Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1876 — THE BRIDE’S TRIAL. [ARTICLE]

THE BRIDE’S TRIAL.

It is strange what different estimates people will put on a man’s character, according to the eyes with which they may view him. In the opinion of some Mr. Benjamin Benedict—not our hero exactly, but the next thing to it, his uncle—was a gentleman, a scholar and a philanthropist; while others, quite as well qualified to reason and decide, wonder that such a monster was allowed to walk the earth unchallenged. For old Ben Benedict was just the sort of man to provoke and please in alternations—ahuman March day, with streaks of sunshine and chilling gusts sandwiched through his nature. People who knew him liked him passing well, but it sometimes took a lifetime to know him as he really was. Wk “ You will lie sure to like my uncle, oar ling,” said Hugh Benedict to his young wife. “He is eccentric, but he is sterling.” Rachel did not answer, but her blue eves were wistful and full of perplexity. Uncle Ben, whom she had never seen, but of whom she had heard much, was to her an inscrutable riddle, whom she feared more than she was willing to acknowledge. For Hugh’s future depended to a certain extent upon Uncle 3en Benedict, and with Hugh’s future her own was bound inseparably. She was a fair, fresh-looking girl, with velvety cheeks, bronze-bright hair, and features as correct and delicately cut as a cameo. Hugh was quite certain that Uncle Ben could not see her without loving her; but then these young husbands are not apt to be impartial judges! She was sitting in the fire-light, at their lodgings, when the old gentleman first beheld her; and the only warning she had of his presence she saw reflected in Hugh’s eyes. “My dear, how do you do?” said the old gentleman, kissing Rachel on ' both cheeks. And she thought he was not so terrible, after all. He turned to Hugh when he had thus unceremoniously made himself acquainted with his uew niece-in-law. “ Well, young man, are you ready to leave these lodgings and go to your new home?” he asked; for be it known that the old gentleman had given Hugh and Rachel a wedding present of a new house, wherein they were to live. “Quite, sir,” Hugh answered, cheerily. “ Shall it be to-morrow ?” “ All right,” And Mr. Benedict sat down to spend the evening and enjoy himself. “Well, sir?” said Hugh, when his uncle was taking leave, and paused on the front door steps to light a cigar. “Well, sir?” said Uncle Benedict, calmly. “ How dos you like her ?” asked Hugh. “How can I tell?” demanded the old gentleman, irritably. “ She’s pretty to looktat; so i» a china doll or a white kitten! It isn’t always the prettiest calicoes that wash the best. Good evening!’ ’ And Hugh Benedict, albeit he was very fond of his uncle, did not know whether to be vexed or not. Early the next morning, however, Uncle Ben made his appearance before the young couple, breathless and eager. “ Trunks packed, eh?” “All but the last one, uncle,” and Rachel lifted he? pretty head out Of the tray, as you may have seen a bed clover blossom rise up from beneath a child’s footstep. “ I’m going to take you down to Bloomdaje myself, my dear,” said Uncle Ben. “ Hugh, I want you to go off to Canterbury with these jetters. They’re of importance. I’d go myself, if I were ten years younger; but sudden journeys don’t agree with old bones like mine.” Hugh looked aghast at the proposal. Rachel turned pale. “Cannot the business be postponed, sir?” said Hugh, hesitatingly. “ No, it can’t!” replied Uncle Ben, curtly. “If you don’t want to go, say so. I dare say 1 can find some one else to oblige me!” “Of course I shall go,” said Hugh. “ But about Rachel ” “ I suppose I’m old enough to take care of a little girl like that,” said Uncle Ben, in an aggrieved tone. “ You'll find us both in the new residence, with the table laid for dinner, when you come back, tomorrow.” So there was nothing for it but for Hugh to kiss his little bride a half score of times, and commission Uncle Ben to take the best possible bare of her ufitil he should return. -—- “ Foolish children!” said Mr. Benedict, as hei saw .Rachel sobbing on Hugh’s shoulder. But there was a cheery twinkle in his own keen gray eyes, nevertheless. Poor little girl! the atmosphere had lost somewhat of its sparkle, and the world looked less bright, as she journeyed in Uncle Ben’s barouche toward her new home, with Uncle Ben’s newspaper rat-

