Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-07-27
107 E were all sitting on the piaz-

mocks among the trees; the sea wind
was blowing over us, the birds were
darling low here and there, and the
bantams and the spring chickens and
the big black Cochins were clucking
and picking in the grass, watched over
by the old King Charles, who redeem
ed us from vulgarity, and 1t was a
scene Of domestic comfort, as Aunt
Helen said. Aunt Helen, by the way,
became very pleasant addition to the
comfortable appearance of the scene,
as she said it. She was just as plump
as a woman ought to be when her
next birthday may be her fortieth. she
had a soft flush on her cheek, where
the dimple was yet as fresh as wnen
she was a girl, and the flush deepened
sometimes into a real damask; her
teeth were like rows of seed corn for
whiteness, and her eyes were just as
brown as brook water; only her hair
that was quite white. Lovely hair,
though, for all that; she parted IL even
ly over her low, level forehead and
above the yet black eyebrows; and we
all declared, every day OF our llves'
that Aunt Helen was beauty.
II used to be-" she had replied; but
that's all gone now. | have put my
youth behind me-"
Perhaps she had. But we young
folks used to think differently when we
saw Mr.. Thornton coming up the road,
and Aunt Helen's eyes resolutely bent
on her work, but her color mounting
and mounting, till the reddest rose
that ever burned in the sunshine was
not SO rich. Mr.. Thornton saw 1t, too,
no doubt, for he always looked and
looked intently all the way by. But
the truth was-I shall have to tell you
all about it II I tell you any-that
when Aunt Helen was 20 years young
er. she and Mr. Thornton had been
lovers ever since they could remem-
Der. They had built their house at
last, and her wedding dress was made.
II she was beauty, he was every
anch her mate-I know he was, be-
cause he is to-day-one OF the men IL
does you good to see, who look as II
they could hold up the world If need
be, and inspire you with confidence in
their powers.
Now. what in the world do you sup
pose that, with their house furnished,
and the cake baked, and dozen years
OF intimate affection to bind them,
Aunt Helen and Mr.. Thornton found
to quarrel about? She declared she
wouldn't keep hens! And he declared
that he wouldn't keep house! That
was the whole of 1t, to condense the
statement; one word led to more, and
finally, In q towering passion himself,
he told Aunt Helen that she had bet
ter learn to control her temper If she
did not want to be vixen entirely,
and Aunt Helen took the ring off her
finger and laid it on the table without
a word and sailed out Of the room,
and refused to see him when he called
In the morning, and sent back his let
ter unopened, and cut the wedding
cake and put some Of it on the tea
table and sent the rest to the fair.
Perhaps, on theswhole, Mr.. Thornton
might have been right. Exactly one
week from that night Mr.. Thornton
was married to Mary Mathew, an in
offensive little body who would have
married anybody that asked her, and
she went into the house that had been
furnished according to Aunt Helen's
taste; and Immediately afterward a
hen-house of the most fanciful de-
scription of architecture rose on the
hill behind his house, full Of fancy
fowl and the little lawn was all alive
with it's overflow, and you couldn't go
by the place without meeting flock
of ropple-crown, or partridge Cochin,
or white Leghorn, or black Spanish,
flying up on each separate piece of
fence to crow out Mr.. Thornton's tri-
umph-reversing the olu tradition of
the GROWER and crying, mo women
rule herer'
They say Mr.. Thornton grew very
old in few years. His inoffensive
little thing Of wife turned out to be
a smart termagant, who led him a
pretty dance. Perhaps she was dissat-
isfied with her piece of heart; but
then she knew that was all when she
took it. He treated her always very
gently-perhaps feeling he had done
her some wrong in marrying her-and
gratified her every wish, although, hav-
ing cared nothing for her in the be-
ginning, it is doubtful If he cared any
more for her in the end. The end
came after Is years, when Mrs. Thorn
ton was killed in railroad collision,
and her husband was left with four
children on his hands; rude, noisy, i'll
faring cubs, as all the neighbors said.
II Mr. Thornton had ever impatiently
CHANGED to think that his punishment
had lasted long enough, he thought
now 1t was just beginning, when he
found himself alone with those chill