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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1895-9-13, Page 6COIN' THRO' THE RYE. Bee latILIten It. MATHER& COOISTIeTtialna "Good -by," I say, in faintest, dreadest whisper; but he does not move or OneWer, AU( noiselessly 1 step past hina ; btlt when I he% e gone a seere or so of steps,. I pause shuddering, for over the eold desolate fields Moses the vvild and bitter ery of Strong man In his pain: "0 God! 0 God!" CUA.PTER V. Spring! The dainty, lovely guest has etolen upon us early this year, sweeping away the dinging mists and frosts of the dying winter with her warm, fragrant skirts; touohing the sober brown hedgee with her fairy wan& m.tt1 lo! they' nave bloomed forth into rarest tapestry of pow- dme- geren :led downy delicatest spikes of it. Well, I hvo, rt is true, and sleep,. eat, to got Manta I made up n ohignen out of an that bad been. MO off, atin need to Pat Oner rint short earls, but I was Always losing it, and at last Pepper foand it out and worried iG to hit, and there was an end of my first unlawfol adornment. I wonder iS I look that popular object of riaicule, a blighted being, as I sit meter the oak -tree in my smart print gown, with all the flowers creeping about my 'feet and tbe bonny blue sky over my head? I pull back my slecove and look at my epin ; it is not very fat, but it is. not lean, mid my fingers have dimples in them still--decid- edly,grief has not altogether made fa, wreck and a ruin of me, That is the beauty ot never having been partioularly handsome; where there is so little to lose, the differ. once is not perceptible. Dolly says that if I had more oolor sbould look exactly as I did three years ago, and I believe that she and mother both think that I am beginning to get over ys. ew, starring. the banks with faint pale drink, lartg. n even, much as I used to do, bat I am like a body of which one half is paralyzed, while the other retains its vigor; the inevitable, every -day, common side is pa:erases awl purple -breasted violets, oar- pettne the woodland); with grayish wind Dowers and slender blue -bells, that sway all their dainty blossoms with every soft quick' and oapable; the other; God and my wind that steals about them. She has set owu heart only know about that. I never all the young leaves waving, the birds was ono to keep up a running complaint singing and her south wind. blowing, and. about anything; when I was glad or sorry, over the pulsing, throbbing, blossoming I always made a great noise over it, and earth her light feet have skimmed, leaving had done with it; so in tho fortnight tbat beauty, life, and gladness everywhere. The preeeded my illness I think I exhausted all poor, the sick., the lonely, the rieh, the power of active susl ovine, and that for the happy; the sad, love her equally, and \seal- rest of in7 life I can oary endure passive - come her with pager, smiling faces and. ey. ontsretched loving arms. I do not believe in any healthy matt or Ay! Spring brings a holy, softening in- woman dying for love, unless they sot fluenco with her, and jogs the memory of themselves deliberately to do so. They men and. women alike to better things and must be either v1010115 or weakto do so,for better hopes. And she brings to me 730 , it is a little -minded nature that,possessing more and no less than green loaves, blue many good gifts, counts life as stale and skies end gay flowers. No delight creeps worthless beoatise the one thing he desires through me as I see the first early blossom is withheld from him. Shame and dis- parting the browu earth; no thrill stirs grace may well kill, and do, but mere suf- me as the trees, one by one, each after other don their varied livery. I think I shall soon be like the man of whom it was writ- ten that. " A primrose by the river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more." Often I shut my eyes, that I may not see the flowers growing so bravely on the stalks. They were here last summer, they will be here next; they are but poor per- ishable little things, and yet they come back to us every year, milke those human blossoms that we lay away from our sight with such bitter, passionate tears and. cries, eilhat man or woman mourns his dead in the bitter, ice -bound winter as they do in the tender, warm, passionate spring, when every flower, and. bud, and leaf, and birl is quick and living, rioting in life, and praising God each after his kind! All things eeem to remember. The birds cry, "We aro calling him, we tering never; the human heart must have something; more than sbnple pain before it breaks. It is considred a poetical thing enough to cile for love; surely men must know by this time hew infinitely easier a thing it is than to live for love! The inan who takes up his burden and bears it bravely has my honor, but he wile lies down, and lets the waters of adversity swirl over his head,bas my hearty contempt. I ask no pity, and, what is better still, no one ever offers me