Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-28

her right hand behind her and her head do
The appartion affected me like frosty wind
sweetheart! What's the trouble?" l CT
wonderment.
Slowly and without response she descen
creaky steps into the full of the daylight,
lips quivering. 1t was no ordinary happeni
would make her thus cast down. With a s
my arm | drew her to my knees. Then it '
sweet face nesting to my cheek, that she
the mirror of the toilet set | had given her.
webbed with cracks like the hlgree of a
web.
And is that all? asked, with laugh.
III be going to the village in the morning al
new glass put in. Don't fret
It's not so much of the glass that I'm Il
Rob, as of what to follow" and the dear on
to sob and moan like child. Its the
death in the family that they say is sure to
happen within the year.
They say" as an authority, exasperatess
me. | answered that such old granny stuff
was not in my mind nor to my liking; that
it was Stiffness to have superstitions making
us their slaves.
But she did not mind me at all, replying,
with sweet stubbornness, Your father
was killed within year of his breaking the
great pier glass; your Uncle James was
dead within a twelvemonth after crack
ing his mirror with a hair brush. And
Aunt Richie has told me"
Bother Aunt Ritchie!" l broke in.
She's i'll judging to torment you with her
omens."
But you know, Rob, she's sometimes
right. This may be one of the times, and,
speaking in a hushed voice Il feel-I'm
sure one of us will be dead before the years
gone!" A smothering kiss and big sob
as she broke away from me was her manner
OF parting tin a o. -, s,o ,uooaoa o,,a-
the abominable presage that was as a die
driven hard down upon her once sunny
nature; and say and do what l might in the
first few weeks following, nothing awaited
to change the run of her inclinations. But
the evil did not stop here; it wedged apart
my plans for the future, and the present
was lived as if under a real sentence of death
Thus it was at the beginning; l came in
time to be unconscously influenced by the
obstinacy of her belief and less inclined to
resist it. The sadness of her face, its
pinched expression of imminent grief, her
lassitude of action, were such constant re-
minders of her fear that at last | doubted
whether it was wise In me to keep up resist
ance.
About midway in the year | found that
unwittingly and imperceptibly, the omen
and its influences had become intertWisted
with most of my plans. The farm heavily
mortgaged, had come to me from my father.
Poor crops and sparse income had put me
behind in my dues, the interest pacing ahead
without break, SO that my affairs were
grievously bothersome. | was never meant
farmer, it being my ambition and pleasure t.
things, most of which, | am not ashamed to
got no farther away than my own premises.
time my hobby was a windmill, into the pc
of which | had seeded many hours and
When completed it was disheartening to fl
no one wanted 1t at my own or any lesser tlg
Thus it came about that | began to ConsiC
the dark side of Efe-thinking especially
existence would be to me if Madge was dea
her helplessness if | was to be taken, max
calculations just as if it was settled thing t
of us would be dead within the twelvemonth
ieve both of us would have been in the insane
1--WE were on the road to one) had not Pinkh
agent for the sale of my patent, nterfered.
Another dun, | suppose said my wife
tossed letter into my lap
Not that, thank Heaven!" l cried, m
light with the joyful news the nissive /
It's word from Pinkham bidding me come
city at once, as he has sold our windmill, an
surprise besides. There's good luck aheat