Mrs Flint's Married Experience.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 14 July 1904, Page 2

Mrs Flint's Married Experience.

I.—Continued.' 'Mibb Flint!* screamed Aunt Polly. «Why, Ist'el TucKer, yon give me such a turn! Poor cretur. Bat you don't somehow seem to take it in. I tell ye the deacon's gone a-courtin'.' •CourtinM Itr'l! you be a-foolin' of me now, certain sure f ' Not a mite on't. I see him a-'ilin' up hia old harness yesterday, and a-iubbin' down the mare, and I mistrusted he was tip to enthin; and Squire Battle he met him a'moet to Colebrook this mornin'— I heerd him say so. I put this V that together, and drawed my own influences, and I figgered out that he's gone to Colebrook to Bee if Widder Gold won't hev him. A wife's a lot cheaper than hired help, and this one's got means.' ' For meicy'e takes 1 you don't suppose Sarepty Gold would look at him, do ye P' 'I never see the woman yet that wouldn't look at a man when he axed her to,' was the dry answer. And Aunt Polly was too stunned with her new ideas to retort. She went on as if the eneer at her sex had not reached her ear. ' Why, she ha'n't no need to marry him. SLe'a got a good he ma to Sam Pratt's; and there's that farm here that Hi Smith inns on shares, and money in Har'ford bank, they do Bay. She won't have him; don't ye tell me so.' ' Women are mortal queer,' replied old Isiael. ' If they wa'n't there woulda't be no men get married,' snapped Aunt Polly, who was a contended old maid, and never suspected sho was 'queer' herself, 'That's so, Aunc Polly. Maybe it's what Parson Roberts calls a dispensation and I guess it- is. I say for't a woman must be extry queer to marry Amassy Flint, ef she's even got a chance at Bassett poorhouse.' ir. i"efc Israel wis right in his prophecy, At that vtry moment Deacon Flint was sitting belt upright in a high-backed chair in Sam Piatt's keeping-room, discoursing with the widow Gold. IVo people more opposite in aspect could haidJy ba found. Mrs Gold was not >et fifty, and retained much of ner soft loveliness. Her cheek was still round and fair, htr psle brown hair but slightly, lined with grey, and the mild light of her ejes stone tenderly yet, though her figure was a little be&t and her hands knotted with woik. She locked fair and young in compai'ion with the grizzled, atern, harlfavored man before her. A far-off Scotch ancestry had bequeathed to him the high

cheek-bones and deep-set eyes that gave' him so severe an aspect, and to these an aquiline nose, a cruel, pinohed month, a low forehead, and a sallow wrinkled akin added no charms. Bat the charm of old association brought him a welcome here. Bassett was the home of Mrs Gold's childhood, and she had a great many questions to aek. Her face gathered color and light as she recalled oli affections and sympathies, and the deacon took a certain satisfaction in looking at her. But this was a mere ripple above his serious intention. He meant bnsinesa and could not wss!;e time; so as soon as there came a 101 l in Mra Gold's fluent reminiscences, he curtly began: 1 1 came over to-day on an errand, Miss Gold—l may Bay quite a serious errand. I lost my companion, I suppose ye know, a year ago come September the 10th. She was a good woman, Miss Flint was, savin* and reasonable as ever was.'

'I always heard her well spoke of/ modestly rejoined the widow. ■Yes, her children praise her in the Kates, or chey would hev if she'd had any. I feel her low. And Script m si?a, 'lt is not good for man to be alone.' Scripter is right, You are a woman that's seen affliction too, Miss Gold; you've passed under the rod. Well, folks must be resigned ; professors like you and me have got to set example. We can't fault the Lord when He takes our companions away, and say,' Why do ye so ?' as though 'twas a man done it. We've got this treasure in earthen vessels. We'll, to come to the p'int, I come over to-day to see ef you wa'n't willin' to consider the subject of uniting yourself to me in the bonds of marriage.' * Oh 1' said the astonished widow.