any. I make just as much hurry to be down in time for prayers as ever I did in ray life; I still love that unlawful ten minutes in bed after being called, that has cost me so dear on many a terrible occa- sion: still, with a dexterity acquired by long practice, work at the rusty pump of daily conversation at the family table. I feel snubbed and miserable when the gov- eruor calls .a:te by the time-honored title of a dummy, and distinctly indignant when he apostrophizes nie as a peacock, when are calling him I" The leaves rustle and my tail does not even touch the ground, whisper, "Where is he, where?" The and, though I am growing as old as the flowers murmur, as they shake their beUs, hiUs, I have never yet relieved my feelings "He used to pass this way." Every tiny by making a good face at him to hie 'face. blade of grass, every trill of the blackbird I can still see the absurd side of things brings the past quivering before us—the as quickly as the sad, though for the mat - days when we had our beloved, and could ter of that the one frgeuently suggests the look in his face, and put out our hands to other. Now and then I feel a desperate touch him,that we seek to bridge and can- distaste for my bright -colored dresses and not, with abitter, yearning painthat is the insouciant ways, and lean severely toward intenser by reason of its impotence. sackcloth and ashes, while as to temente- 1 wonder why 1 am thinking so regret- tion I doubt not 1 (mold lift ap my voice fray to -day of thosepoor, voiceless, eyeless, in a dolorous howl with the best. These dead people? I have my dead, it is true, luxuries being denied me, I am garbed but they are not lying under the grass,but like any other Christian, and my voice is deep down in my heart. God has not yet seldom raised. in anything more distracted coma to the names of any of my people or , than a bellow across -country after one of the few strangers that I love. the boys. There is some One of whom I always I wonder if I shall live to he an old wo- think as dead, though I know that he is man? Perhaps, and take to flirting in my numbered among the living. Only by old age like Cleopatra, Helen ttf Troy, and thinking of him thus can I keep the high the rest. Until the other day I never knew wall standing between us from falling and that Anthony's goddess was thirty years crushing beneath it my hard-won, icy old when she fell in love with him; that composure, If I ever thought of him as Helen of Troy was forty when she eloped living, breathing, sleeping, laughing, sor- with Paris,sixty when she returned to her rowing, I could not bear my lot; every long-suffering husband. MadameRoca- oonamon sight, and sound, and aot would inier was reckoned the most beautiful wo- send my thoughts leaping toward him; man in Europe from the age of thirty - and, since I cannot forget, I will not think. eight to fifty-three; Aspasia ruled royally I will not stand in a fair garden and, lift- from the age of thirty-six to that of sixty; ing my eyes, behold hins.—far away, in- and ever so many more of them ; and to my deed, but sitll like unto me; subject as I thinking it is a miracle, with all these am to God's sun, and ram. and snow and frisky matrons on record, that our mothers heat—rather do I set my feet on a barren and grandmothers don't cast about their shore, where no living thing can come; eyes among the neighboring squires for a where I can look north, south, east, and. Paris, an Anthony, or anything else with brought his wife and son. There are queer west, and see not one speck of anght to a presentable natne. stories abroad., I am told, about his rola- break the dull, gray monotony. I did not What silly thoughts I have fallen upon 11 tions with his wife." come out to think dismal thoughts, look at my wateh; six o'clock; more than Here the governor pauses, and gives an though. The world looks very fair this time for me to go home. I pick up my uneasy glance at Dolly and me, as fathers morning, like a great, softly splendid em- hat, alrnost as shabby and quite as unbe- and mothers have a knack of doing when erald set about with sparkling precious coming as the one I used to wear at tbe they find the conversation turning snore stones. The old trysting-place--that trysting place that to meat than to I have never passed, never looked at since "What are they?" asks mother, with a that Christmas morning. In our rambles certain curiosity in her voice; gentle as she at Papa's heels, if he has gone that way I is, I aux sure it would grieve her to hear have dropped behind and struck across the evil spoken of Silvia Vasher. foot t and her son le here, her's and. Paul's. Ayl she has triumplied. over me in very truth, and she is unix ouly Paul Vasber's. Wife, but the mother of his ohild, They Must matte a handsome family, the date; strong-fteed father, tile exquisite mother, the pretty boy. I dere, say I shall see it some day. No doubt he has grown to leave nor is sbe not Wand to him by a closer, tenderer to then