The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1901-07-27

aDle-DOuieu man tnat he was, he had
never asked her. He devined, with an
instinct sensitively keen, in what man
ner the village discussed his condi-
ton, gossiped about it, snickered over
1t. 1t was known as broadly as that
Hi jennings wife wanted divorce,
and that Dan Swain had had delirium
tremens. He knew that it was to be
laid, in large measure, at the door of
his exceeding great, native bashful-
ness, which had more than once, even
in distinctly practical affairs, kept him
back and defeated him where men of
meaner parts had succeeded. But
there was something else-something
of which the callous world would not
have dreamed, nor could have fathomed,
something that Lemuel himself but
dimly comprehended, and could never
have put into words. His tenderness
for Emeline Bestor had been the one
great emotion of his frustrated life;
loving her. he had, with a fine sim
plicity and fidelity, looked upon her
as he looked upon no other woman;
he had set her on a plane far above
himself; his love might follow her
there, but some subtitle power held it
back from the nearness of bold and
decisive approach, because in that lay
the semblance of dissertation. In Eme-
line Bestor the village in general saw
| a pleasant old maid-of whom people
said, as an unequivocal compliment,
that nobody would ever take her for
an old maid-whose recipe for raised
cake was borrowed widely, and who
could be counted upon to wash more
than her rightful share of dishes after
Lemuel Jilson saw in her? Who shall
smile because he saw it?
He had been up to Pitt Wheeler's,
and made q horse-trade, driving thith-
err with his animal, and returning with
his purchase hitched to his blackboard.
The horse, Humboldt by name-Pitt
Wheeler was quite q reader-had a
vaguely familiar look for which Lem
uel, rejecting on the fact that Pitt
| Wheeler never drove this horse to
town, failed to account. Lemuel had,
however, n masculine inattention, even
oblivion, to small matters; his girls
had been accustomed to make his
Christmas presents under his nose, and
then to surprise him with them. He
was not thinking much about Hum
boldt; he was thinking old. old
thoughts about Emeline. Her house
twas in sight, and Lemuel's heart
still heart, though it had pumped
for half n century-beat little fast
err. The infrequent Sunday evenings
when he sat with Emeline and her
father, old Ephraim Bestor, in Eme-
lines parlor and talked on unexciting
subjects. and ate the enjoyable things
which Emeline always offered him
these were the hallowed times of Lem
uel's life; times the recollection OF
which bridged over almost happily
the interims between them; the times
he lived for. Sometimes Emeline
played hymns on her organ, and made
Lemuel sing them with her, although
it was perfectly understood by them
both not only that Lemuel could not
get tune himself, but that he had
difficulty in distinguishing one from
another. Gentle she always was, and
smiling; always cheerful; always
dressed in way becoming to her
rather portly figure and her fair, mid
dle-aged face.
He sighed as he thought of her with
tender admiration. To think of her
was restful to him. His deceased
wife-Lemuel was too upright man
to dwell critically on the memory OF
his children's mother; but sometimes
it had seemed to hint had struck
through his consciousness-that of al
the women in the world who were, by
reason of their ineradicable natures
in all respects singularly and remote
ly different from Emeline Bestor, his
wife, who had been Sarah Dow, stood
undoubtedly first. Lcmuel had seer
once at the county fair symbolical fe
male figures of War and Peace made
with red corn and specified beans, but
yet gruesomely expressive-the one
masterful, rampant. the other males
tically serene-and in spite of himself
he had been put in mind of his wife
and Emeline Bestor. The Peace wa:
Emeline.
He was lonesome since Rosy had got
married; and the distant connection
who kept house for him, and uset
an oil-cloth instead of table-cloths, to
save washing, and never swept under
the stove, nor the beds, wanted tC
go to her daughter in Iowa. If Eme
line-oh, if Emeline-
AS for old Ephriam Bestor, he would
be an addition to any households; hi:
chief defect being a settled habit o.
taking off his boots about noon ant
continuing in his stocking feet the
rest of the day, even If the ministers
wife called.
, He was nearing the house, and his
| eyes focused OH Emeline's line o.
clothes whitley Tapping. her three
| cornered vefbena-bed and her four rec
beehives. Humboldt, too; some sud
den interest seemed to inspire Hum
boldt-or curiousity. Opposite thu
) house he turned his head, and looked
: toward il with an evident concern not
second to Lemuers, and as they
, reached the big gate he made an at