Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-07-27
Romance of a Barn Yard !
E BB 80

uIeu.< lie WOuQerGU LndL his VIE ndO
any temper left at all. He grew more
bent, more vexed and worried every
day, and one would hardly have rec
ognized, people said, the dark and
splendid Stephen Thornton of his
youth, in this middle-aged, gray-haired
man; and yet, to our eyes, he was
still quite a remarkable looking per-
son-perhaps more so from our asso-
ciating him with the poetry in Aunt
Helen's life. and making him an OBJ
ject of wonder as to whether or not
they would ever come together again.
But there was little chance Of that.
We had met Mr.. Thornton elsewhere,
but he had never come across our
threshold since the day he went out
with his brides ring. And Aunt Helen's
popularity was that she never forgot.
Could she, then, forget the words he
spoke to her in his anger? Could she
ever forget his marrying another wo-
man in less than a week? 1t had been
in that week and few following that
her hair had turned white. She had
suffered inexpressibly; she had not
slept a night, but she kept up q gay
face. Perhaps she would have suf-
fered If it had not been for our grow
ing up about her. Her life was thus
flied, every minute Of it; she had but
very little time to be lonely, to brood or
mourn. She forgot herself in us. 1t
gave her quiet happiness, and kept
her cOmely. And then she was too
proud; whenever the thought thrust up
its head, she shut the lid down, as one
might say, and sat on it..
But one day-after the time when
the doctor had said Harry was a hope
less cripple, and must lie on his back
the rest Of his life-Aunt Helen
brought home little basket from the
county fair, and took from, the wool
within it two Of the cunningest mites
Of chickens you ever laid eyes on.
Il hate them,' said she; they make
me crawl; but they will amuse the
dear child. They're African"
And so they did amuse him and de-
light him, as he lay on his lounge in
the bay window and watched them
growing up, full Of business. And that
was the way, by the way, that we
came to have chickens round the front
piazza. One night, year after, when
the bantams were quite grown people,
somebody dropped over the fence a
pair Of big black Cochins, that stalked
about as If the earth was too good
to tread on, or as If they were afraid
Of crushing bantam with the next
step. OF course we knew where e
Cochins came from--for nobody else
in town had any-but no one said a
word. Only it was sport the next day
to peer round the corner and see Aunt
Helen, with piece Of bread in her
hand, in doubt whether to have any
thing to do with those fowls or not,
twice extending her hand with the
crumbs and snatching it back again,
and at last making one bold effort,
and throwing the whole thing at them,
and hurrying into the house. But from
that moment the ever-hungry Cochins
seemed to regard her as their patron
saint. She never appeared but they
came stalking gingerly along to meet
her, and at last one made so bold as
to fly up and perch on the back Of her
chair, on the piazza. OF course he was
shooed off with vigor-with a little
more vigor perhaps because Mr.. Thorn
ton had at that moment been passing,
and had seen this woman who would
never keep hens presenting the tab
leau.
1t was two or three days after that,
that Aunt Helen, coming home at twi-
light from one of her rambles by the
river bank, was observed to be very
nervous and flushed, and to look much
as If she had been crying.
tits all right" said our Ned, COM
ing in shortly after her. IT know all
about it. I've been setting my eel
traps; and what do you think-she met
old Thornton"
"Ned!"
''She did, indeed And what'n you
say to that mans cheek? He up and
spoke to her.
"Oh, now, Ned! Before your
Fact! Before me? No, indeed; /
lay low" said Ned, with a chuckle.
"But bless you, they wouldn't have
seen me If had stood high"
For shame, Ned! Oh, how could
yOu-and Aunt Helenw
Guess you'd have been no better in
my place." said the unscruplous boy.
"But there, that's all. If I could listen,
of course you can't"
'.Oh, now, Ned, pleasev we all Choir
used together.
"Well, then. He stood straight be-
fore her. 'Helen,' said he, have you
forgotten me-? and she began to turn
white. L have had time enough said
she.
"Oh, you ought not to have stayed,
Nedr'