he dreamed cif, when he swore not to. go baelt to her that Christmas morning? tiod allay not time, man's in- constaney, and her own maddening loveli- ness, have closed the wounds that gaped'ae widely three years ami more ago? Three years ago 1 Little enough to a wom an, with her empty, uniform days; an eternity to a nian who has a man's busy, eventful life to load, ele must have forgotten me, or he could. never liave borne to come back to a. place which mast remind him, at every turn, of the old dos. And yet the man I saw looking out, over the field of rye, two hours ago, looked like anything rather than a man with his heart as rest. If he would only go away soon, and. leave me in peace—or that dull refuge of apathy that I misname peace I—Mother' comes in, and sits beside rue in the half light. "You know he has oorne back, dear?" she says. "I know it, mother." "He might haee stayed away," she says, with a quick auger in ber tone; "he ought to ha-ve known better than to come." She does not love him. Poor mother! to her, he is the man through whom her daughter's life has been spoiled. "Ile has been away long enough, mother. He could not stay forever. You forget the estate. No doubt he was forced to come." "Well says mother, sighing, "the misery of it all we know'the unpleasant- nesses of it have now to be faced." "Yes, they have to be, surely enough. 'What mortal can remain on the mountain tops of misery always, and is not obliged to descend to the valleys of commonplace consideration now and then? "Idon't knave what to do, "says mother. "As to calling on, and receiving that wo- man, I will not." (It must be a very bad female indeed that goads mother into call- ing her "that woman,") "And if I refuse to do so, your father will insist on knowing the reason, and you made me promise you that 1 would not tell him about you and Mr. Vasher." "And you must not," I say, starting up, and sitting down again. "Tell the whole world, but never tell him!" "Very well," says mother, sighing; "then you must put up with the chance of meeting her; and remember, Nell, that you lay a heavy burden upon me, not only of deceit toward your father, but great un- pleasantness as regards myself. It is some- thing, indeed, that I should have to take the band of a woman who has done you such horrible injury a "She won't come here, mother, dear," I say, kneeling down by her side; "and you need only leave cards." ""It is such a pity," goes on mother, "that your father liked the Vashers al- ways; if he were quarrelling with them, as he does with everybody else, there would be no trouble. I am afraid you will have to meet him," she says, stroking my hair gently; then she adds, wistfully; "Is it so very hard to you, dear? It should not be by nuw." Mother does not understand quite. My story seems a very long while ago to her. "Don't be afraid, mother: if we do meet face to face, I dare say 1 shall know how to behave." "Supper is waiting," says Dolly, enter- ing hurriedly; and we go down -stairs with much haste and more fear. The governor's visit to Now Zealand has not altered him in any way, neither have the added years made any perceptible change in his appearance. To -night he is in an amiable mood, and there are no des- perate pauses and pregnant hiatuses in the conversation. How easy it is to arnuse a man when he pulls with you, not against youl "So Vasher has come back?" he says to mother, when he has got his pipe, and is blowing out long, comfortable clouds that mtk401.:st,all cough and wink again. ' "High time he did, too; the estate's go- ing to wrack and ruin. And he has " Flowers. purple, blue and white, Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embrold.- ery," speckle the meadows and banks, exquisite- fields for another path. My way back to "A pack of lies, no doubt; they always ly pure and delicate in their first robe of the house lies very near it; front a hedge are whore a bandsome woman's concerned. thousand, thousand shades of green and that I shall pass I can see it quite plainly, I am told she is magnificent. They say yellow; so young and fresh are the leaves but I never have any wish to see it. I he left her two days after he married her, yeethat they look as though a rough hand should even like an earthquake to come and never returned to her for a year. would brush the bloom from their surface. and swallow up the spot that has such bit- don't believe a word of it myself, for the The light quivers and plays hide -and- ter -sweet memories. I leave the woodland, Vash ors were never hasty ni en they al - seek with them, and shadows dance on the thinking how pretty it is, and that I will ways lookecl before they leaped, and I never grass as though they were tripping a mea- bring Dolly with me to -morrow, and go heard of one of them marrying beneath sure to music from unseen. fairies ; the bees along the lane that leads homeward, and, theme -which is more than can be said of and waters mingle in a low symphony, coming to the place whence