The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-01-17

and late. 1t was such a queer, I'M
couth looking little church, she
thought, and crowded with people
equally queer and uncouth looking.
Almost dirty" was her inward COM
ment; and ignorant, too, she could
see, as they kept glancing askance at
her, disturbing her in her devout
prayers, until she began to think of
the germs which her father had as
sured her were down where her broth
er James was-among just such an
other class of people as these. And
the unfamiliar and unpleasant odors
of the church were very distressing,
not at all like the fresh, sweet smells
in the cathedral at home. 1t was all
so unlike anything Emma Ann had
ever been accustomed to, all SO unlike
was still thinking about it after
Mass, as she stood watching Martha
preparing her brothers breakfast.
And there was tear or two in EN-
ma AIMS eyes. You may as well
know about it. Emma Ann was begin
ming to feel distinct yearning to be
comforted, and she felt somehow
that Martha's heart must be very
large and sympathetic; and, after all,
Martha was a woman.
Martha" she ventured, trying to
repress her emotions. Martha, do
you think Father Norton can be
happy?"
Happy" repeated the incredulous
Martha, as she paused in her task of
observing the coffee. Happy? Why,
of course he's. happy" Martha had
never known any but the barren cOun-
try round about, and Barth, the boom
town." was to her as veritable rose
springing up in the desert, a place fair
enough to make anybody happy. And
besides, that Father Norton or any
I other priest might not be happy any
place where Providence had deigned
to place him was utterly incOmpre-
hensible to mind like Martha'S.
And she was about to explain some
thing like this to Emma Ann when
just at that moment Father Norton
came in, greeting Emma Ann cheerily
with, well, what do you think of my
palatial church,"
But Emma Ann was so lost in her
own establishment at any lack of de-
lection on her brothers part that she
forgot to reply.
| And Emma Ann marveled the more
as four whole long days went by and
she discovered that Father Norton
continued to be happy in the midst of
| his discomforts and privations and
much hard work amid his queer, I'M
couth, and probably ''germy' people.
her dear little brain anew about it all
when her brother came in from some
where, and asked, apropos of nothing
much at all, You know Tom Brent,
don't you, Emma Ann? Tom Brent,
from home, | mean?'
! The pink flooded into Emma AIMS
already pink little cheeks.
Hes coming here announced her
brother, regarding the pink smilingly;
and without waiting for her reply,
added, I'm fact, he's already here
Here? Where? Francis, not
here in Barth? Not Tom Brent?" in
credulously.
The same replied her brother
quite easily. You see, it's his vaca-
ton; ard do you know that Father
Darcy had suggested that Barth would
be a fine place for Toms vacation.
must have forgotten to tell you. The
letter came yesterday. He said that
Tom would find just the things here
that would interest him most. | sup
pose he must have meant on account
of Toms being a civil engineer he
added, explaining, land everything
round here is being civil engineered
at the present time, you know. And
now about that vocation of yours.
| You haven't told me about it yet
"Oh, never mind about that now,
brother Francis" Emma Ann return
ed. Nursing loathsOme lepers seemed
no longer something much to be de-
sired. She didn't think she ought to,
py it made her father, "When's Tom
coming over?'
And so they were married, in Barth,
Father Norton delightfully."- performing
the ceremony in his poor little church,
much to the disappointment of the
other Nortons who wanted a grand
wedding in the cathedral for Emma
Ann and Tom; but Emma Ann insist
ed that she must be married in the
poor little church. She just would
make a sacrifice, after all, you see.
-MDrtie Con0sr. In The Md0nffcdt.