Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-07-10
THE SAVING
OF PETER
By EUGENE UHLRIcH
Copyright, 1901, by Eugene Uhlrich

q Copyright, 1901, by Eugenie Uhlrich g
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Mrs. Minna Schmitt stood at the
kitchen door of Merriam's big house
and looked at the changing west Ev-
cry moment the light was growing
fainter and duller, and still Peter
Burns did not come in to the supper
that had been waiting for him over
two hours. This was strange of Peter,
strange but suspicious of anybody else
after having been "'lectioneering' all
afternoon with the old judge Mrs. Mer-
RAMS husband.
Mrs. Schmitt did not like the judge.
The worst men in her eyes are those
who always seem so nice and pleasant
to everybody and between times get
drunk and abuse their wives. If such
men were only mean all the time, peo-
pie would not blame their wives for
everything that goes wrong, as the
village did Mrs. Merriam when she had
the old judge bound over to keep the
peace. Since that time the judge had
been obliged to live at the village ho-
tel, and Mrs. Merriam was left in the
big house. Now when the judge want
ed to see Mrs. Merriam he drove up to
the gate and whistled for her. Then
Mrs. Merriam put on her best dress
and went driving with him, for the
judge was really very pleasant when
he was in a "good temper" as Mrs.
Merriam herself would have put it.
Every evening she made Peter drive
down to the hotel to see that the judge
got to bed without his boots. The judge
paid those of his bills that he could
out of his practice, and Mrs. Merriam
paid her own out Of the place and the
summer guests" Sometimes she paid
an odd one Of the judges.
Minna could not see but what it was
much better so, though whenever she
went to the village she had to hear
something about women who wear the
'pants" and like remarks, which passed
for wit thereabout. But Minna, who
had had sharp and happily short
married experience of her own, loftily
ignored these supposed jokes, for her
German tongue was too slow to risk
answers. The delectable Peter himself,
who made possible the harmony of the
present conditions, was Irish. He drove
the judge home one day when the
judges driving was a bit uncertain,
even for horse that could find the
oil OF 1n
horse and looked after things that
evening, and he had been doing so ever
since. Now he was the one person who
was able to travel cheerfully the some
times slippery path between the inn
and the house at all times.
And still he did not come in. Minna
bethought herself that she ought to go
over to the stables. Tomorrow would
be Sunday, and Peter often needed a
stitch put in somewhere. 1t was not in
Minna's quick fingers to see any one
untidy on Sunday if she could help it.
So she went over to the stables-not
that she was curious or, even worse,
worried. Things did look queer. The
road wagon was standing in the drive
way, the cushion left shiftlessly on the
seat, and Peters best coat lying across
it. After a moment Minna's sharp ear
heard deep breathing, and there ON
bench inside the door lay Peter, fast
asleep. Now Minna could not believe
that any man would go fast asleep
without his supper unless there We're
something wrong. But she was used to
doing things, not standing and looking
at them. She took the cushion off the
seat and, along with the coat, carried
1t into the carriage she'd Something
hard in one of Peters pockets struck
her hand, and she knew it at once for
bottle. 1t was almost empty, and the
contents were not to be mistaken.
Then she tried the other pocket. Be
hold, another bottle!
THAT camel of a judge" she NUT
tered. "He has five stomachs, and he
does not rest until everybody is like
him." The zeal to save woke in her,
and she did not ask herself whether
she had that fine zeal for every waver-
ing soul or only for Peters She took
the bottles and hurried to the kitchen
with them
Mrs. Merriam met her at the kitchen
door. Where is Peter?" she asked.
Minna marched past her and tragically
held up the two bottles in front of her.
"Minna," gasped that lady, what
what have you been doing?"
"I?' screamed Minna. "Peter, you
meanw
"Peter! Oh, Peter, Peter, you, too,
Peterv' walled Mrs. Merriam as she
sank down in chair. "But wait; this
is the first time, and there is still hope
for him. 1 have it, And she hurried
to her medicine shelf and came back
with bottle with some brown stuff
in it. "This will make him wish he'd
never touched any election whisky in
his life. Run and slip them back, Nh
na"
Minna obeyed and then MIXED the
complaining cows, grown restless wait
ing for Peter, and when everything
was well done she went up to her room
and cried bit. In the morning she
was up earlier than usual. There
seemed no use in waiting for Peter to
drive her to early mass this morning.
She trudged along the damp road from
which the late August sun had not yet
drawn the dew, and her feet somehow
felt very heavy.
ut is damp morning." she said,
looking against the shining mist. Here
and there dead leaf f1uttered in front
of her. The sun was soft and warm
and the green of the trees deep and
dark in the glistening moisture, and
yet it all kept her thinking that win
ter was near and that she herself was
thirty y-fve. As she passed little house
on the road where old Anse, the chore-
man, lived with about a dozen grand
children, she heard a childs fretful
| cry. ''Must be it's sick. I'll have to ask
| Anse"
When Minna came out of the church,
she had start that must surely have
| given her nervous shock had she
been of less hardy fiber, for there was
Peter waiting as usual.