the field of rye most good families nowadays, where at bearing up the exulting song of birds, who is visible with the old stile, sonaeovernaas- leas no cook, or housekeeper, or worse, sing not because they are bid, or because they have anything in particular to say, but because they are happy; their little bodies are full of rapture, and it overflows In their voices. Down here in the wood- land the earth is carpeted with pale azure bluebells, that seem but a reflection of the sky overhead; and among them spring the win deflowers, swaying their pinkish white heads in the sunlight, and the frail stitch - wort, pearliest of beautica, opeus her snow- white breast to the soft tar; the lords and ladies stiff and tall, overlook all the little woodland flowers, like a proud king and queen set to watch over the revels of the humbler folk. .A. clash of bells rings out across the fields, and I lift my hands to my e trembling violently, Since a certain Christmas morning, three years and more ago, the sound of those bells has been to nee ilke the touch of a coarse band on an unhealed wound, and I have to hoar them so often. All through that desperate brain - fever I had, they jangled and peeled. through my head; bells, bells, that almost rang me out of this world and into the next. I take ray hands away from in ears; shall 1 not have to listen to the sound through all the years of my Manna think to myself how like wedding -bells they sound? There is a mad exulting hurry ma thole peal, as though they could not utter themselves fer joy; ancl yet no one is like- ly to bemarried at four of the clock in the afternoon, Poo.s Weird verses alwaye come into my mind whoa I listen to bells, wonder could any other man have caught t loft meaning so perfectly, and written it :town so faithfully? That is a great gift to Iowa, not only a beautiful idea, but to clothe ft in the right words. As I listen My thutighte go beck to that day, lust three yours ago, when 1 looked in itty gittee and saw my hair just beginning to grow III short thick locks over my head; it line almost all come back to me now, but it is not 80 'long 08 It used to be, When 1 began tering impulse impels me to climb the bank and look over. part the boughs, and see, standing, with arms folded, on the top of the stone, Paul Vasher, looking out at the tender green and fresh spring beauty of gold and meadow and wood. CHAPTER VI. "You know?" asks Dolly, swiftly, as she lays her two hands on my shoulders, and looks into my face. "Yes, I know;" and in the soft spring twilight Igo upstairs into my dusky pink and white hamber. "When the bell rang out," says Dolly, vtith a certain allZiolls besitation. 'every- body wondered, and Larry went into the church to ask the reason. 'Mr. and Mrs. 'Washer return this afternoon,' the ringers said; and ten minutes after they dove by. I looked for yen everywhere, dear. Nell! Nell! do you mina so very much?" "Kind!" I say, looking at the direplegd, aresh face of my eighteen -year-old sister; I doo't think 1 mind. 1 have seen him, Dolly." "What! And spoken to him?" Ile did not see rao." "How long ago?" "Perhaps an hour." "Don't fret, darling," the says, putting her arm town' my Oeck ; "perhaps be moves in the family circle. Mrs. Vasher is one of the Flemings of—shire." Never before did I hear so long and peaceable au oration from the governor. Pla'aily the subject has a soothing :affect upon his mind. "If these reports are afloat," says mother, "will you wish me to call upon her? There are the girls, you know." But this little diplomatic move avails her nothing. "Vasher must not be slighted,"says the governor; "so you will call upon her and take the girls." Dolly turns rod as a turkey -cook, and screws up her mouth in a form that says plainly enough, "Never!" I go on with my fox's nose without a word. "The Tempests return tiext week," says papa, with a grateful change of subject. "What the old man can be thinking about to race about the world as he does—" Here he pauses expressively. "Do you hoar, Dolly?" I say to her. "George is coming back! Are 'you not glad?" "Vety,'"' says Dolly. As I look at her pretty, blooming face a happy thought strikes me. Why should not she and George mato a match? She always liked him, and he would suit her far better than he °vet would have suited won't stay long, and you need not' inent me. I wonder what he has been doing hire," With himself these last two years? dis- NO, I need not; but WM he net breathe tinguishieg hinaself, I hope. the saane air that I breathe—see the same ; Bedtime 007no 3. "Good -night I good - people that I see? Is he not alive and night!" At last I am in itty chamber; the q utak, hero, instead of a shadow moving door 15 locked, and I arn alone. loon my somewhere out of my sight? Sooner or Window wide, and the soft,rnoist alt creeps later, I have always known, Pani most in with the faint earthy smell that ever :tome to the house of his fathers; but not wanders abroad in eaaly spring, whisper- thus—not without