Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1880 — READY TO BE A POOR MAN'S WIFE. [ARTICLE]

READY TO BE A POOR MAN'S WIFE.

“My choice is made, sister Belle. Give me your approval.” The elder sister looked at a couple of open letters lying on the writing-desk before which 'the speaker sat, her cold, gray eyes softening a little as she re- •• If you tell me‘which of the two you have chosen 1 can answer you.” •* You ought to know without being told,” Stella laughed. “Clarence, of course.” Belle Lawson looked serious. “Stella,” she said, “I'm sorry. Not that I bear Clarence Henshaw any ill will, but, child, you are e not suited to be a poor man's wife. Remember you are proud, ( and have been reared in ease and comfort? Follow my advice, and marry Henry Lakeman?’ Stella shook her head. “No, Belle: I wouldn't marry Henry Lakeman if he* was a hundred times richer than he is.” She slipped a picture into its envelope, with a long glance at the view it imaged. “It's a lovely place,” she' sighed, “and I-would like to live there.” The sister was watching, and stooping, kissed the smooth, white brow, while she said: “Don’t be too hasty, Stella. If you covet this pretty home of. Henry Lakeman's, accent it.” “ But I love Clarence Henshaw. I prefer a cottage with him to a mansion with Henry.” Miss Lawson turned to the window with a sorry look. Some sweet dream of her own girlhood was in her memory, perhaps, but she held it worse than folly to indulge in regrets. Love, in her estimation, was no balance in the scales for wealth. “ Stella,” she continued, very gravely. “ I have acted the part of a mother for many years; my wish has ever beep that you form a wealthy marriage. You love luxury, you enjoy display, and I am not say ing too much when Ladd that you worship beautiful apparel. Henry Lakeman can give you all of these’. Clarence Henshaw cannot. As his wife you will be subject to all manner * of privations; be content to live in a common way, stint and economize and manage the best you can. How long will that suit a girl of your tastes? Think well of it. I shall let you have your own choice in regard to marriage.” “ My mind is made up,” Stella responded readily. She took up the view, slipping a letter into its envelope while she spoke. “ If I favored his suit, I was to keep jit, sister Belle,” she continued, touch- ' ing the edge of the wrapper to her rosy lips, and sealing it with i. heavy slap of the hand. “I do not, you will observi I will never be sorry, I know,” she murmured, turning the envelope to look at its superscription. •_*’ Your happiness is within your own grasp, Stella. lou 11 recall my words some day.” An.d with a stately gait Belle Lawson left her. ,«■. Stella ran lightly up the stairs to her own room and touched the bell in great haste.,. “ You will oblige me by mailing this at once, she said to the servant who answered her call, handing him this very envelope, “and,” she said, smiling and blushing, “ be careful of this,” putting another letter into his hand “ Leave it with no one but the person to whom it is addressed. Mind! ’ she called, as he turned to obey. “There’ll be no mistake Miss,” and that night a perfumed note lay on Clarence Henshaw’s pillow,’ and he, foolish fellow, was transported to the upper heaven of delight over its contents. Three months later they were married. Thev were a happy and hopeful couple. The life upon which they had entered was like a new and unexplored country, but Clarence meant to work hard, and fek little or no doubt in regard to their future. He was equal to any undertaking, in his own determination, . that would promote his wife’s happiness, and, as to Stella, she would , do anything to help her husband. He had been a head bookkeeper for many years, and had the promise of something a little better yet the coming season. So the first few months of their married life ran smoothly. They rented a house in a pleasant part of the city, kept a servant, and Stella wore the pretty clothes which had been provided at the time of her marriage, and wondered why sister Belle had such funny notions about marrying a poor man. But toward the close of the first year of their wedded life his firm was said to be under heavy liabilities, and the anniversary of their marriage found the house bankrupt and Clarence out of a situation. He applied at this and that place, but month after month slipped by and he found no opening. ' They moved out of the house and took cheaper rooms in another part of the city. By this time their funds began to run low, and Stella wanted something new for her wardrobe. Already she had beguflTo show signs of discontent. *‘.l shall find something by and by,” the husband said, bravely. It was at this trying time that a little >p««k W humanity was put iate Stella's

responsibility of x “I am the happiest mi? a,. Clarence exclaimed, caressing wife ana’ child. “The very happiest,” he repeated again, kissing the baby boy. “ Let pride go to the dogs, Stella,” be added, remembering that now his responsibility was greater than before. “ They want workmen on the new city halt l*n take my hammer—it will give us bread.” .She ought to have been contented, ought to have thought with pride of the man who would thus brave the world’s opinion. He went out in early morning, and came home late at night, as other workmen did, his handsome face glowing with love. But the very thought that her husband was brought down to the level of a common laborer hurt her. Sister Belle had said that her tastes were luxurious, and she wanted a pretty home now, and fine apparel for herself and baby. The people of the world in which she had lived had never to count on their money to know if they could buy a new dress.X She had never been taught to make the best of whatever circumstance you may'be placed in, and why should she now? The little privations she endured worried and vexed her, and in a little while the sweet-tempered woman grew moody and down-hearted. She became careless in her dress, and, instead of the cheerful little wife he used to see, he found a gloomy woman and disorderly house. But he never complained. “Stella is homesick,” he would say; “and the care of baby is too much for her. I must make some money,” and his hammer rang with redoubled enemy. Yet every day her discontent grew more apparent. The place and the people were so repulsive to her refined and sensitive nature. “

