Ladies' Magazine.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2431, 20 February 1909, Page 9 (Supplement)

Ladies' Magazine.

KITTY.

As they walked she told her companion of new plans. That very day she had secured employment in the blanket factory and would begin work the next morning. Six months before she had came, a broken wreck, liei husband killed in a drunken brawl her own life spoiled, as she thought by the man against whom she had boon warned. But now, with renewed health and resolution, she was about to start life again. Halstead listened quietly until she had finished, then broke out:

‘'You know there ain’t no need for it, Kitty. Ybu 'know I’ve been waitin’ for you to get strong so I could say the same thing I did before —before you met him. It didn’t seem right to persuade when you first came, you were so weak an’ tired. 13ut now you’re strong again an’ know your own mind. Oh, Kitty”—his voice trembled in spite of bis efforts at selfcontrol—“l’ve been waitin’ a good many years. I’ve never felt to marry anybody else.” Her band rose impetuously to stop him. “But you must think to marry someone else, Halstead,’' she said earnestly. “You’re too good a man to he wastin’ that way. An’ you must stop thitikiu’ of me, for it can’t ever be, after—after what’s gone by. I ain’t much, but I couldn’t be so mean as to harm a man like that. Now, Halstead, please”—touching his arm she saw the grim amusement on his face—“don’t make me go on feelin’ I’ve ruined your life. There’s Nellie Bocup. She likes you, an’—” Halstead laughed aloud. "No use talkin’ that way, Kitty,” he interrupted. “I want you . an’ if I can’t have you now I’m willin’ to wait a while. When it gets too hard I shall grab you an’ run so fast an’ so far as you won’t be dble to get breath to say no.”

“I’m sorry, Halstead.” There were tears in Kitty’s eyes, but licr voice was firm. “I sha’n’t ever marry any man to hamper him. It- won’t be no use for you to wait an’ ask me again, ever.”

There was much sickness in town that fall—a malignant spotted fever, highly contagious—and one by one the poorer portions of the town were put under quarantine. Then one evening Halstead helped what lie thought to be a drunken man to his home and the next day the man came down with the l ever and within a week was .dead Within an hour after Halstead hear*' this he was on his way to the woods for what he said was a few days’ hunting. In reality it was to watch himself.

One morning, before the people had begun to appear on the streets lie staggered to the sidewalk outside the fente of Ids sister’s home, where Kitty boarded.

“Mary, oh, Mary!” he called. Then when his sister appeared at the door, “don’t come any nearer. You know that empty 'cabin up by the big rock, where we walk sometimes?” “Yes.”

“AYell, I want you to send some food and water there, soon’s you can. I’ve got the fever. AYait,” raising his voice a little bitterly as she withdrew hurriedly into the lionse. “There ain’t a mite of danger this far, not for you nor the children. 1 won’t go near the cabin until you get the things in, so it’ll be safe. I’ll stay off in the woods for a couple of hours. But pleas© hurry, for I’m beginnin’ to lose sense of tilings.” . “Halstead!” It was a quiet, but peremptory voice from an upper window.

Halstead raised bis eyes and tried to fix his mind on what he saw there.

“Kitty, Kitty,” he said dreamily, “that yon? Better go in an’ shut the window. Maybe the wind’s blowin’

that way.” “Halstead.” the voice said slowly and . distinctly, “can you go straight to the cabin by yourself?” “Course,” indignantly, “straight’s an arrow. But I’ll wait two hours.”

“No,” peremptorily, “you must go at once straight. I’ll have a doctor, there almost as soon as you are. Ah’ I’ll have a nurse. I’d made you come in here but there’s your sister and her children, an’ there’s children in both the next houses. So maybe it wouldn’t be best. Now go straight to the cabin.

Halstead raised Ins hand to his forehead undecidedly. But the voice had been clear and incisive, and just now it was easier for him to obey than to thiii'lc. So lie nodded vaguely, and staggered up the sidewalk. Kitty watched him anxiously until she realised that in spite of his wavering steps he was heading towards the cabin

Then she hurried downstairs. May met her at tho foot. “What do you mean, Kitty?” she began, wildly. “You’re not goin’ up there to him an’ then come back to me an’ the children? Most everybody’s died of the fever so far.”

“That’s all right, Mary,” answered Ivitty, soothingly. “I’m not cornin’ back. You wouldn’t have Halstead without a nurse, would you?”

“But everybody dies most, an’ you’ll sure take it,” remonstrated Mary, hysterically. Halstead did not die, but it was more than three months before he was able to leave his bed and totter across the cabin floor to a seat in the doorway. There lie sat for a long time gasping for breath and gazing moodily at the mountain tops. Kitty came to him after she had arranged his bed and tidied the room.

“Doesn’t it look good, Halstead?’ she said.

He did not answer at once, but presently turned to lier with a dreary smile.

“I—l don’t know as it does, Kitty,” he replied. “You heard the doctor tell me it would likely be six months before I would begin to do any work, an’ that my eyes an’ bearin’ wouldn’t ever be quite so good again. That’, just the same as if I was gettin’ to bj an old man.” He was silent for some minutes, then added: “An’ that ain’t all, Kitty. It’ll take every cent I’ve got to pay the doctor. You see, before you came, I never saved anything. I didn’t feel any need. What I got I spent to help Mary and the children. I’ve only been puttin’ by the few months you was here, before I was sick. What is it?” For she was now standing by his side, her hand upon his shoulder, smiling down into his face.

“Will you marry me, Halstead?”

He gazed at her stupidly for a moment, then his lips began to quiver. “Don’t Kitty,” was all he said.

“But I mean it, Hlastead,” earnestly. “I said I would never marry a man to hamper him, but I’m strong an’ well now, an’ your weak, an’ the doctor says I can get all the work I want nursin’. I can make money while your gettin’ strong,” and lowering her voice a little, “I believe I always loved you, Halstead, always. That—that was only a crazy spell. Why, Halstead!” her voice suddenly catching and then breaking into a sob.

For the tears were streaming down Halstead’s face now. But he held out his arms.

WHY HENPECKED HUSBANDS ARE SUCCESSFUL.

Are henpecked husbands really unhappy? From time immemorial they have been held up to scorn and derision, yet, for all that, there is much to prove that many of them are more successful in life and better off in every respect for the power behind the throne, the ready wit which supplements their own, amd the clear judgment which is for ever at their service.

The influence of a woman who governs her household herself, and her husband with tact and talent, cannot but be.beneficial. She sets her husband upon a pedestal, and insists upon all the bowings, (genuflexions and swinging of censors which the most exacting could demand. She pulls the wires, but she keeps them well hidden, and her -graceful show of deference to her husband is scrupulously kept up. The result is that in due time her husband attains t-o a position of success which he -would never have secured had lie been left to his own unaided efforts.