warning. He shoula at ing that Netute's forces aro stirring at least have gittort inc time to get myself their sourees,and prep tting new aod beau - away, and now be is here. The whole tiful treasures for our oyes' delight World was not wide ottough to lie betWeen There is no moon, and the darkness M- use and now there le a patch of grass, A folds irie in its softness, and seems to hide few trees and flowera, and that is all, And me away --body and soul, ttuborn thought Mouths Of the beatitiful. Who does net the Woman IS 'With hint Who took itie life and ceneelons feeling, anxious fear and feel his heart turn warmly toward the joy - In hand, and trampled It tinder hot trembling joy, Joy! What hese° 1 to de aagettgugne Witb II) this night? AS though it were a Onion, I must send from me the heavenly \ Isaac that has stayed so long away from me, lett toy soul perish. Is it; a sin that, my oyes beholding htne to- day, have been blest incleedt 10 it a crime that my body is one ache to feel the mer- est friendliest touoh of his hand, my ears one eager hearkening for the sound of his voioe? And this is my streegth, this Ma oomposure,that I have built up so slowly and painfully, to melt away like snow be- fore the sun at a mere glimpse of his un- eonscious faee Is it as another woutan's husband that I think of him ; or as my lost lover, who cleaves to The through time and space, and who is mine as I am 1115? Less of fear than delight moves me, wis aix knowing he is oome to me, that 1 have seen hinea living, breathing man, instead of a gray shadow in spirit -land, divided from me by a river my feet shall never cross. My mind contemplates the misery and bitter circumstances of the situation—the sight of my eneniy filling my place, usurp- ing my rights. My heart sweeps away all paltry, trivial considerations and, looking the truth fairly in the face, sees and recog- nizes, trembling, the danger of the hour. It bids me put all toy armor on, since love that is lawful, strengthens, and love that is unlawful makes men and women alike weak as water—ay! better and stronger ones than are Paul and And since I know my danger, and meet it, not hiding my countenance from it as a phantom that a lying spirit would tell me does not exist, 1 show a fairer °mirage than he who vaingloriously goes forth to battle trusting in his own strength, with- out sending up one prayer for safety. This night, then, is my breathing -space, and in it 1 will struggle to convince W- olf that to disobey any natural beautiful instinct of my heart is virtue—to indulge every Irresistible impulse and longing, sin; to make my heart cold and hard as steel, my eyes blind and dull as those of a mole; to transform myself from a creature of flesh and blood, subject to hittaan passions, to a chill, black automaton. Then, may be, I shall be able to meet him, not as my lost, lost lover, but as the husband of an- other woman. This is my task. Oh, Night, your hours are long and si- lent, and the faint day -break of the morn- ing comes not yet. CFIAPTER VIL It is Sunday mornine and all Silver - bridge that is not bedridden, infidel, and naked, is sitting in church listening to Mr. Skipworth's dr ning voice that makes up In sound what it lacks in sense. The chancel -door is open, and through it nay eyes, weary of gazing at the vacuous rot- undity of my pastor and master's counten- nee, wander, refreshed by the pale green of the young leaves on which the lights and shadows quiver and leap. A bird, lighted on the threshold, is sending his shrill, clear song straight into the church, and Mr. Skipworth shakes his head impa- tiently as though he said, "how dare that impudent bled lift up his voice while Tam speaking?" But oh! how much more sweetly does the voice of the ignorant bird inform our hearts and ears than that of the preaohing, reasoning man 1 PITIVIR DRINKS. A DRINK THAT WILL FILL ONF„'S VIS* ION WITH SEA tEFIPENTS. lembriety In the City of 1'dexico-1'11341w Shops IR n Every Cereor-,Eoseeihles Green Inalt---Certaio 111$7ttures. Make It Double Injurious, The first thing to be clone by the invest!. gating tourist of this country' is to begin to drink the national beverage, puique. The second thing to be done by the inves- tigatieg tourist is to cease to drink p.nique. This last reoommendation, however, Is necessary to no one. The human In- clination acts automatically, so to speak-, in this ease. If the great drunkard, of the drama should raise his right hand and swear solemnly never to tout% another drop of intoxicating pulgna as long as he lived—so help him heaven—he would make himself ridiculous. It would be too simple. Why should a man ever taste a drop of pulque after having once collided with it? But this does not relate to the Mexicans. This relates to the foreigner who brings with him numerous superstitions and racial, fundamental traditions ooneerning odors. To the foreigner, the very proxi- mity of a glass of pulque is enough to take him up by the hair and throw him vio- lently