The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-05-14

ing to make peace between you. Really,
you must quit this, this loud talk will dis
turb the patients"
1.-THE patients! The patients! Always
the patients! You never think of any
body but passed. of sick Yankees, who'd
be heap better off dead. Pm nothing,
and your wife's feelings nothing, along
side of some worthless Yankees stomach
ache. 1t certainly is dreadful to think
of having wasted my young affections
ltwining them around you"
| MY love, you must not talk that way,
nor so loud, Be reasonable, my dear.
| Do"
BE reasonable. I'm not reasonable,
amt l? To think you should dare tell me
that-me, scion of the best aristocracy
of the South, before these people. 1t
makes me ill. 1t does, indeed, Now,
want you to assert yourself, DR.. BrOokes!
Be man and an officer. Order these wom-
en- to apologize to me, and promise in
future to obey my orders. If you have
any authority, and any manliness, you
will protect your wife. l rank them, be-
ing the wife of an army officer and them
just civilians anyhow.
'Now, Sophronia, l must ask you to
calm yourself. There is no such thing
as ranking among women. All this can
be amicably arranged, if you will just
quiet down. I will try and get you
colored servant. These are ladies like
yourself" he concluded with an uneasy
laugh.
''Dr. Brookes," she cried, angrier than
ever, come back into our room. I'll not
demean myself by having a scene before
these-persons, but I'll give you lesson
in courtesy to the wife of Your bosom. l
will that"'
NO, Sophronia; I'd rather not" an
swered her husband, with shudder. ''You
go back and dress, and I'll finish my shy
ing, and take time to think this matter
over"
ITO think that ever brought myself
to marry a man who hasn't the backbone
of an oyster, and him a Yankee" was
Mrs. Brookes's parting shot as she
ilounced out of the room. ''I'll make you
all rue this, see if l don't" she screamed
shrilly as she slammed the door.
Mrs. Klegg and the girls dismissed the
episode at once. They were eager to fin
ish the breakfast, and get into see the
boys, whom the Deacon was diligently
grooming for the day. They were genuine
women with large natures, even though
uncutured. They instantly measured
Mrs. Brookes at her true worth, and de-
clined to worry over her.
.'.Why, you chaps are getting well like
a.
Deacon. as he noted the great improve
ment in their condition. You show up
like six bits this morning."
What else can you expect, Pap, when
fellows wife comes away down here
to see him." asked 81, blithely.
''Twouldn't be showing the right kind of
appreciation of her to be moping around,
would it?"
mo, indeed, it wouldn't" echoed Shorty.
Girls is great tonic to a sick young
fellow" remarked the Deacon sagely.
"And to a well one, too
deacon, if you'll hold the basin, I'll
try to wash myself, !" said Shorty, his old
expectation of Maria's visit. You're aw-
full kind and nice, but You don't always
seem to hit the right spots, either with |
the water or the fowl"
aspect that's So" admitted the Dea-
con. mo man can ever put another mans |
hat on to suit him, and no barber that
ever shaved me wiped just where he
should"
Shorty sat upright. and washed his face |
and hands and combed his hair so pains |
takingly that he sank back exhausted just |
before Maria beamed in, bearing u bowl !
of broth for him.
Annabel followed, with one for 81, and |
there was half hour allowed them by |
the Surgeons orders.
To 81 and Annabe it was the delicious
dawn of their married life-the joyous
April of their acquaintance with one an
other in their new relation of husband
and wife. The happy past of courtship,
with its vicissitudes of hopes and doubts,
Of bubbling ecstacies and sickening fears,
was now replaced by the incomparably
higher happiness of serene possession.
eager to show what a dear little
wife she would really be, futtered about
with a thousand little caressing attentions,
and 81 beamed in the joy of such Il treas
ure for his very own.
With Maria and Shorty it was quite
otherwise. Every step in Shorty's recov-
cry made Maria just that much more coy
and reserved. She was mot going to lose
her dues of courting," as the Scotch lassie
put it. She had come all the way from
Indiana, when Shorty was at deaths door,
stretching maidenly reserve to its last