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THE CHRISTIAN NATION.
A R O U N D T H E O L D A R M C H A I R
A DAY OX THE RIVER.
By Sara Virginia Du Bois.
"I love It, I love it,
And v/ho shall dare
To chide me for loving
The Old Arm Chair."
It had been stormy weather all the
week and Friday morning found the
Widow Smith with her four wash
tubs full to the brim of wet clothes
and with a northeast rain driving
against the kitchen windows.
But the widow was not discouraged.
She sat down on the only sound
chair the kitchen contained and turned
a smiling face toward the five
children who were playing coach
with a dilapidated chair and a wornout
broom.
"It ain't never worth while to
worry about the weather or any thing
that can't be helped," she said. "If
it storms today it will make the sunshine
seem all the brighter tomorrow.
I can afford to wait a bit knowing it
is better further on.''
Little Frances, who was driving the
temporary coach from an elevated
poposition^ on a rickety chair-back,
fell at this point and bumped her
head with such force that she
screamed with pain.
"There, there, Frances, don't cry.
If you are going to run such risks,
you must be willing to take the consequences.
I expected to see somebody
get burt, but I knew you
wouldn't be satisfied till it happened.
If there ain't Aunt Hannah Bowers!
There was never a storm severe
enough to keep her in."
The visitor was drenched, but
seemed as unmindful of it as if she
had stepped in from balmy air and
smiling skies. She took the proffered
chair and seated herself with an
air of importance.
"We are going up the river on the
Fourth of July, widow," she said. In
her excitement she pitched her voice
so high that the children fell back
"In a boat, widow, in a boat," she
cried, her enthusiasm increasing
with each word. "The Stubbleville
Sabbath Schools are all going and
that includes you. My aunt saw the
superintendent today and he said it
wa- a free trip for everybody."
"I don't think I ought to go," said
the widow. "If it rains I could get
off all right, but suppose it should be
a good drying day"
"Couldn't you dry them on the
boat, mother" It was Jane that offered
this suggestion, and her voice
was full of earnest solicitude.
"Yes, widow, and I'll help you,"
Hannah said. "I don't know just what
the accommodations might be for
drying clothes, but aunt had the picture
of a boat that she showed me
and there was flne space on top
where the wind seemed to be blowing
a gale. I've an idea it wouldn't take
them long to dry."
The widow turned from Hannah to
the anxious group of children and
then laughed out of sheer sympathy
will be a memory for the Club to carry
back from Colorado.
Mr. Speer was called home to New
Castle recently by the death of his.
father. He will be gone several
weeks. S. B. McClelland and family,.
have moved into their new bungalow,
at Xo. 1117 Sixteenth street. The family
of S. A. Keys is now located at
No. 1117 Fourteenth avenue. .Many
new houses are now being erected and
several large buildings are soon to be
erected, among them a flnelarge fed­
"It is powerful glad we are that you
as the scene presented itself to her. are going, widow," said Bill Smithers,
"We'll go, Hannah,'- she said, "but as he shambled across her path.
there ain't going to be any washing Bill was a shock-headed fellow and
took along. It has never been my represented incapacity and shiftlessness
on two legs, but the widow did
rule to combine work and play. But
you are wet to the skin, child. Do not despise him. That was one of eral building, for a post office. We are
draw up to the fire and get some of the secrets of her popularity in the glad for these signs of prosperity in
the dampness off your clothes. You alley. "I'll warrant there is some
are as good as a bit of sunshine with good in everybody if you only delve
your cheery ways."
down deep enough to flnd it," she
The river itr'p was the greatest
event that had ever presented itself
to the widow and her family. The
news spread the length of the alley
and was a seven days' wonderment
there.
The Widow Smith was classed a
blessing the house is left, boys,' he
said. 'But you have no insurance on
it, John,' said Billy Edwards, his
brother. 'I've got what is better,
Billy,' he said, 'health and strength
to build another.' That was always
the way with him and a pretty good
way I call it. The day he died the
doctor called to see him. 'Well, John,
how are you feeling' he said. 'A
little better, doctor, a little better,'
and the next moment the breath was
out of his body."
The national holiday was not generally
observed in the alley. The resi­
camp flre. These, accompanied by delicious
coffee, rolls, pickles and
dents there had not been trained
wafers, made up the breakfast, wiiich
along patriotic lines and had been too
busy in their struggle for bread to
dwell upon the word. But the fact
that the Widow Smith and her children
meant to celebrate the day gave
it new importance to them. They all
stood out to watch the procession
pass down the street and to wish
them God-speed in language peculiarly
their own.
said. "I can't be hard on Rill Smithers.
A man has run up against luck
when he makes up his mind that out
of the whole world he's the one person
that wasn't needed."
