Mercy [pp. 259-274]

Ml/ercy.
M.Iercy could sit by herself alone to think the
trouble over, she felt even yet more miserable, and did not see how matters couldvery
well be mended. For what husband could
stand such petty accusations? She quite
forgot whatever might have been said on the
other side, as well as all that had gone before
to call forth her bitterness; and so forgetting, showed some of the true womanhood
that was really lying undeveloped in her
uncultivated heart. The agitations of the
past hours were causing to peep forth a feeble life, almost invisible as yet, but which
should perhaps expand, and grow, and reach
a beautiful maturity as time passed on.
Wvhen Levi came in presently, bringing
the brimming pails from the evening milking,
she was standing in the open door, sadly
watching the dying glory of the western sky.
As he passed her on his return from the milkroom, she involuntarily turned her gaze
towards him, and their eyes met. Not a
word was said, but two strong arms were put
around the little figure that stood there in
the sunset light, drawing it to its rightful
place against the slow heart that was but now
awakening to all the joys and pains of marital love. Soon the tear-stains were effaced
by kisses, and words full of self-reproach for
past neglects issued from lips that had so
short a time ago returned reproofs for wifely
complaints. Levi's great brain had never
contained so clear and sharply defined a
thought as the one it held now - the thought
of how he loved his little Mercy, his own
little wife.
The bonds of habit and dull practical life
that had so long bound these two young souls
each in its separate prison were now sundered,
and there came a sweet rushing together, all
the sweeter for its long deferral. They lingered on in the delicious softness of the early
summer evening, long after the last red rays
of daylight had departed, full of plans for a
better and a happier future.
The hated money question was looked fully
in face- and scared out of sight by the now
united pair. Now that Mercy saw that all her
little covetings would be at least considered,
she was quite as eager to subdue them as was
her husband. For had they not a purpose in
saving the farm's earnings? That mortgage
still hung over them, and might, if they did
nothing to remove it, by-and-by cut off the
home with its keen relentless edge.
So they resolved, during that evening of
blessed peace and reconcilement, to strain
every nerve to avert such a catastrophe. They
would do without any help whatever on the
farm, and put by every cent it brought in..
"And you shall have all the management of
the milk, dear," whispered the now eager,
devoted husband, "and shall lay away all the
money they pay us for it from the new cheese
factory, and we will see when the time for our
next payment comes which can do most
towards wiping out the debt."
Stimulated to such loving rivalry, these
young farmers found the remaining days ot
that bright summer passing all too quickly;
no thought of wrong doing as yet entering
into any schemes for the future. Wrong did
I say? Ah, yes, - a mean, a petty, a despicable wrong was done on that farm before the
coming year drew to a close.
IV.
SUMMER had gone, and close on its heels
passed the brief but beautiful autumn with
its shortening days,- days all too short for
the many housewifely preparations for the
long, cruel winter hurrying towards them.
And Mercy worked and sung all the day long
about her often wearisome duties, steadfast
in her earnest endeavor to make the very most
of the life arranged for her. Changed indeed
was she from the girl we first saw on her marriage day!
Nor was the change unnoticed by outsiders.
The elder Morses often complacently told
each other that "Mercy was just the wife for
Levi, after all "; and that the "young folks
would be very "well off" sometime, if they
only kept on in the good way in which they
had started. And the old pastor in his occasional visits did not fail to observe not only
the harmonious domestic life, but as well the
new air of thrift that beautified the old farm.
And one day, as he was taking tea with them,
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