“ How can you expect me to live among such surroundings, Clarence?” was her appeal when the husband begged her to be of good cheer. “It's cruel in you, she sobbed. “I want to be back again in the old home, among my own friends.’,’ The warm glow came to his face, and he drew her tenderly toward him without a word, but there was a look piteous to see in his handsome ejes, while his resolve was to work still harder. To conquer fortune, however, requires sturdy strokes. There came a day, later a little—“for some days must be dark and dreary”—when it did seem that matters had come to a crisis. The City Hall was finished long ago, the Odd Fellows’ building completed, and the last stroke had been given the new church. Clarence must look for something new. Jennie who had minded Freddy for two or three months, had to go, and all the household cares fell upon Stella's hands. They had moved froth place to place since Freddy's birth, hoping to find a house with which Stella would be content. “But those people are all alike,” she said, “and I may as well be in one glace as another,” was her reply to larcnce, when he suggested that they move into a new block. It was unwomanly in her to say this, she knew, the moment tbe words escaped her lips, and she thought to run after her husband and beg his forgiveness, but just then Freddy caught at her dress, causing her to spill the water she was pouring into the tea-kettle, which only increased her vexation. “ You cross little troublesome thing!” she exclaimed impatiently. “ Take that!” laying her hand heavily on the little bare shoulders. “I'm aiok to death with having you always hanging to my skirts.” With this she let 'fall the earthen pitcher she held in her hand, and dropping into the nearest chair, burst into hysterical weeping. Freddy, with the prints of her fingers still red on his neck, toddled to her side, and tried to climb into her lap. But she pushed him away crossly, with—“Go play with your blocks and horses; 1 don’t want you near me;” and her hand was raised* to lay on the rosy ch< e'c.

“ Don’t do anything you’ll be sorrv for by and by, Stella,” Clarence said, coming into the room just then. Something in his face stayed her hand just on the moment, and she rose to her feet, flushing with shame and anger. “ I thought you’d gone down town,” she replied, 'sharply. “Oh, dear! if Td minded sister Belle, I shouldn't have been here. She was right. I had no business to marry a-poor man.” “You're not quite yourself this morning, Stella,” and his eyes were full of unshed tears as he caught sight of the red marks on their baby’s neck. “Do you suppose I can endure everything?” she cried spitefully. “You arc nervous and tired, dear. Come here,” and he put out his hand to clasp her. She glided from him and went into the adjoining room. Something wet fell on the baby's head, and he pressed him closely to his bosom, as he caught the sound of her sobbing. , A “I have heard of something new this morning, Stella, and I’m going to New York by the next train.” He tried to say it cheerfully. “ You are always hearing of something new,” was her quick reply, “but what does it amount to?” “So 1 am hoping for something better, and think I have found it now.” He rocked kreddy to sleep, put him into his crib, then went to the door of his wife’s room. “ Are you going to kiss me good-by, Stella?” he asked, opening toe door very softly. “ I may be gone a day or two.”

“No,” she replied coldly, “you’ll be back soon enough.” “ I will come as soon as I can; but I might never return, you know.”' “ See if you are not back as soon as you can come, with the same old story.” Clarence turned quickly, but she saw Uie look on his face, and never forgot She heard him cross the room, and knew he bent over Freddy’s crib, and kissed the little sleeper again and again. “He’ll come back to me before he really goes,” she whispered to herself, starting up and going toward the door; but a turn in the street hid him from sight when she reached the window. He had gone, and for the first time without kissing her good-by. “Well, we ve been married long enough to be done with such nonsense,” she said at last, by way of consolation; yet there was a terrible ache at her heart, and she secretly wished she could throw herself into her husband’s arms and tell him how sorry she was for it all. She sat quite still until Freddy awoke, then with a cry of terror she ran across the hall to the nearest neighbor, with “Please come, Mrs. Wilson, my babv’s dying.” J Mrs. Wilson came, for though rough of manner she was kind of heart. “ He’s in a fit,” she said, the moment her eyes rested on the little sufferer. “Bring me some water; quick,” she called. “ and help to get off his clothes.” Ste Ila obeyed. “Hold him so,” was her command, putting him into the bath. “ I will run home and get some medicine. Such women as you ain’t fit for mothers,” she continued, returning with her hands full of bottles. Freddy,” cried Stella, dropping