to the grouted. • Itsresembles green milk. The average man has never seen green milk, but if he can imagine a handful of earls green inter- • poleted into a glass of cream, he will have o fair idea of the appearanee of pulque. And it tastes like—it tastes like—some terrible concoction of had yeast perhaps. Or maybe some calamity of eggs. This, bear in mind, represents the opin- ion of a stranger. As far as the antagon- ism of the human stomach goes,thero can be no doubt but that Imams) bears about the same relation to the uninitiated sense as does American or any kind of beer. But the iirSt encounter is a revelation. One understands then that estimation is every- thing, even as the philosophers say, and that we would all be eating handvriohes made from door -mats if only circumstances had been different. To tbe Mexican, pulque is a delirium of joy. The lower olasses dream of pulque. There ate pulque shops on every corner in some quarters of the city. And, lined up at the bar in conventional fashion, the na- tives may be. scan at all times, yelling thirsty sentences at the bar -keepers. These pulque shops are lasnally decorated both in- side and out with the ieal ola paintings done on the walls by the hand of some un- known criminal. Looking along the pale walls of the streets, one is ;tattled at every cermet by these sudden hued interjections of pulque green, rod. blue, yellow, The pulque is served in little brown earthen mugs that are shaped in miniatnre pre- cisely like one of the famous jars of the orient. The native ean get howling full for any- thing from twelve cents to twenty cents. Twelve cents is.the equivalent in Ameri- can coinage of about six :tents. Many men The bucolic part of the congregation sit of celebrated thirsts in New York would stolid and sleepy. They have listened to him Sunday after .Sunday for the last twenty years, most of them will listen twenty more; and, if he were to suddenly awake out of his sloth and preaoh a good rustle very savagely for his pulque money. rousing sermon, it would probably dis- When he gets It he is happy, and the agree with them horribly, and give them straight line he makes for one of the flam- e moral indigestion, making them unoom- ing shops lute never been outdone by any fortable for weeks. If you put the question ' metropolitan iceman that drinks. In the to them whether they would like to be meantime the swarm of pulque saloons spiritually awakened, they would tell you are heavily taxed, and the aggregate that they do very wellies they are, andsee amount of their payments to the Govern - no necessity whatever for a vigorous stir- ment is aboost incredible. The Indian, in ring up. To them, Heaven is on the right his dusty cotton shirt and trousers, his hand, hell on the left, and church in the tatterd sombrero, his flapping sandals, his middle; to go to church is to be safe for stolid dark face, is of the same type in this the former,to stay away from church is to. regard that is familiar to every land, the go to the latter sharp and sure. Church same prisoner, the same victim. is church, and it does not signify to them In riding through almost any part of what they hear there—there's always the this high country, you will pass acre after bible and. the prayer -book to fall back; acre, mile after mile, of "century" plants upon. They do not make any strenuous laid out in rows that stretch always to the efforts to unlock the gate that leads into horizon, whether it is at the hazy edge qf a the kingdom of Heaven; they wall: decor- mighty plain or at the summit of a rugged ously and slowly according to their lights. and stoop ninuntain. You wonder at the There are certain well-known landmarks immensity or the thing. Haciendas will in sin that they steer clear of, for the rest it have their thousanas of acres planted in is out of all conscience to suppose that honest, industrious bodies, who say their responses and antens every Sunday of their 00,11 be a,nytihng but safe for a com- fortabla place in the next world. Among these simple folk are some wolves in ' sbeep's clothing; men who beat thein wives, neglect their children and spend their earnings in an ale -house, who are, in fact, veritable mauvai ssujets. But mark the difference! These men come up to time every Sunday morning; in their places they sit with their pommeled wives and hungry children, with a decent coat, and a clean face, and steady legs—respect- able. Let them commit one tithe of these misdemeanors and stop away from wor- ship, and they are outcasts. the ul it in the s uare red -cur - consider this a profoundly ideal oondition. However, six cents represents something to the Indian. Unless there are some Ameri- cans around to be robbed, he is obliged to Under p p , tained pew of the Vashets, sits Silvia,Paul Vasher's wife. I know she is there; but I have not glanced once in her direetion. But now, as Mr. Skipworth closes his book and we all rise, I look across the church; and we meet each other's eyes