Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-06-03
THE FAMILY

Julia McKeever was the happiest
girl in the world when Jimmy Sands
asked her to marry him, for two
reasons-she loved Jimmy, and she
was going to be in the Sands family.
In Westmore the Sands family had
become almost an institution. There
was the patriarch, old Taylor Sands,
a man of money and churchly reputa-
ton; young Taylor Sands, who had
married the rich Miss Chisholm and
was noted for raising blooded stock
on one of the finest farms in that sec
ton; Sylvia Sands, who had married
Clinton Eliot the clothier, and
Jimmy, the youngest, who was merely
being a nephew, and adopted out of
charity. A lifetime of association
with the Sands had no obvious effect
upon Jimmy, who persisted in being
dull and commonplace and in sticking
to his job as a railroader. In the
light of his past it was no surprise
when he got himself engaged to old
John McKeever's Julia.
The family accepted Julia They
prided themselves upon being mag
unpleasant of course, that Jimmy
should behave So especially as they
had taken him in and given their
name and stamped him with their
own pure mark of quality. That he
could not live up to his obligations
was no 1dulL O1 lIl0lTSs 1t Q1u S6SIn
too bad that he should select Julia
McKeever to be his nfemate when
there were plenty of really worthy
girls whom he might have had. How
ever, since he had pledged himself to
her, they must make the best of it,
Julia understood perfectly that she
was ascending high when she stepped
into the Sands family. And with all
her heart she longed to be worthy of
the great honor of bearing the prec-
ious name. She was only twenty and
Jimmy was her first lover She would
plain Jimmy, without the corollary
of Sands at all, but as it was she
meant to live up to her obligation.
Her brief engagement was a cy
clonic affair. Mrs. Sands. her daugh-
ter and her daughter-in-1aw took her
in charge. They attended to all the
arrangements. They bought the gown
and had it made according to their
own ideal: nothing was left to Julia
herself. She wept often and bitterly.
In truth, she. went to the altar with
damp eyelashes. After weeks
honeymoon she came back to stand in
her place and shoulder her burden.
She and Jimmy lived in the little
house Jimmy had begun paying for
before they were married. The little
house was the result of one of Jim
my's streaks of independence. Usually
he deferred to the family, but Julia
learned to her surprise that occasion
ally he acted outright for himself. At
heart Julia herself was the most in
dependent little woman but she never
allowed her independence to get in
the way of her success with the fam
lily. Not that she was successful
openly-she merely. as she expressed
it, b1undered along. Her attitude was
one of constant Difference and apol-
ogy. A thousand times she was repri-
nnanded, sighted, coudescended to.
She bore it all for Jimny's sake. The
family was his.
Secretly she suffered from a great
MANY storms of the spirit. She cried
many a day, got rid of her rage by
pounding a sofa cushion. Sometimes
it was old Taylor Sands himself,
sometimes his wife or his daughter
or his daugher-in-law. Outwardly
she was always calm and gentle. She
never even complained to her daugh-