WHAT THE DEACON SAID.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2478, 14 August 1903, Page 6

WHAT THE DEACON SAID.

For forty years Deacon Dunn had been a married man, and his burden had not been light, nor had bis yoke been easy. Some married men have that kind of luck. It is not gallant to say why. The deacon's bair was gray, and his face was a tangle of wrinkles. Where worry walks it leaves its footprints there. But the deacon was patient and pious. Never had he in all those slow revolving years been heard to say a word, save in kindness, to the Titian-haired partner of his bosom What she had said to him passeth comprehension. But the woim will turn, as ihe adage hath it. It is a long worm that has no turning. One day the deacon's limit was readied. The heel of the Titian haired partner of his bosom had struck tile worm in a tender spot at last. The deacon rose nobly to the occasion. " Jane Ann Dunn," he thundered at her, without the slightest effort at self-control. " 1 have listened to you and stood it for forly years without a word back. The Lord knows how many times I have wanted lo swear, and how many times it ought to 'a been done for your own good and my petes of mind. But 1 have never said a word. The end of my patience has come, and I will say now, June Ann, what bad ought to 'a been said at the start, and that is this : ' Hern yer rod-beaded skin to goldernation.' That's all I've got to Bay, Jane Ann, and I don't want to have to say it ag'in. Do you hear ?" And, Btrange as it may seem to those versed in such matters, the deacon never had occasion to repeat bis rebuke.