've
| been working here since you were born,
sid. I've Numbered along somehow, just
bossling my way through. l amt got
ln.thing more to say. The farm amt
r!inc any iaorc. but I'll keep my scythc
sharp and my AK ground just as | al
ways did. and I'm for working as I've
always worked as long as I'm let to
stay"
Good Lord. dad. don't talk that way.
Things aren't going to be any different
for you and mother than they are now,
only, Of course He paused.
The old man pioced out the sentence.
Only. of course. there can't be two wom-
Ell ruling one house. Sid. and you know it
az we'll rs / do.
"EXactiy how Silney's wife told the
old mother of the great change Sidney
never knew. but when he went back to
the house the gray look in his mothers
face told him more than her words ever
told.
"And before they left that night the
pink miIincr had already planned the
changes which were to celebrate her COM
ing and her ruling.
so Sidney and his wife came. all the
man pr0phesied in few brief sentences
| to his wife proving true.
"There was no great struggle on the
mothers part. She stepped aside from
governing and became as like a servant
as could be-.
IAN insolent hired girl came, and she
-, ia tnI 1rat
| OF incomprtency. which should end as the
hotel keeping ended.
"WaStcfulncss. cheap luxury. tawdry
living, took the place of the old, frugal,
simple life.
But the mother went about with that
| unchaaging sweetness of face and body
whitening about Il frcttpd soul. She had
| no bitterness. only Il miserable distress
But every slight that was put upon
| her, every change, every newfrnglrl
idea. from the white sugar to the scented
soap and the yellow buggy, ranked in
the old mans heart.
He had resentment both for herself
and himself. and he hated the pink MILL
ner for the humiliation that she heaped
upon them both.
Sidney did not see one-Efth of it, and
| what he did see lost its force. because.
strangely enough. h. loved the gaudy
wife who wore gloves on her bloodless
| hands as she did the homework and
spent numhcricss afternoons in trimming
| her owr bonnets.
Her pcevishncss grew apace as the
| newness of the experience wore off.
Uncle Jim seldom spoke to her. as he
seldom spoke to anybody, but she had
an inkliug of the rancor in his heart, a.ld
man, time sh. put blame upon his
shoulders to her husband when some I'M
ayoidablc friction came.
"A year, two years. passed, which were
rs ten upon the shoulders of the old peo-
pie. and then. in the dead of winter, an
important thing happened.
Abort the month of March Sidney's
fist child was expected. At the end of
| January Sidney had to so away. expect
in. to return in less than a month, but
in the middle of February the woman's
| sacred trouble came before its time.
and on that day there fell such
storm az had not been seen for many
year. The concession road was blocked
before day had well set in. No horse
| could 20 ten yards i'll it.
'The nearest doctor was seven miles
away, and for any man to face the jour
|
The old mother came to Uncle jim
and. as she looked out of little unfrost
| ed spot on the window at the binding
storm. told him that the pink milliDei
would die.
There seemed no other end to it, foI
| the chances were 4 hundred to one
against the strongest man making a jour
ney for the doctor and another hundred
| to one against the doctor coming.
mo one knows whether Uncle jim
could hear the cries from the torture
| chamber. but. after standing for time
mumblinS to himself. he wrapped himself
| in n heavy coat, tied muftler about his
| face and went out.
IF they missed him. they must have
| thought him gone TO the barn or in the
| drive shed, sharpening his ak.
But the day went ON, and the old
| mother forgot all the wrongs that sh
had suffered and yearned over the trivia
| woman who was hurrying out in the great
space.
Her hours seemed numbered at noon
| her moments measured. as it came to
| ward sundown. but with the passing o.
the sun the storm stopped. and Il hcauti.
| full white peace fell on the world OF Snow
| and suddenly out Of that peace came siA
men. and the first that opened the doc:
was the doctor.
"After him came Uncle Jim between
| two others supporting him.
He had made the terrible journey
falling at last in the streets Of the village
with frozen hands and feet not q dozen
| rods from the doctors door.
"They brought him to- he told his story
| and. with the lbating of the storm, til,
doctor and the villagers drove down t.
the concession road and then made Their
way slowly up across the fields, carryin
the old man with them, for he would no.
be left behind.
"An hour after the doctor entered tn,
| parlOr bedroom the cid mother came ou-
to where the old man sat. bundled up b.
side the fire with bandagcd hands and
feet.
"'Shc's safe, Jim, and the child. too.
she said softly.
"The old man twisted in his chair am
blinked into the fire as if talking to som
one he saw there.
"The old woman stopped and kissed hi
gray. tangled hair. but she did not speak
and she did not ask him what he mean
bCt there and then they took up the:
lives again and lived them out."-Nev
York World