The Carlisle independent., 1907-08-08
BACK TO LONG AGO
OLD-TlME SCENE RECALLED BY
 MIR. PAROKEYAL.
And Understanding, He No Longer Felt Agerieved That He Had Sac rificed His Evening Smoke
 Willing Victim.

"One evening at dinner in the lat ter part of May" said MT. Parokeyal, ''the wife asked me if l wouldn't like to go to the May services at church that evening-with her, of course. I caught her exchanging a glance across the table with our eldest boy, a tyke of ten, when she made the suggestion to me. Therefore said 1 to myself right away, it was a put up job.
 Why, certainly, mother, I'll go glad to- said l, as hearty as l could make it, and then again caught that significant exchange of glances be- tween the boy and his mother, just as if they'd achieved some kind Of victory or other.
 Well, the boy executed his usual disappearance soon after dinner, and then, allowing me to burn up just one cigar, my wife began to hustle and hustle me around, and presently we were on our way to the May serv- ices.
 "'Fine work for you, little lady said to the boys mother. Do you know how many years it's been since I attended May evening serv- ices?
 Please don't tell me- said she. T don't want to hear. And don't ever say anything like that before the chil- dred-you know how they notice these chance remarks, and with that fro mi church and on our way up the center aisle to the pew.
 Well, well, what a long stretch of years that fragrance took me back across-that min- gled fragrance of roses and drifting incense Noticed it the min- ute I set foot within the church. first the smell of the roses that were heaped up on the main altar and on the side altar, and then, as we got in- side, that other aroma of the incense. I declare that those two fused frag- rances-and they go mighty well to- gether, if you've ever noticed-just clean picked me up and set me back on the road a good 30 years, and good bit of that road rigk hard going at that
 T turned and looked at her, and her eyes were shining mighty bright, sure eaough. And she was nOdding in the direction of the altar. l thought that she meant that she wanted me to stop looking around at the decora- tions and things and to pay attention to what was going on at the altar. and so I followed her gaze.
 Well, then I understood the mean ing of that put up job between the boy and his mother.
 For there was the boy on the altar in surplice and cassock, at the right hand of the priest, at that. I under stood all right.
 When I turned to her again her eyes were still shining away like as if they 'd-but, when it comes to that, couldn't see her very we'll myself, for it all came a-romping back to me in an instant that she looked just exactly, for all the world, like my own little mother had looked, away back wonder over the craggy path of the years, when she'd seen me diked out in cas- sock and surplice for the first time for all the world and to the life, Same shining, starry eyes, same trembling around the corner of the mouth, same speaking pride of the features the joy of the mother-woman when she sees one of her own taking part for the first time in a rite at any kind of shrine!
 That's why she'd got me out of my armchair to attend the May evening services. The conspiracy between her and the boy stood revealed. But I didn't feel aggrieved about those sac rificed smokes any longer!"