The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-05-16

he..told her, were a suggestion that he
might have gotten more. But her face
grew eager, and her breath came quickly.
''It isn't great deal to live on, but
you can give up tin peddling," she said.
Give up the tin peddling. Andrew
shrank into himself. He felt suddenly
dazed and old.
Il couldn't do that, nohow. 'Lecty,"
he said slowly. "Why-why, it wouldn't
be ME if wasn't riding round on the
old wagon early mornings and long,
pleasant afternoons, even foggy and
drizzly times, meeting old friends and
customers and bargaining, kind of COM
fortable-why, it wouldn't be mel"
'Lecty drew herself to her full height
and her blue eyes, that were ordinarily
so soft, flashed scorn. When soft blue
eyes flash they are annihilating. An
drew's mother nervously drew on
straight the fluff of lace that would get
awry on her head.
''You can choose between tin peddling
and me.'' she flashed. And Andrew rose
slowly to his feet and faced her.
"Why, if l could, Lecty," he falter-
ed. ''If twas so that l could give up
the peddling!"
They stood facing each other while
the old mother drew the crisp folds of
her best dress into place, anxious to do
all that 'Lecty could expect of her.
'Lecty softened suddenly into drip
of tears and flung her arms about his
neck.
you'll give it up for my sake, An
drew" she murmured. ooh, you will,
you WillH'
Andrew gently withdrew her arms,
his face bewildered and distressed.
eff twas so at I could, 'Lecty," he
said.
For PHYS sake, can't you do some
thing else, or nothing at all, if you have
money enough to live on?' cried 'Lecty,
her voice the sharper now because of
the tears.
81 don't appear to know how to,
'Lecty, seeing I've done it for twenty
years-ever since | was Fifteen" said
Andrew, with the air of one trying to
explain things to himself as well as to
her THE Lord appears to have made
folks different, and given some one
talent and some another"
you can be a great inventor and
make money-that's your talent cried
'Lecty, her face kindling again.
IF l can make money l expect
'twould poster me to spend it," said
Andrew. 81 run of an idea that you
could do that and - and mother n l
could kind of be about the same as we
always have been"
'Lecty looked at him in bewilderment,
at him and his mother.
Il sha'n't think anything of wearing
old lady faltered, land l won't ever put
n, VT inn I1Jf xx-hi no
we can afford to put the washing out"
"Oh, my landI' cried 'Lecty, with
despairing gesture and burst of tears.
And she ran and locked herself into her
room. The next morning she was gone,
and this note was left:
I've gone back to Williston. You can
allow me separate maintenance if you're
a mind to. Anyhow, I've made up my mind
that I'd rather be a dreSsmaker than tin
pedler's wife. Love isn't enough for me,
any more than it is for you. You've got to
have your tin peddling and I'velgot to hold
up my head among folks. You ought to
have married somebody like you and your
mother, without mite nor a grain of am
bition.
I'm sure | wore my best dress and
sat in the best ROOM" complained the
old woman, though it did seem reck
less and unprincipled. l didn't want to
stand in the way of your happiness,
Andrew, and the cap -"
She put up her hand with her accus
toned gesture to restore the cap, but
slipped it entirely off instead, and went
and hid it away in a corner of her
bureau drawer.
She was smiling softly to herself
when she returned to the living room
in her old blue Bingham gown.
She laid her hand on her boys Shout
der, where he sat silent with bowed head.
ANDY, dear. she was another kind.
Can't you forget her?' she said.
Andrew invested his money with
feverish eagernesS to get the largest
possible returns, and the bulk of his in
come was devoted to 'Lecty's separate
maintenance He even scrimped and
saved, and the Carmel housewives were
astonshed to find Andrew Dill driving
sharp bargains.
He heard of Lecty as living in style"
at Williston, her old home. Luxury
suited and became her. She was spoken
OF as very handsome woman, and in
very good society," in spite of her I'M
fortunate position. Andrew had once
overheard the opinion expressed that
such d woman couldn't be expected to
be contented as tin pedler's wife.
Harvey JillsOn of JillSon's Mills, a rich
Wldower, was trying to pay attention to
her. She was discreet and kept him
away, but it was pity that she wasn't
legally separated from her lout of a
husband. That was when 'Lecty had
been having her separate maintenance
for more than three years, and it was
soon after that he reinvested his money
for the sake of still larger gains, and
lost it all. Andrew was not of the stuff
of which financiers are made and was
the easy victim of sharp business
methods.
His own methods of business were
extremely simple; he sold even his tin
wagon and stock and old Peggy to sat-
isfy his creditors. He would have sold
his dilapidated house, too--whose roof
only he had repaired because it was all
that he or his mother wanted-if it had
been of any value.
Then he racked his brain for another
invention. 'Lecty must not lose her
separate maintenance.
But no idea came at his beck and call
The inventive talent is as freakish as
the muses. and as loath to wait upon
necessity.
One day while he struggled for an
idea, sitting with his mother in the twi-
light, the door opened and 'Iecty came