St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-11-27

s suspicious were aroused, but at the fe
e vent request Of the devoted Louis it wa
II concealed from sight until after the cert
+ mony. He promised to explain every
d thing satisfactorily later on. As Emm
= had every confidence in her ardent love
4 she agreed. and the strange gift was no
referred to again until the honeymoon
r trip had begun. Being full of love anc
: confidence in his brides love, Louis haC
= confessed that in the west he had beer
, quite a ladys man and that the name.
on the loving cup were those of girls t.
whom he had been engaged before he
had met her and learned what true love
meant. And when he had told it all he
found he had as jealous a wife as his
worst enemy could wish for him. She
wanted to know more and ever more
about these past and better forgotten
frtations, and the more she learned the
more exasperatingly hard it became to
convince her that his love for her was
all it should be. Being quick tempered,
Louis resented these suspicious, and as
he had no reason to doubt that he was
his wife's first love instead of her first
! great passion he Jared badly in their dis
! putes. Fortunately they both loved each
other sincerely in spite of their frequent
| quarrels over the secrets revealed by
! Uncle BOb's gift. Before their differ
ences became at all dangerous they kissed
and made up and promised to let the
matter drop forever. But when Louis
~ ho p1;Cobiof
licly he was cursing him privately, and
the reason that he did not write to the
offender to upbraid him was that he
feared that having revealed so much, he
might be goaded to reveal more. So
Uncle Bob was wholly unconscious of the
pent up wrath that was awaiting him
when he started on his trip to the east
and sent the telegram that had reopened
the quarrel. Fully three months had
passed since either of them had referred
to it. The arrival of the wonderful baby
had hushed all differences, and they were
so happy in attending to his imperious
wants and lavishing affection on him
that they had no time for thrashing over
old straw. But now the storm was rag
ing with renewed fury.
Il tell you l shall kick him out of the
house if he is a thousand times your
uncle!" roared the angry Louis.
You shall do nothing of the kind if l
have any authority here"
"All right, then. He may use me for
a rug while you fall on his neck and
thank him for giving you so much in
formation that enables you to humiate
me-"
Angry as she was, Emma could not
resist a thought of how funny it would
look to see the rotund Louis in the role
of doormat, and she commented:
IF you want to act doormat, | hope
you will do it when we want to amuse
baby"
st is a wonder you did not want to
name baby after him."
"Well, if baby were a girl l suppose
you would have wanted to call her Eliza
or Mabel or Edith or some other such
name"
$50 all night long the noise of battle
rolled" as the poet almost said, and it |
seemed as if the dispute as to the treat
ment Of Uncle Bob would not be settled |
until after his arrival At last, when |
they had discussed the matter from every |
point of view that could possibly provoke
more wrath, they stopped from sheer ex-
haustion, and Louis agreed to accord |
Uncle Bob the stern justice of a desper-
ate man. He would give the offender
chance to explain what was inexplicable
and then loftily hold open the door to
facilitate his exit from the house. He
would nobly refrain from offering him
bodily injury while passing out, but
would probably show him contempt
harsher than blows. As far as they were
concerned personally they had agreed to
consider the matter as once more closed
forever. They had kissed and made up
beside the cot of their baby and vowed
that never again should they allow any
thing to come between them if they
could once put this awful visit of Uncle
Bob's over.
Louis went TO his Office next morning,
promising to come home early, as they
had figured out from the time tables that
Uncle Bob would in all probability ap-
pear on the scene late in the afternoon
or about teatime. Emma spent the day
as usual looking after the young auto
graf and devoting the little time she had
to spare to sewing for his future use. A
young mother sewing by the cradle of
her trStborn is sight to appeal to poets,
and it is hardly to be doubted that Emma
fully realized the effectiveness of the
pose. She usually affected it for the
home coming of her husband, and it is
just possible that she worked up the bust
ness little more than usual on this par
ticular day in the hope that Uncle Bob,
who was once her favorite relative, would
be made to realize in the brief glimpse he
was to have of it the sweetness of the
Eden from which he was to be so scorn-
fully excluded on account of his inex-
presslbly shocking conduct in the we'd
ding present affair. She selected her
most effective house dress for the occa-
sion, made her workbasket SNOWY with
the most beautiful silks and placed the
baby's day cot, beside which she sat to
do her sewing, in an alcove where the
light would fall on it properly and bring
out the beauty Of the finely worked
ccyerlets with their trimmings of lace.
When Louis returned, he found that
Uncle Bob had not yet arrived and was
so delighted with his beautiful family
mat he somewhat uncharitably hoped
mat an opportune railway accident had
delayed Uncle Bob in his progress, It
seemed too bad that storm, even though
IL was to be the last one, should ruf1e
the peace of that little home. Emma
was feeling trife nervous, too. but that
only ADDED touch Of color to her cheeks
q pigrht