Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-09-13

have he4ped neticing how interested
tho old couple had been in the view
from the car window from the time
the train had left the Twelfth street
station, with what pure enjoyment
they had marked every haystack, corn
FIELD, farmhouse and barn. and. how
thusiastic greetings of the friendly
children who sat on the roadside
fences; how they beamed on each other
at frequent intervals. and how the big,
brown hand of the old gentleman pat
ted the back of the old lady when she
turned to him from the contemplation
of some pretty bit of scenery, her
black eyes moist with happy emotion
But NJ. and Mrs. Cullen had not no.
ticed these things at all.
I'm going to go and take a smoke
myself. mother" said the old gentle
man almost directly after Buel had
gone out. Il seen You gaping an you
might just as well take 40 winks while
I'm gone. / won't let you oversleep
yourself. you needn't be skeered."
81 hate 10 take time TO sleep" said
the old lady, "but l think if l did take
q 4lll4S nap L u ISSl d hCdP bCltC1 "
it"
The old gentleman gave her shout
der a farewell pat and went away and
the old lady composed herself to SUM
Der. In about two minutes she was
sleeping as peacefully as a tired child.
Mrs. Cullen had wearied of her maya
zine, watched her. and. seeing that her
pillow was slipping away from her.
rose from her seat and deity dust
ed it. Then she went back and
dered about the dear old thing.
whether she had any daughters who
had got married and how many cigars
Buel intended to smoke before he came
back to her. 1t was hard waiting for
him.
But after all the old gentleman was
back first. and Mrs. Cullen had leisure
to observe how gently he r~eadiustec
the old lady's pillow for her and how
ten6erly he smiled down on her as he
cid it. Then he sat down. taking great
care not to disturb the sleeper, and
looken pensively out of the window.
A minute of two after that Buel came
back and took his seat by his wife's
side. unreproved-as to that.
How long you were, Buell." she said.
"Were you trying to punish me for
sending you away? If you were. you
succeeded. 1 suppose l oughtn't to
tell you that, though. But you know I
told you not to be gone long. Buel.
You know I did" She said this very
pathetically, and. the young man ought
to have been more responsive than he
was, but h was looking thoughtfully
over at the little old lady across the
aisle.
"It didn't seem sc very long to me-"
he said at last. NO, don't think that
1 meant that it didn't seem long to be
away from you, little girl, you know
better than that, and you know wheth-
er I wanted to go at all. What 1 meant
was that 1 got acquainted With that
old chap over there What do you
think. Margie? They're on their wed
ding tour
do you know what the old boy said
to me the very first thing? We'll, he
said: Young man, 1 want to congrat-
| ulate you and l want to tell you that
| there amt the least use or sense in
trying to hide it. 1t amt nothin' to
be ashamed of. We seer it. the old
lady an me, the mint you came into
the car"
Mrs. Cullen blushed rosily-
Then he went on to tell me how it
was that he and his wife, who had
been married for 35 years-think of
that, MargieI Thirty-fve years!-how
it was that they were just having their
honeymoon. It seems that they are
from Kansas and they had intended
to AXE this very trip, but his father
| died and the money hat he was to
have spent for it went to his mother
| Then there were bad years n the
| children came and there was a long
wrestle with poverty, and so it went
on all the time, and through it all they
were always promising themselves
their honeymoon Twice he had the
money, but they decided to wait until
the next year, and before that there
was a broken bank and a crop failure
and one thing and another, but it has
come to them at last Look at them!H
The old lady was awake now, and
they were sitting side by side, the big
brown hand resting on the little black
mittened one. Mrs Cullen moved closer
to her husband, and slipped her hand in
his.
Here's the point and moral Of the
thing, Margie,'' continued Buel. "He
said: I'm takin' comfort in this, all
right, an it's better late than never
but all the time I'm a-thinkin' what il
would have been to u if it had beer
when we was both young. To lool
back on one spell of nothin' but love-
makin'l I might have done il, too
twicet. That's why, though it AIM
none of my business, an 1 hope you
don't mind my sayin' SO, 1 think yor
are foolish an a wastin' your time
right here in this car. You amt en-
joyin' that seegar one particle; if YOU
was you'd be smokin' it,
"What do you think about it
Margie?"
Judging from the way the porter
giggIed in the vestibule after he ha6
passed the Cullens an hour later and
what he said about the impossibility
of "'keepin' up de bluff" it may be in.
ferred that Mrs. Cullen was convert
ed to the old g~entleman's view of the
matter-Chicago Daily Record.
One Touch of Beauty.
In the dismal tenement. life Otter
becomes as gray and blank as the
grimy walls. There the simplest or.
nament, the commonest reminder OF
the commandment that we must not
| live nv bread alone often nivaS more