tling at her side. As the autumn twilight began to fall her thoughts became busy, as a woman’s will at times. “ Uncle,” she said, turning suddenly toward the old gentleman, “ what sort of a house is it? Ours, I mean!” “Well,” said Uncle Ben, reflectively, “ it’s a cottage, 1 should say." “ A modem cottage ?” “ Well, no; rather of the antique order than otherwise.” “Oh," cried Rachel, “I’m glad. I despise those new, stiff, formal places, that loqk as if they were merely to be admired, not lived in and enjoyed. Uncle, what are you laughing at?" “ At your curiosity, my dear,” replied the old gentleman. “Then I won’t ask you another question,” said Rachel, resolutely. But she fully atoned for that deprivation by sketching on the tablets of her own fancy an endless variety of little gothic structures, with bay-windows and trellises covered with climbing roses and honeysuckles; while Uncle Benedict watched her from behind the screen of his newspaper, with the queerest of expressions on his brown old face. “ I’m almost sorry I commenced the thing,” he said to himself. “If I should be disappointed in her! But, pooh! it’s the only way to find out If she is worth my boy’s love.” Presently the lumbering old chariot came to a stand-still; but to Rachel’s surprise, in front of no fairy cot, or loweaved edifice surrounded by verandas and flower parterres. A tumble-down, unpainted farm-house stood a little back from the road, with its shutters hanging loosely by one hinge, and one or two scrubby lilac bushes forlornly tossing their foliage in the wind! “ How dreary it looks!” thought Rachel, with a little shudder, as she wondered whether the coachman had really meant to stop there. But Uncle Ben at once seized her carpet-bag and umbrella. “ Come, my dear,” he said to Rachel. “ Is this the place?” she asked. “This is the place,” Uncle Ben answered, with a sudden paroxysm of coughing. “ Gate’s a little out of order,” as that useful mode of ingress became suddenly detached from its sole remaining hinge, and fell with a crash to the ground; “but that’s soon set right with a screw-driver and half a dozen screws.” Alas! poor Rachel! What were her sensations as she looked blankly around the neglected, dismal spot which was the sole realization of her fairy dreams? This the home Uncle Benedict had given them! And for an instant oar poor little heroine felt as if she could repel the unwelcome gift, and tell Uncle Benjamin plainly that she could not spend her days in a hovel like this. But then came sober second thoughts. Uncle Benedict had meant kindly; they were poor, and could not afford to dispense with even the meanest of roofs over their heads. No, she must gratefully accept the present in the spirit in which it was given, and check in the bud all her rebellious and unamiable repinings. “I told you it was a cottage, you know,” said Uncle Ben, keenly scrutinizing her face, as they stood on the doorstep waiting for the door to be opened. “ Yes, I know,” said Rachel, glancing round with brightening eyes. “ That is a very choice climbing rose over the window, if it was only properly trained.” “It’s rather lonesome,” said Uncle Ben. “ I like the country,” Rachel answered, hopefully. As she spoke a slipshod old woman appeared to let them in, and led the way to the best room, a green-curtained apartment, with a shabby carpet on the floor, and a fire in the grate that emitted far more smoke than caloric.

“Smoky chimneys, eh?” said Uncle Ben. “The draught seems to be poor,” said Rachel, “but I dare say it can be altered.” “ I hadn’t any idea the ceilings were so low,” grumbled the old gentleman. “ It’s partly the effect of the large pattern of the wall paper,” said Rachael, with a glance at the red and green monstrosities, “A narrow-striped pattern will improve it” “ What queer little cupboards by the sides of the mantel!" said Uncle Ben. “Oh, they will be nice for our best china,” said Rachel. “ My dear,” said the old gentleman, “I believe you are determined to be pleased. Do you really think you shall like this place?” “ I shall like any place where Hugh is!” said Rachel, brightly. She went -all over the house with the old gentleman, planning improvements trad suggesting and contriving until he really began to think she would make an Arcadia out of the tumble-down old farm. And if she shed a few tears on her pillow when she went to rest under the eaves of the roof, in an apartment which must have been built for Tom Thumb, Uncle Ben Benedict never suspected it. There was the chariot at the door when Rachel rose from her breakfast of bread and butter and coffee the next moraine. “ Come, my lass,” said the old gentleman, “ I want to Bhow you a place further upthe road, which has been taken by a friend of mine.”

The drive and the delicious September air were like an invigorating tonic to our wearied little bride ; and a picture after the style of Watteau awaited them in die exquisite villa, with its rose-clad bay windows and picturesquely sloping roof. Rustic iron chairs stood under the bowing branches of the elms on the lawn, and a marble Cupid, holding up a carved conchshell, scattered bright rain into a flowerbordered basin directly in front of the gates. “ Oh, how beautiful 1” cried Rachel. “ I never saw such superb scarlet geraniums in my life; and what a lovely marble-paved hall!" “ You like the appearance?” “Oh,yes; ’tis beautiful.” “ Come in, my dear, and see how you like the interior,” said the old gentleman, serenely. It was perfect, from the drawing-rooms, with their superb Brussels carpet and exquisite silk hangings, to the chambers, all in white and pink, like the inside of a rose’s heart, and the fairy conservatory, all stocked with camelias, heliotrope and rare fuchsias, at the south end of the house. “It is like fairyland!”cried Rachel.enthusiastically. “Do tell me, Uncle Ben, who is to live here?” Uncle Ben turned round and faced her. “ You, my dear.” “ And Hugh, of courser’ “To be sure!” quite overwhelmed by this unexpected good luck, “the other house—- “ That’s only a little joke of mine. This is the real home, and I giveit to you with all the more pleasure that you were disposed to make the best of the bad bargain you thought you were in for. My dear, the contented mind you possess is worth a thousand houses I” vrr

And Rachel felt something warm and wet upon her cheek, like a tear, hs the old gentleman stooped to kiss her. When Hugh came home, to find his little wife upon the veranda, fill welcoming smiles to greet him, he exclaimed, “ Why, Uncle Ben, this is a perfect casket!” “ But none too good for the lk tie jewel that inhabits it,” Uncle Ben answered. And Hugh read in the tone that his young wife had won the capricious old gentleman’s heart.— World.