The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-03-02
Continued from page 81
THE WEAVER BY THE ROADSIDE.

THE WEAVER BY THE ROADSIDE.
Winter and summer assented the
near enough to visit 'em when it don't
drift too much between here and
there. I've plenty thoughts for COM
pany, and when a body works hard
all day the light hours ain'l SO lone
some, and you're good and ready to
go to sleep when the dark ones come
I'm in bed by half-past eight most
nights"
Just when the curtain goes up at
the theater!" cried Lucy. Il should
die of fear"
mot if you knew there wasn't a
thing to be afraid Of" said the weaver
with kind smile. Nothing ever hap
pens here, and my silver and precious
stones won't get me my throat cut"
She looked about the room whimsi-
cally, yet contentedly.
1T seems dreary, but it is better
than thinking you have something to
trust to, to depend on, and have it
fail. 1t is better to be quite alone than
to be lonely with some one who has
failed you" The bitterness of disillu-
sion was in Lucy's young voice and
her inexperience was loudly pro-
claimed by the worldly wisdom of her
manner.
The weaver glanced at her with
smiling eyes, eyes that were dim from
constant use in poor light and dull
with the darkness of their life-nut-
look, but they had seen enough to be
able to smile at youthful folly
We'll, l don't know about other
folks failing SO much as we think
they do she slowly, remembering
what she had read in the distance as
she watched Jim and Lucy climb the
hill, and wondering how she might
help them. Il kind O. think we fail
ourselves, mostly, expecting what isn't
reasonable, and not being ready
enough to take what is there. You
see lots of folks don't love ony one
well enough to let 'em be themselves.
They keep fixing up in their own
minds what other people ought to do,
and how they ought to act, and when
the others don't run on that track
they get hurt-it's more'n likely all
the time that the other folks don't
even rightly understand what's ex-
pected of 'em. How can they, when
words don't sound the same to diff
ferent ears, and lots of folks is-well
if not color blind, at least color-dim-
sighted?"
There you are!" cried Jim empha-
tically.
"Oh, it take a weaver to understand
what queer things people'll stick to-,
sure they're right laughed the old
woman. Look at this very piece Of
carpet I'm working on now. The
woman I'm weaving it for said she
dyed these rags herself to be sure
and have the right shade o'pink to go
with the roses on her painted set, and
nothing any one'd say would make her
believe twas fiery red" She point
ed to the vivid scarlet stripes with a
chuckle Now, let me tell you, my
DEAR the weaver continued, pulling
her chair closer to Lucy's and. bend
|
makes body see how life gets woven.
Don't you know we cut up our own
material, dye 'em, too, lots of times?
And then we get EN- woven by some
one else, but it's always out of our
own rags, cut up by us, and our own
dyeings. You see I'm all alone, but l
guess I needn't have been. Once I
had fine strong warp to get woven
in with my rags, fine, strong warp!
True blue twas, but I got to thinking
maybe twas some other color-partly
that, and partly wanted to dye it all
over to suit myself. l tell you, young
folks, love is awful exacting thought
l loved this dear man l was going to
marry, but-well, did love him, but
not enough, not near enough! We
don't love enough till we're ready to
make allowances for everything that
isn't sin, and it isn't love that makes
us get offended and unforgiving-or
if it's, it's love O. self. Things went
wrong between us; little things at
first, then bigger ones, till we had
real quarrels. and at last we parted.
I'm Catholic, my dears, and we think
a promise to marry is a solemn
thing"
1--WE are Catholics" said Lucy, and
Jim looked up for the first time, as
he sat studying the cracks in the floor
with a glimmer of light in his gloomy
eyes at Lucy's I'VE"
rs that SO? Well, then you know
all about it, said the weaver heart
lily. 81 felt widowed when my Jim left
me-
JIM" cried Lucy involuntarily.
The weaver nodded Jim; my dear
true, patient, good Jim," she said un
4 steadily "The man T was going tC