fully and fairly, face to face at last. The dawn- ing look of triumph wavers and dies before the cold, steady scorn of mine. Ay, Ma- dame Siliva I though you stand there his wife, and I stand here lonely, forsaken -- though your words have come true, and you have got your heart's desire—you are a cheat, an interloper; it is I who am con- queror, not you. You stole Paul's body and name from me; but his heart, hie love, his life are mine, and you know it. He will not even be seen by your side on this first appearance among his own peo- ple. All this my eyes Say to her as we look upon each other, and then we kneel dovv4 At the gate Mrs. Vasher's carriage awaits her, superbly appointed, as are all her sur- roondings at all times, and I think to my- self how small 1 shonld feel in spite of all the frippery and. bravery of it if I had to get into it and drive away alone, "Handsomest woman I ever saw in my life!" I hear the governor's voice saying as we cross the churoloyard behind him; "tied Vasher ought to have been with her." I smile to myself as I listen. Will not every man who looks in Silvia's nice con- denin Paul es a selfish, cola hearted wretch for his ledifterence? Talk about beauty being only skin deep, "Handsome is as handsome does," end the rest of those worthless, lying sayings that man never spoke, which are rather the embodied spite of generations of pinin women, who, find- ing the grapes denied them, declared them to be Sour—it is no such thing. Beauty is power, love, influence, rank, and riches; beauty covers a multitudes of sine, for which the possessot will hover he punish- ed So long as sheen tevith the oyes of men With her sweet looks and smiles: Ugly folks inay starve and nobody earee, bay PrOvidenee sends good thi gs to fill the nothing but the maguey, or as the Arnett - caps call it, the n century" plant. The earth is laid out in one tremendous pat- tern, maguey plants in long sweeping per- spective. Well, it is from this plant that the na- tives make pulque. Pulque is the juice taken frem the heart of the maguey and allowed to ferment Inc one day. After that time, it must be con- somed within twenty-four hours or it is positivel useless. The railroads that run through the principal maguey districts operate fast early morning pulque trains In muth the same fashion that the roads run through Orange county, N. Y., opertite early -morning milk trains to New York. From the depots it is bustled in wagons and. on the backs of 'porters to the innum- erable saloons and from thence dispensed to the public. ' Mescal and tequila are two native rivals of pulque Mescal is a sort eta oousin of whisky, although to the eye it Is as clear as water, and tecittila, is to mescal as brandy is to whisky. They are both wrung front the heart of the maguey plant. In a low part of the country where pulque pan not be produced the uatives use mes- cal, for this beverage is of course capable of long journeys, and where a native can get pulque he usually prefers it. The effects of pulque, as witnessed in the natives,does not etem to he so pyrotechnie and clamorous as aro the effects of certain other drieke upon the citizens of certain other nations. The native, filled with pulque, soldoth wishes to fight, Usually he prefers to adore his friends. They will bang together in front ot it bar, three ot four et them, their legs bending, their arIDS about each others' necks, their faces lit With an expression of the most ideal af- fection and supreme brotherly tegartl, It would be diffieult to make an impression on their feelings. at thee times with a elute Their whole Souls aro oonapletely absorbed in this beatific fraternal tender- ness, Still, there are certain mixtutes, dertala eombinatioiel which invariably bteed troubles, Lot tne Waive mix bis pulque at three cents a glass with eonte of that vi,vid 'leave brandy and there Is likely to be a Monstrou0 turmoil on little or tio pro- vooation. Out at Santa Anita, which is a resort Inc the lower classes on the Viga, canal, they used to have a weekly °&e - moo witieb was of the same order as the IT Is A DELIRIUM TO TUE MEXICAIT. regular Sunday night murder ia the old days of Mulberry Bend, And it happened because the natives mixed their drinks, AVIten anxither Is SMIc. it is peculiarly the province of a2datigh- ter to be a help and oomfeet at the time when molter falls sick ax d everybody and everything in the houseboat has a natur- al tendency to be at "sixes and sevens." Indeed it is often just knowing that things are going wrong which is the last straw in prolonging for an invalid mother her distracting headaches, painful rheu- matic: twinges or fevered state of mina and body. What Is a daughter to do? In the first place, you must strive to keep the sight and sound of domestic friction from your mother. This is a pretty big contract sometimes, but ()enrage and ability come with trying, and unselfish efforts rarely fail in the end. To begin, do your small share of duties, if it be only to make