The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1901-08-02


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
| it. 1t was known as broadly as that
Hi jennings wife wanted a 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 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
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
church sociables. Who can say what
Lemuel Jilson saw in her? Who shall
smile because he saw it?
He had been up to Pitt Wheeler's,
and made horse-trade, driving thith-
er with his animal, and returning with
his purchase hitched to his blackboard.
The horse, Humboldt by name-Pitt
Wheeler was quite 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, a 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
was in sight, and Lemuel's heart
still heart, though it had pumped
for half century-beat little fast
er. 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
ueIs 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-tha of all
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. Lemuel had seen
once at the county fair symbolical fe
male figures of War and Peace made
with red corn and speckled beans, but
yet gruesomely eXpressive-the one
masterful, rampant, the other majes-
tically serene-and in spite Of himself
he had been put. in mind of his wife
and Emeline Bestor. The Peace was
Emeline.
He was lonesome since Rosy had got
married; and the distant connection
who kept house for him, and used
an oil-cloth instead of table-cloths, to
save washing, and never swept under
the stove, nor the beds, wanted to
go to her daughter in Iowa. If Eme-
line-oh, if Emeline--
AS for old Ephriam Bestor, he would
be an addition to any household; his
chief defect being settled habit of
taking off his boots about noon and
continuing in his stocking feet the
rest of the day, even if the minister's
wife called.
He was nearing the house, and his
eyes focused on Emeline's line of
clothes whitley tapping, her three
cornered verbena-bed and her four red
beehives. Humboldt, too; some sud-
den interest seemed to inspire Hum
boldt-or curiousity. Opposite the
| l. I, L