In which there are fences to mend

I had promised to take the wife to Boston in May, if you remember, as her Christmas gift. I purchased the tickets on the Halifax and South-Western Railway, now running all the way to Yarmouth. I also bought tickets on the steamer Prince Edward, which would take us from Yarmouth to Boston and back.

I don't think you could have found a more loving wife than mine after she opened the gift. The oldest girl, too, who as I've told you needs discipline, was so happy for her mother that she even gave me a hug. I told the wife that I would keep the tickets in my purse, for safe-keeping.

However, a lot of water flows under the bridge in four months. During this past year, down in the United States, there was a nationwide ban on all gambling on the horses. It got so bad that in early May many horse owners from the Boston States started coming to Nova Scotia to race our local horses, thinking to make a quick dollar.

In our area, we have a lot of dedicated horsemen, none more so than Gilmore Uhlman, who lives up towards West Caledonia. He has the fastest horse ever seen in these parts, name of Spirits. One day an American horseman showed up at the N.F. Douglas store at the Corner, challenging anyone to a race.

Word spread quickly, and it wasn't long before I was at the fair grounds, where a number of men had gathered, with Spirits and the other horse being readied. To make a long story short, bets were made, none larger than mine, so confident was I that Uhlman and his horse would win. As it came to pass, however, Spirits was left coughing in the dust, everyone was dispirited, and I was required to come up with a considerable sum of money. When I offered the American the tickets on the Prince Edward instead, he took them, as if he were doing me a favour.

The wife was beside herself when I told her what happened. After she and the oldest girl who always takes the wife's side screeched at me for a time, the wife grew quiet, and it was several weeks before I got a single word from her. Since then, I have felt more tolerated than admired.

That being so, I have decided to look very hard for nice Christmas presents for the wife this year. She is so used to the stock at the local stores that I am commencing to look further afield, eyeing the Liverpool stores. I am afraid that it is going to cost me, but I am determined to mend fences.

I see by the newspaper that D.C. Mulhall has received a ton shipment of choice confectionery this season, and I know the wife has a sweet tooth. Mulhall also brought in a thousand pounds of turkeys, ducks, geese, chicken, hams and bacon, but I am persuaded that these would be a little beside the point, as the wife has the larder well stocked.

I know that her hat is getting so that she hates to wear it. A. A. Mollins has some of those fancy hats made with the feathers and wings of birds, including the ostrich. These are new to the store this year, and are said to be high grade plumes with all colours and combinations, so I may take a look at those, so long as they are not too dear.

Charles Hutchins, of the Upper Drug Store, has been trying to attract the Christmas custom as well, so I might stop in there. They have crokinole sets, one of which would make a good gift for the boy. They also have perfumes. They are described as exquisite French, German and American odors, which the wife might like given the ones she has to face each day out in the barn.

Arthur S. Hutchins, of the Acadia Book Store, is carrying everything from jewellry to fine chinas, so I will have to stop in there, and I will want to see what they have in the line of skirts and blouses in the Moses Thomas store in Milton. I wonder if the oldest girl would come with me on this trip, as she would come in handy should I want to consider the ladies undergarments at L.C. Daniels's Fancy Dry Goods Store.

She can be pretty saucy, but I will ask her, and I will let you know how it turns out.

Thomas W. L. Sheppard, Esq., can be contacted at the old Benjamin Annis place, Hibernia.