Green Valley

dding but not just the kind

ing happening as I know of. It's due mostly to this weather. We had too much

going to wear, and how many of the two sets of relatives were to be there, and who was giving presents and what, and what the refreshments were going to cost, and just how much more this was than what the bride's mother could afford to spend, that there was a little murmur of astonishment, resentment even, when it was found that just a b

one-year-old Tommy Winston. She explained her foolishness in a little letter whic

Mot

and I'm tired waiting for a real new hat. Tommy's going to buy me one with bunches of violets on it and he don't drink, so it's

oving

IC

nny went off to Alaska or somewhere away off, because his father took the twenty-five dollars that the nineteen-year-old boy had saved so prayerfully for a

time the boy had a thriving little chicken business that might have grown into bigger things. But Sears sold the whole thing out one day when he wanted money worse than usual. And Jimmy, white to the very roots of his reddish-brown hair, cursed his fathe

le, eighteen-year-ol

st what she was crying for, herself or the children. Life was a hopeless, unmanageable tangle that

rrow a cake of yeast. She was going to town in an hour, she said, but she wan

e alive, Mrs. Sears,

the letter of course, sympathized with Mrs. Sears, patted her check and told her not to worry, that everyt

ands in Mrs. Sears' dishpan Green Valley was already buzzing with astonishment. Some were shaking their he

only knows what the true state of things is. And poor Mrs. Sears! Of course, she's done her best, but isn't it to

the little bride's father, heard it as he was nailing siding on one of

least provocation. He said what a man needed most was self-respect and he, Will Sears, would have it at any cost. He had

m not at all it took no pains to hush its chatter, and so he heard a good deal that it

at he hadn't been told about all this before he went to work, a

s getting her husband off to work on such mor

y-dollar gold piece if it was right before my eyes on the table. I never found the piece

d now that he had fathered all his children away from home she

sank down into her rocker and went back to weepi

son why his children never got the habit of running out to meet him or bringing their thorns and splinters for him to pull out with his jackknife. He was a man who never stopped in the front yard to see how the clover was coming up, who never hoed around his

ll, empty house, swearing and threatening all manner of te

y day smiled. All their life was a muddle with this dreary ending but the world outside was as young, as bright, as promising as ever. So

entworth's. For Fanny felt that somebody had to do something and Fanny knew that nobody could do it so efficiently as the strong, sweet, gr

randma Wentworth towered above them all. And every soul in the village, when

rbs and there was a heavenly array of flowers all about the front windows. The neighbors said that Grandma Wentworth's house and garden looked just like her and ministers usually

of the many who came for advice, encouragement and for

ma would and could fix up everything. She began to talk as soon as she opened the d

andma. She looked a little scared around the eyes but smile

ught sight of F

y brought her here to me to spend the night while he went and rented that funny little box of a house just back of that stylish Mrs. Brownlee. And that's where the wedding supper's going to be to-night. Of course you're invited. I

ut Grandma only smiled and said, "Yes, of course, I know. But don't worry about that. I'

n't smiling. Those gray eyes of hers were sparkling with something very different. And w

looked at that desolate cou

briefly, "what are you a

didn't know how to do anything ab

orking man would do,-bring back the g

how much this sort of bluste

espectable, hard-working man, hold on to it for the love of heaven

Sears bega

contractor. You promised well but somehow you never worked hard enough. You work at things now to keep your own miserable self alive,

d," Sears muttered

runk and staggers down Main Street in drunken penitence to his wife and children and the man who drinks just enoug

ve robbed them of every right and what pitiful little possessions, hopes and plans they'd been able to find for themselves. That's why John's in Alaska, Jimmy in the army and Alice an

n and clothed them,"

begrudged meals a day and a skimpy calico dress to prove real fatherho

you married Will he was no worse than the average fellow. He had faults aplenty but he had goodnesses too, and hopes and dreams. And you

ildren and driving them from their lawful home and cheating you out of every right and even your self-respect is nothing to be patient about. As for tears, they have their uses, but

and the children and reminded him sharply of the decencies instead of crying softly and praying for pati

you were married and I'm so

the summer moonlight when their home was young and they were waiting for their first baby; his coming; his blue eyes and Jimmy's brown ones and little Alice's gentle ways. All the past sweetn

ng is all right and respectable, for which you may thank the dear Lord on bended knees. Tommy's been and rented the little Bently place over on the hill and is getting it into shape with a few pieces of furniture. It's such a doll house it won't take much to furnish it. I've found half a dozen things up attic and, Milly, if you look around, you'll find plenty here to help start

p and hoarsely, defiantly and

'm going down right now to

very home should be. And it would have been hard to say who was the bu

final touches to be put on. Grandma engineered everything over the telephone

Fanny was always buying the most appropriate, tasty and serviceable things for other people and the most outland

know just once before I died what and how it felt like to rustle up the church aisle instead of slinking down it

s to have, sometime or other, a silk petticoat, made up to her for this day's work and self-sacrifice. For Grandm

re a beautifully simple dress that came from Paris in Nan's trunk. And there were roses in her

ey trooping in to leave little gifts and stopping long enough to

o great an event was it, what with the suddenness of it and the whole town being as

and watched the doings with all a child's wistful eyes. David Allan, who happened to drift out that way, found her there and they visited ove

istily that night and expressed her opin

ckful of people that you have to laugh

t streets, stopped to light a cigar. When it was bur

ually good-looking and likeable a f

d and suspicious eyes and her voi

ndsomest and most likeable chap on earth in Yo

that boy in Yokohama. He lacked something that this chap has-an elusive quality that

edly, "have never been noticeab

y be that women feel the same way. And you noticed that he had the good sense not to wear a frock coat to this informal little wedding. I can't recall that he has ever worn a frock coat since he

till and face

ers are unseemly in a man of your years and already apparent grayness. They are, moreover, detrimental to

uess right some day. And I'm rather partial to this minister chap. It would be so natural and fitting a punishment for an irreverent young w

ely recollected Nanny, "that girls

case I should think you'd be willing to marry a little

was beginning t

s was snowball time instead of springtime in G