where the old make their own . J ;; “ I never understocks Belle is the only motoer^j"-^^——— and her advice was never poor man.” “ So you keep finding fault and complaining when your husband is trying in every way to make an honest living. It is a wonder that you haven't driven him to drink long ago.” “ But my husband is a good man.” replied Stella, warmly, resenting the last part of the speech. “He has shown himself to be a good man.” The woman said it in good faith, wrapping Freddy in soft flannels, and administering a quieting potion. She had been watching the movements of this oouple ever since they came to live in the house. “My baby will get well, wont he?” was said pleadingly, and the poor thing sobbed again as if her heart would break. ; “Yes, indeed.” “ And you will stay with me through the night?” forgetting she was one of those people.” “ I'd stay with you a whole blessed week,” replied true-hearted Mrs. Wilson, “ if I could make you a wife worthy of your husband.” “ Tell me what I shall do and I'll do it faithfully and willingly, and without complaining.” AU through the long night hours, while Freddy lay between life and death. Mrs. Wilson worked over him bravely, and told to the girl-mother chapters in her own life experiences. There were passages over which Stella wept bitterly, and when morning dawned, giving back the child from danger, in place of the fickle, unreasonable woman, there was one ready to meet life’s work with a firm purpose and strong heart. She tidied up each apartment, and instead of going about in a dowdy wrapper, put on a fresh dress, arranged her hair becomingly, and changed the pucker about her mouth for her own rosy lips. “You’re a pretty little thing,” Mrs. Wilson told her, when she had fastened a knot of blue ribbon in her blonde hair. “See after baby, now. * Til look in every now and then through the day, and to-night will come back to you. Your husband will be here to-morrow morning!” “Yes,” replied Stella, with a bright look in herieyes, “he will be here by ten o’clock.”

After all it was a long time to wait, she thought. She was so impatient to tell him—and she would kiss him as manv times as he wished. “Yes, indeed,” she exclaimed joyfully, bendingover Freddy’s crib, “ we'll kiss papa a hundred thousand times, Won't we, dear?” “ I do wish Clarence would come,” she kept saying next morning. “ What detains him?” she continued, when the clock was on the stroke of twelve. “What if—’’and her heart lay like lead in her bosom as she recalled the look she last saw on his face. “What if he never comes back!” she murmured, going into her own room. “Mrs. Wilson,” she called, “where is my husband?” In an instant the dear good soul was beside her, resting a hand tenderly on the aching head. True-hearted woman! She shrank from saying it had been a dreadful night on the Sound, and that a steamer had collided with the New York boat. “Her husband travels by boat,” had been her conclusion. Stella caught at her arm, the sound of her voice answering Freddy, and, with the cry she fell. Poor, tired, inexperienced wife and mother! Was the ordeal so ordered? With the help of a neighbor Mrs. Wilson laid her on the bed. “ Run for the doctor.” she said to Miss Williams. “ But you don't know —” “I do,” she interrupted. “Mrs. Henshaw will have a run of nervous fever, and whether her husband is dead or alive, I can't say.” When Stella opened her eyes again it was nearly night She knew no one about the bed, but talked to Clarence, and Freddy and sister Belle. She was going to help her husband now. She could earn money by teaching music, or painting, or “might have a lew pupils in dancing,” she added. “ But forgive me for striking,” and her amis were put up as if to clasp something, when she was dozing again. Late that evening Clarence came in sight of home. Contrary to Mrs. Wilson’s conjecture, he came by another route. He had thought to telegraph, “But Stella won’t worry,” he said “if I am late.” The light faded from his eyes and his face turned ghastly white when he looked into the rooms. “ Both gone?” he groaned, walking from the bed to the crib. “ No, no,” Mrs. Wilson said comfortingly. “ Baby’s better, and your wife will come out of this. All she needs is good nursing and that she shall have,” turning aside her head and drying her eyes with the comer of her apron. What could we do if such as she were not stationed all along the walks of life?” It was painful to listen to the wild talk. “If I might endure it,” Clarence said so many times. When at last Stella awoke from the terrible dreams, her husband was bending over her. “Clarence,” she said very softly at first, “Clarence,” she repeated, putting her arms about his neck, “ if you’ll fo£ give me for striking Freddy, I’ll kiss you, O, so many times!” Foolish fellow! he cried like a baby. “Listen, Stella,” he said, as soon as he could command his voice, “ listen, I did get the situation, and you can have everything you want,” touching his lips to cheek and forehead, “ and you are going to have such a pretty house in Brooklyn!” ? “All I want is your love,” clasping him close, “ and that Freddy get well I’m ready to be a poor man's wife!”— Exchange,