Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-03-19
CHAPTER XIV

STlAf EN Nv
t And SO They Were Married-Bu
1 Did They Live Happily Ever Afte
l as the Story Books Have Had ]
Since the Days When the OF
Earth Was Young? That is tn
Real Story.
Life holds many mysteries bu
| among them is none greater than this
= That the lives of some folk Shout
, lead into pleasant places and besid
/ still waters, that most of thei
, troubles should be small ones, tina
, their days should be filled with pleas
ure and their nights with untroublct
slumber. And that there should b,
other folk, in no way responsible, TO
: whom existence is pathway through
: many shadows, for whom many of thu
most enjoyable of life's experience.
are denied, whose days are filled will
endless labor and evenings with
heartache.
At times it seems hopeless mys-
ICIS' HCIc ulc CHOSc WIZ UCSOIHN
small and mean and cynical and say
in their hearts there is no God and
laugh down the philosophers who
contend that the Almighty never
made g. world and then went away to
let it run itself.
And there are others who behold
a soul made strong by the roughness
of the pathway it has trodden, poised
by the shadows it has encountered in
many valleys, indominatablc by the
endless struggles of the days and
sainted by the evenings of sad medi-
tation. And by such is God made real
and life worth while and each new
| day an inspiration.
But what of the folk themselves
who teach the wise men this lesson?
What shall be said for those who by
the manner in which they have done
their work and accomplished their
tasks, have been an inspiration to
other souls, made others broadmind-
ed and gentle and generous and noble
and strong in the faith wherein is
great peace?
What remuneration is there for
those who so live and struggle and
endure and strive to do worthily the
tasks which are left for them to do
that they become bright and shining
lights before men, clarifying their
Father, who is in heaven, salt where
with the earth is savored?
These are the things understood
only by those who with clean hands
and o pure heart aspire to the secret
places of the Most High: That there
is q Glory which comes to these 9TH
CT folk-a Greater Glory than any,
thing which men of little hearts and
little minds conceive.
This, our tale, is love story.
But for the tired scribe whose pen
scratches line after line across the
paper, it is more than that. 1t is
the Greater Glory as he has seen it
descend upon a woman. 1t is the
narrative of a girls Love for a man
and the still greater love for the sons
of that man which she bore him as
has been set down before. But it
does not end with wedding. Few
of us, indeed, live "happily ever at
ter" 1t ends with the coming OF
that Greater Glory as will be sub
sequently set forth. 1t goes beyond
the Commencement of courtship. 1t
follows onward into some of the deep
and sacred tragedies and dramas of
plain, ordinary, day-to-day living.
And the best part of it is this: This
is the story of Everywoman,-your
wife and my wife, your mother and
my mother->a hoped-for tribute, died.
ication, eulogy, testament.
Mary Wood married Jack Purse on
the evening of the day of the auction.
She married him in the little front
parlor of the Methodist parsonage
on School street before the Rev.
David Dodd, who is now sainted old
doctor" Dodd of the Calvary Metho-
dist church. The only witnesses were
Mrs. Dodd, who blew her nose, shed
ears and smiled simultaneously all
through the ceremony, which after all
was so short and simple as to seem
Us though something were horribly
illegal somewhere at starting imme-
diately to live together afterwad.
If, on the evening of her wedding
day, Mary gave a thought to the
dreams she had dreamed, of the gorc
geous wedding which she had
imagined was coming on some wonder
night in the future, of wealth and as
piration and golden opportunity
which married life was to open to
her, no one knew it but herself. If
there was the least twinge of bitter /
sweet disappointment that this simple
little exchange of promises before the
kindly minister was her "great Won
der night" it never disturbed the
outer surface of the love for the
young chap whom she raised her
sweet face up toward when the thing
was done and called him husband.
Despite her mothers experience, her
mothers bitterness, the girlhood of
warning, she had married finally for
,ovc, on eighteen dollars week, ard
before her lay the same variety of
matrimony which year in and year
out has dotted the continent with
millions and millions of homes and
makes up, forsooth, the Great Ameri-