The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-05-16
THE TIN PEDLER's ROMANCE.
BY SOPHIE SWEET.

had been brought up SO suddenly and
with such stentorian whoa" She was
accustomed to ambling gently through
that road, for Andrew loved the land
Scape He had never said so, even to
'Lecty. In Carmel, views and sunsets
were supposed to appertain strictly to
summer boarderS. A taste for them
was regarded with indulgence as among
the vagarieS with which people took up
their minds when they didn't have to
work. Andrews homeward way often
lay along that road, and he liked to see
the sunset above the long, sweet meadow
and marsh land. But this afternoon it
was in vain that a low-hung lurid sky
produced an almost theatrical effect
above the pools, bordered with the
brown lockwood, shading gradually into
the dark red of the rosemary and making
vivid background for a gaunt light
nlng-smitten tree that stood up stark
against it,
The tins that hung around his wagon
had ceased to rattle; the shadows of the
tall feather busters had ceased to make
fantastic moving procession along the
road, and Andrew sat mOtionleSS upon
his wagon seat; but ais poet-soul was
quite unconscious of the pageant before
him.
Gee Whitaker" was what he said
presently as he unconsciouSly tiicked a
belated fly off old Peggy's back. Set
ting that wheel an eighth of an inch
lower is going to do the buSineSS-if the
springs VIII bear Tightening. It's diff
ferent from any washing machine that
ever was made, and if Joe Lovett knows
as much as he thinks he does, there's
PnnSIdara h1a II -
He took out his handkerchief and
wiped his brow, which had suddenly
become wet. Considerable money. He
had never cared for money, as most
men do. He had not known that Lecty
did, But he had been married to 'Lecty
for fortnight, and now he knew that
'Lecty cared for money.
Struggling to turn his mind into un-
wonted money making channels, for
Lecty's sake, he had remembered an
invention that he had worked upon a
year OF two before In his poetic and
visionary mind was an odd streak of
inventive talent His trade of tin pedler
had brought him into an atmosphere OF
fault-tndlng in the matter of domestic
convenlenceS, and, in repairing wash
ing machine for an aggrieved housewife,
the idea of an improvement had oc-
CURED to him.
He had worked upon it with the pure
joy of an inventor, thinking very little
of possible gain. But it had not been
quite succeSs-and he had met Lecty.
Love had driven invention out of his
mind-love and anxiety, for he had sui
fered torments of fear lest Lecty should
scorn his suit. He never thought of his
occupation as humble one, but he had
a very modest opinion of his own per
Sonality. He had few pretentions to
good looks, being lanky and STOPPING
and lean-the typical New England tin
pedler, He was gawky and awkward,
too, and they did not know in Carmel
that his head and face were fine and
p0etical. Lecty was handsome, and
carried herself with the smartneSS of
the town, having been only a visitor at
the house of her aunt, who was one of
his customers.
Andrew, who lived alone with his old
mother, and had never courted a girl in
his life lost his heart to her at once. 1t
must have been hidden affinity or re-
spouse of temperament; in fact, it would
seem to require some still newer dis
coYery OF the psychologists to account
for it.
But Lecty was apparently not sur
prised. and she said YES" promptly,
thereby Transporting Andrew to the
seventh heaven of humble rapture.
She had not demurred at a speedy
wedding, either, and Andrew had joy
fully carried her home to his mother,
whose true-b0rn son he was. in a lit
tie weather. beaten house covered with
woodbne, which both Andrew and his
mother preferred to repairs,-two miles
out of the village.
That was fortnight ago, and there
had as yet come but two awakening
shocks to his dream of bliss. The first
was when for the twentieth time he
expressed his rapturous wonder that
'Lecty had ever come to love a fellow
like him.
'Lecty had murmured, aDsently, pen
sively: Il did SO hate the idea of being
dressmaker.'
She had blushed wildly and looked
frightened and guilty the next moment,
and then she had kissed him.
Such demonstrations ON 'Lecty's part
were very rare. The kiss had annihi-
lated the memory of the shock-almost.
How could shocks or stings exist in the
same universe with 'Lecty's kisses
The second shock had come when 'Lecty
iitlet dohCu why Clltv COtllllD UUdIu Ill
the village, and let his mother have the
house to herself. That was in spite of
the fact that 'Lecty had shown her
self very daughterly, insisting that his
mother should wear her best dress every
day, and making her dainty little fluff
OF lace, which she called a cap, to wear
on her head. (IIis mother wore the best
dress and the little fluff of lace with
look of patient endurance which An
drew forbade himself to understand
When he had replied, gently, that his
mother was too old 10 be left alone,
'Lecty had said that she supposed so,
but she had said it with a little sigh.
And this time she had not kissed him.
In a fortnight's time there had pene-
trated to Andrews slow and rapture
dulled consciousness the idea that 'Lecty
wanted more things than she had that
money could buy. And, oddly, as the
Pretty Marsh road led him homeward,
the recollection of his discarded inven-
ton had come to him, and in flash the
possible way to turn his failure to sue
cess. Old Peggy was started up and
made to 60 at a gait which caused her
to shake her had and snort resentfully,
although she head become accustomed
III the last fortnight to lively home
ward pace.
Andrew worked all that evening and