What the widow enjoyed that day
homa; Miss Sloane, of Kansas; Rev..
M. S. McMillan and family and Prof.
Wilson and family, of Sterling, Kansas;
also Miss Patton, who is visiting
on the river she could only tell you her sister, Mrs. Hays. Mrs. Bedford
successful woman. The world and afterward in broken words. "It was and sister, Mrs. Caskey, spent several
the widow seemed able to hit it offi the sight of the water that made me weeks visiting the grading camp of
together. The world was satisfied young again," she said. "The children iMr. Bedford near Scott's Bluffs, Neb.
with the widow's labor and the acted crazy and I hadn't the heart In spite of the "heated term," our S.
widow was more than satisfied to repress them. I could always rely S. numbered eighty-seven on last
with the world's remuneration. She upon Jane before, but she near went Sabbath morning.
had more than a mild liking for work. wild when the boat-whistle blew. She Without doubt the best musical organization
that has visited Greeley for
She took intense satisfaction in it. said she thought the thing had bursted
and that we were all going to many montas was the Geneva College-
The hardest thing you could ask of
her would be to dawdle all day with heaven by the water route. That Glee Club of Beaver Falls, Penn., that
nothing to do. She had worked in child does beat all.
gave a concert at the U. P. church toan
audience that greatly appreciated
the beginning because it was necessary,
but now it was part of her life; might have been worse," she said as every number of the long and pleas­
"Only one thing happened, and that
she could not live without it. She the alley congregated about her. "The
baby fell down the steps into the cellar
of the boat and knocked two teeth
out. It has just saved a little trouble;
it ain't as if there wasn't more to
come."
"Was there fireworkS;. widow" asked
Smithers, edging nearer. AVith
all his rags and in his coUarless condition
he was still stoutly on the side
of the decent and the respectable.
"Yes, Smithers; fireworks and music
with flags waving and children
singing and the air proclaiming
glory. It made you feel it was a great
thing to die for your country, but a
greater thing to live for it."
"Then you are glad you stopped off
Vol. 61.
GREELEY, COLORADO.
The Y. P. C. U. arranged a camp
breakfast on the morning after the
Geneva Glee Club entertainment, in.
their honor.. A party of about fifty of
our young people, and, some once
young, assembled at Island Grove.
Park at. 7 a. m., and enjoyed a regular
camp-fire breakfast. .Much pleasure
was had in toasting weenies and
bacon, and marshmallows over a big»i
our little city.
Among our summer visitors so far,.
are iMr. and Mrs. Merton Bedford. Mrs.
Caskey and daughters, from Okla­
ing program.
There were 14 members of the chorus
with a leader and pianist and the
voices blended in perfect harmony,
showing to especial advantage in
their college songs. The cornet solo of
Mr. Smith proved pleasing in the extreme
as did the reading of iVIr. Moore,
But the real hit of the evening-^-as
the Italian street singers, singing and
playing for pennies.
The pulpit was beautifully and
tastefully decorated with college penants
and mottoes, and the soft brown
and white colors of the school blended
prettily in a harmony of color that
added interest to the program, that
was one of the best balanced and carefully
selected of any similar program.
So well pleased was the audience
a step or two out of their alarm.
They had never seen the river and
had no idea what the word meant watched Hannah as she hastened
expect .lane, who had heard it defined
down the alley, her eyes filled to
as a large stream of water. It over-flowing with tears.
was rather visionary to the widow "There ain't no use giving way to
herself, who had been ou the river sentiment," she said, "and hard work
once in the course of her life, when is the best remedy for heart sickness,
I know. Give me plenty of work
Tom had been given free tickets and
had refused to go without her. Often
yet, as she stood over the steaming
and I'll drive off the blues betore it
has time to settle into chronic dis­
tubs with the sweat pouring down ease. It reminds me of Uncle John
her face, she fancied she could feel Edwards. He used to say whenever
the balmy breeze from the water and he saw trouble coming his way he
could hear the great wheel plowing took a sharp cut and turned the corner
before it had a chance its way with steady and unrelenting
to reach
force.
him. He never had much constitution,
"Hannah, who is going and how
are they going to get there"
Uncle John hadn't, but he liv­
ed to be near a hundred and everybody
said it was because he didn't for a day"
allow things to worry him. And he
"Glad! I'll have a glory song on
had lots of chances to get depressed
my lips till I die, and a ring of in­thadependence in my ears till I reach respond to repeated encores, and as
the gentlemen were compelled to
if he had been built that way. When
his barn was burned and everybody
the bright and beautiful Jerusalem beyond.cial
stunts rendered after the regular
an extra pleasure came the three spe­
was bewailing his loss, he spoke up
as cheerful as anything, 'It is a great
gram.—Greeley Tribune.