The Talkative Wig | Page 9

out her comb, and shook her head slightly, I fell in curls all around her
neck and shoulders, like a golden veil, and you could but just see her
laughing blue eyes, and white teeth through me.
You may readily guess that the pretty Alice was beloved by all who
knew her; and, ere long, the son of the village apothecary won her heart.
He was a good-hearted fellow, but never fitted himself to be of much
use in the world. He took Alice to a distant village, where, with his
father's assistance, he set up as an apothecary, on rather a small scale,
of course; but Alice was used to simple fare and to helping herself.
All would have been well with them but for one thing--the husband
became a drunkard; not immediately--his love for his wife kept him
sober for some time. Nothing was more beautiful than the way they
lived for a year or two; but the habit of drinking a little, a habit which
he had formed in his father's shop, and which he intended to cure,
returned. The wretched man had not strength to resist it.
He became fretful, and Alice, for the first time in her life, became
unhappy. She had never before heard any but the voice of kindness; and
now, from him she loved best in the world she received sometimes
sharp and disagreeable words. He was very sorry afterwards, and all
would seem well again, but he did not really reform, and, many a time,
my locks, falling over her innocent round cheek, were wetted with her
tears.
Alice was good as an angel. She forgave her husband, believed him
when he promised to leave off drinking, and never said a harsh word to
him. James kept his promise for a month or two, but fell again, and
then more hopelessly; for, after he had drunk a little, he feared his wife
would know what he had done, and felt so unhappy that he drank more
to drown his feelings; and, for the first time, he was brought home to
his wife dead drunk.
Alice tended her husband as if he were only a sick man; she had him
put into a nice bed, she washed and mended his soiled and torn clothes,

she was near him to catch his first word when he recovered his senses,
she never reproached him, she tried, by love, to win him back to
sobriety and duty, she wept, she prayed for him.
He suffered all that man can from shame; he could not look her in the
face; he had destroyed the charm and glory of life; he was unable, or
rather he thought he was, to conquer his enemy; and, before six years
were at an end, partly from broken and ruined health, and partly from
utter misery, he fell into a rapid decline, and died.
Alice loved her husband; and never was sick man nursed with more
loving, cheerful patience than was he. He wept over his sins; he asked
her, with every returning and every setting sun, to forgive him and to
pray God to pardon him.
She was an angel of pity and mercy to him, to the end. When she
leaned over him to kiss him, he would pull her beautiful hair--for I was
still beautiful--over his face which he was ashamed to show when he
thought of his folly and wickedness. Many a time have I felt his hot
tears of contrition as he pressed me against his sunken cheeks, and to
his parched lips.
After her husband's death, the vicar of the parish came to see Alice, and
did all he could to comfort and aid her.
She found that her husband had died largely in debt; that, when all the
stock in his shop was sold, and the creditors paid, there would be
nothing left for herself and two children.
She did not want to go back to her old father's house, and burden him
with care and expense, and she resolved to open a little school for small
children in the cottage in which she lived.
She had one spare room which she could let to an old lady who wanted
just such a home as Alice could give her.
With a strong and hopeful heart, did Alice dedicate herself to the work
before her, of supporting and educating her two orphan children.

Alice's strict honesty had made her give up to her husband's creditors
every thing she had, except the barest necessaries; and, now that she
wanted to commence her school, she felt very much the want of a little
cash to buy a few indispensable things.
The grocer and butcher had offered to supply her on credit, till her first
payment from her scholars and