'I don't want to hurry ye none,' he went on; 'take time on't. I should like to get my answer right off, but I can make allowance for bein' onexpected. I'll come agin next week—say this day week. I hope you'll make it a subject of prayer, and I expect you'll get light on you r duty by that time, I've got a good house, and a good farm, ard I'M do well by ye Aad moreover and besides, you know Mr. Pratt's folks aie pressed some for room, I expect I guess they won't stand in the way of yens goin' to B«sjtt, Good-day —good-day.' And the widow received a calm up-and-dewn hand-shake, with which decorous car6ss (?) the deacon—for we cannot call him a lover—departed, leaving Mrs Gold in a state of pleased amazement, partly because she was a woman and a widow, partly because it was Deacon Fint who who had asked her to aaairy him; for the deacon was a pillar in Baesett church, owned a large farm and a goodly squar house, and was a power in the State, having twice been sent to the General Assembly. She could not but be gra ifiad by the preference, and as she pondered on the matter it grew more feasible. Her girl was hers no longer, but a wife and mother herself, and she who had been all in all to Mind well was now little more than 'grandma* in the house—a sort of suffered and necessary burden on Samuel's hands; but here a home of her own was offered her, a place of dignity among other women—a place where she could ask her children to come to her, and give rather than receive.

There is nothing so attractive to a woman who is no longer young aa the idea of a hones The shsdov? o£.ag»*&jML

its infirmities afffights her; lonelifi|ji|p a terror in the future; and She prosper-& of drifting about a dependent, poor, pre flesh and heart '<■■■ labor is gone, re&Vis any perms nest shelter a bles3ed prospect, and draws miny a woman into a far more dreadful fats than the workhouse mercies or the colder charity of relatives. This terror was strong in Mrs Gold's feeble heart. She was one of the thousands ot women who cannot trust what they do not Eee, and she misjudged her daughter cruelly. Mind well felt that today, as her mother avowad to her Deacon Flint's offer and her own perplexities, When Mrs Gold asserted that her daughter could never understand what it was to loose a husbard, Mindwell felt a sure but ur spoken conviction that the terror of such a bereavement, which confronted her whenever her heart leaped up to meet Samuel, was experience enough for her to interpret thereby the longings of a real bereavement; but she only colored faintly and answered: '' Well, mother, I don't see my way clear to offer you any advice. You must use yeurown judgment. You know Samuel and I think everything of having jou here, and the children just' begin to know grandma by heart. But I don't want to be self-seeking; if it's for ycur best good, why, we sba'n't neither of ue say a word. I don't skerce know how to speak about it, it's eo strange like and eudden, I can't eay no more than this :.M you're going to be happier and better tff with Deacon Flint than with your own folks, we haven't no right to hinder you, and we won't.' Mindwell turned away with trembling lips, silent because strong emotion choked her. If she had fallen on her mother's neck and wept, and begged her to stay, with repeated kisses and warm embrace, Mis Gold never would have become Mrs F»int; but she could not appreciate Mindwell's feeling, she took her conscientious self-control and candor for indifference, and her elderly lover loomed through this mist in grander proportions than ever; she resolved then and there that it was her duty to accept him. Mindwell had gone downstairs to Had her husband, who sat by the fire fitting a rake-tail more firmly into a hay rake. He had been caught in a distant field by a heavy shower, and was steaming now close to the fireplace, where a heap or chips was lighted to boil the kettle for tea. Mindwell stole up to him, and laid one band on his handsome head. He looked up astonished at the alight caress, and saw hi? wife's eyes were full of tears. ' What'B the matter, darling P' he said, in his cheery voice. It was like a kiss to her to have him eay ' darling,' for sweet werds were rare among their class; anc this was the only one he ever need, kept sacredly, too, for Mindwell. ' Oh, Sam,' Ehe answered, with a quiver in her delicate voice. ' don't you thick, Deaocn Flint wants to marry mother!' 'Thunder sm' guns! you don't mean it, wifeP Haw I haw ! haw ! It's as gocd as a general trainin'. Of all things ! What does she say to't P' ' Well, I'm'most afraid she favors him a little. He's givtu her a week's tinn to consider of it; but Bomeway I can't bear to have it thought of.' (To be continued )