The Diary of a Saint

of it, I have had my hands full for the last three weeks. I have enjoyed it, though; I suppose it is always a pleasure partaking of the moral for a woman when she can conscienti

uples about breaking her vow not to come into the house were fo

but to await the result. I have done what I thought best, though, and that is the whole of it. As Father used to say, it is not our duty to do the wise

aby takes possession of one. There are many things in the world that I should enjoy, and I should certainly delight in going abroad again, but baby has so taken the first place in my heart and life that everything else is secondary. I wonder sometimes whether after a woman has a child of her own

choolgirl. Yet I do not see just what one is to do when suddenly one finds a subject hopelessly too deep. Last night when I got to a place where I was balancing the love of a mother for her husband and for her child, I naturally realized suddenly that I had never had a child, and very likely never really loved a m

e to end in a dash if I go on with it, so it seems

oning up somehow the effect of his having lived. This is the real question, I suppose, in regard to any life. He was to me so wonderful, he was so great a man, that I have almost to reason with myself to appreciate why the world in general does not better remember him. His life was and is so much to

f humanity was conducted decently and in order; he was not concerned whether anybody knew he lived or did not know. "The thing is that I live as well as I can," he said, "and not that it should be known ab

remember thinking as he spoke how perfectly he lived up to his theories. Certainly the best thing a man c

d to feel that he was part of a process, and that the lives of those who sometime would come after him might be made easier and happier if he lived well and wisely. I am sure he was right. I do not know how or where or when th

was rather deliberate in coming at it. Aunt Naomi is an artist in gossip, and never spoils the effect of what she has to tell by failing to arouse expectation and interest. She leads one on and stirs up curiosity before she tells her news, and with so muc

prayer-meeting last night she was afraid she had taken cold; she told me Ranny Gargan's divorced wife was at death's door again, and tried to g

hey are married," she said, hitching her chair into the su

but I would not help her. I simply smiled vaguely, and asked where the sewing-circle was t

d. "I hope we shan't see anyth

rather startled at this pla

and his wife do rather

and not to play with it. I added that I did not see

ect she had produced. "If they will quarrel so all the neighborhood can hear and see, of course peop

e village comment, but I would not go on gossiping about them, and I dropped the subject altogether. I made a rem

nnah goes about with her head in the air and an expression of the most lofty scorn on her face; Rosa natur

y as the result of his latest escapade is likely to pay a visit to the county jail. It seems that while he was pretty far gone in liquor ex-Mrs. Ranny came to plead with him to take her back and marry her over again. She having had the greatest difficulty in getting divorced from him in the first place, one would think she might be content to let well enough alone; but she is evidently madly fond of Gargan, who must be a good deal of an Adonis

dit of Ranny. I was in the garden this morning, and overheard her defending her

she deserved it," Rosa demanded, "and she

not prepared to protest against a doctrine so we

the same thing. You can't put a man and his wife ap

iberation. "Then you're a nice girl to be talking about m

I fear, for Rosa's voice was p

anyhow, Hannah Elsmore? Nobody wa

I went nearer to the window and call

d, flushed and angry, "I wish yo

hat it is to care for a man anyhow, and what for does she be taking me up short when I'm that bad in my mind a'ready I can't stand i

beside the sun-dial, and took ba

thinking about Ranny Gargan. He is certainly not the sort of man to make you happy, e

striking me breathless when she comes to discourse of love and marriage. "That ain't what women marry for, Miss Privet. They'

itself if a husband wanted to abuse you, but I confess I never

Irish face, and a funny little

self now and then, just in the way of love. Besides," she added, "I'd come it round Ranny when

dizzily in my ears until I have a confused sensation as if in principle the absurd vagaries of Rosa might be right. I am tinglingly aware that fibres which belonged to some remote progenitress, some barbaric woman captured by force, perhaps, after the marriage customs of primitive peoples, retain the instinct of submission to man and respond to Rosa's uncivilized theories. I have a sort of second sense that if a man I loved came and asserted a brutal sovereignty over me, it would appeal to these inherited i