your bed, in such a manner as you know would please your mother. Those duties ought to be done promptly,tho. and this in itealf Is not an easy matter, especially when there is no pleasant voice to say: "Come, ray daughter don't dawdle," on" Do the errand first and then read Tennyson." When there is no chance that your own neglect may add to the general discomfort open wide your eyes and see wbere you can help others. Above all things avoid having little fusses with your younger brothers and sisters. Just as sure as you do not, the sound of your sharp voices. per- haps the very words, will reach tbe sick room. Don't you remember when yenned the measles and your head ached so se- verely, how much pains your mother took to keep the baby from crying? Perhaps you did not notice, but 1 can tell you she was trembling with weariness at nightfall from the care nate gave you. So even though it is not fair for Grace to take your bandkerchief or Inc John to heotonpass it byamietly this time. Don't slap the baby's fingers it they stray into enischief doubly often. Poor child! he is unstrung and nervous, and is too young to understand being without mamma, much less to tell his vague diseomfoets. But why cannot cook in the kitchen and Sarah, the nurse girl, who have always done the work, do it now? Let me tell you a little secret. They are human and can get tired. When mother is siek,they not only have extra work to do, but they miss her order- ly :directions and her wise eelp at "the critical juncture," as she jokingly calls her trips to the kitchen and nursery. Now is your chance to apply a little of the oil of human kindness to these human ma- chines in your home. Try wiping the cook's dishes at night or cleaning off the breakfast table while she is forming her bread. Try surprising Sarah by dusting the parlor or answering the door bell when at home. Take the children out to walk , and help John in his "home work," with Its "awful" examples in deoirnal frac- tions. Slip into the (lining room and see if it and the table are in readiness before the bell is rung. You know how your father hates to find something missing from the table or John's skates and cap on one of the chairs. Be constantly on the alert to fill in the gaps which no one else sees and to repair the blunders and neglects of others, but do not assume a manner of command. Be tactful, and while you may In truth be the housekeeper, treat the situa- tion as one where you are merely an as- sistant. If your mother's illness should require the services of a nurse you have still more opportunity to help. The nurse is, for the time being, the head of the household in all that concerns the siok room,and this fact is apt to cease friction, if not rebellion, especially in case of a con- tagious disease. Your first duty is not only to treat the nurse kindly and consid- erately, but to uphold her authority by your own obedience and by your influence over and example to others. A tactful chat In the kitchen may lull a storm there as well as in the nursery. If you are allowed to stay with your 'nether, do not forget to offer to let the weary nurse out for a breath of fresh air. Would you like to stay in a sick room night and day without a bit of telief? These are small duties, each trifl- ing, and the whole not at all heroic; but your mother has done this and more for you. Way Oft Maud—Xs it so that Belle has lost her mind? Mabel—Oh, yes—all gone, poor thing; she wears a big hat on ber heel and her wheel -cap to the theatre, A Gum Chewing Ptah. Some years ago the writer of this article was fishing from a boat in Mississippi sound opposite Biloxi, when, growing tired of a piece of gum which she had been try- ing in vain to learn to like, she dropped it into the water. What was her astonish - merle wintt within the next half hour she caught a fish with this identical piece of gum in its mouth. This is a flab story, but it is absolutely true, and not so very rernark- able either wben one remembers that there were a half dozen lines banging from the boat at the thne, each holding.a tempting bait, so that the fish who had snapped up the gum wetild be apt to linger near the luring snares and be eventually caught. Supposing, Clough, that some one else had caught this fish and found the gum, lie might have hastily concluded that fish of this partieular family—it was a catfish— weee addicted to the very vulgar habit, of gum chewing, and if he had examined the gain he would halve further reasoned that the fish had migrated from Mexico, as tee gum was a resinous sap of a Mexican tree. Going still further, he might have sur- n-tated that as the ilsh obvioaely could not go on shore for the gum the gum must go to the fish; henee the tree either dropped its life fluid from btu/mime overhanging the sea Or sent out into tbe %valet Ion sappy roots, froln vthieli the catfish extracted the gam. All becanse a woman thougnatlessly threw a bit of thewing gum over the Bide of a boat, esHarper's Young People, I ease