ch an attempt at philosophy, and I hardly believed I knew so many long words. After all I doubt if Rosa and I are so f

r like a bear, and making her laugh. Rosa beamed from the background with the most complete approval. He sprang up when I appeared, but I ignored all the strangeness, and only said how glad I was to see h

of the river," he said, "so I came to

after this nonsense had broken the ice we sat on the floor together to entertain her ladyship. She was pleased to be in the most sunny mood imaginable, and responded to our fooling most graciously. With

uare box over the post-office, but with furniture and pictures it can be made rather attractive. I have made out a list of p

I stood in the doorway waiting for him to come down from the wheel, where he was doing something or

miller,

gs of wheat

eat and on

miller, you

aniel said, coming up behind me be

him smilingly, repe

y miller, y

sented; "but it won't be

ster that can never have enough. The smell of the meal, too, is so pleasant, and even the abundant dust is so clean and fresh it seems to belong there. The mellow ligh

vice, Deacon Ri

demanded. "That's what wome

e reading-room. I told him it seemed to me that if it was to go on properly it should hav

do that your

h his droll grin, and then he was pleased to say that for a woman I had a remarkable amount of common sense. I thanked him for the complimen

at my allusion to the fire question. "I've sense enough to k

ould hardly tell the deacon how I thought gossip had already said eno

town who could do it so well. All the men and boys like him, and he has a level head. He's the only one of the young fellows that's

rdly make up my mind to take the responsibility of putting Tom at the head of a reading-room I had started. If nothing else were to be considered

o have everybody who uses the room pay for it. It needn't be much, but they'll respect

them to grumbl

eply, with a laugh; "but really they are twice as likely to grumble if

value that would be put on a thing which was paid for. If the men feel they are

just enough, and make them so contented they'll think they're having their own way

re I see the deacon is right. It would certainly be good fo

Tom so well, never thought before of how great his power is to control people. It showed itself when he was a boy; and if he had carried o

thought to go to her for advice. She suggests that we have a committee, and

she said. "It would make talk, and Aunt Naomi would have you married to him

ally have three on them, and she answ

a woman to know about committees and that sort of thing. I'm sure in my day it wouldn't have been though

lady Andrews' suggestion. He agreed at once, and declared

lly, "but somehow folks like committees, and they generally think they have a better show if three or four men ar

ttee should have three on it, and when I a

t think it was any use to say it, but you'll see what I

l surprised. "I'm afraid I don't see

me from his height, and mad

f he'd kept awake nig

reet now and then came up before my mind, and I felt the full force of the deaco

g-room. If Cy Turner takes hold of it, he'll do more than anybody else in town could do to make it go among just those folks. He's shrewd and good-natured, and e

straightforward and simple, so kindly and human, that I felt at ease with him from the first. He was luckily alone, so I walked in boldly as if I were in the habit of visiting the forge every day of my life. He looked surprised to see me, but not in the least disconcerted. The self-respecting coolness of a New England workingman is something most admirable. Mr. Turner was smutty and dressed in dirty clothes, leather apron and all, but his manners were as good as those of the best gentleman in the land. There is something noble in a country where a common workingman will meet you with no servi

ere is to do," I said, "but he will be an easy pe

Tom's been a bit wild, perhaps; but he's an awful good fellow just the same, if you know him. I'm pleased to

k the committee-but "oh, good gracious mercy me," as the old woman in the story say

unted as a matter of course; but it is fortunate that I had assumed he would serve, for this is what made him consent. When I

folks any occasion to think of me at all just now? The gossips need onl

o get over this bitter feeling? I can't bear to have y

hem for talking,

ed if he could have heard the way in w

o good-hearted to

ds was just as fri

en, Ruth; they are ready to give

finish his sentence, and I remi

m, "you're an angel. Yo

k me up now I had committed myself, I prevailed upon him to serve. I am sure it will be good for the reading-room, and I am equally