Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1853-12-08

-nlf +, BY VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND.
There she was-right across the road. l
could see her as peeped through the creVlces
of the blind, and somehow my heart ached for
her. She looked just about my own age, and
she had come to neighbor Gray's the day l
picked my first showdrop for grandma. How
long ago that seemed, for it was now the heart
of Summer / remember how glad l was as
1 saw her descend from the stage, for there
was no little girl that lived near our house,
and thought we should have just the most
delightful time playing hide-and-seek under
the pear tree and picking berries in the belt of
woods back of our house, but somehow she
never did anything like other little girls; and
though neighbor Gray's green front door and
our own stared each other straight in the face,
and though she had been there so long time,
we had never spoken to each other. Every
body called her neighbor Gray's bound girl,
and every day saw her, with an old brown
sun-bonnet and her long curls-golden bright
as the sun-fashes that danced and peeped SO
impudently, every morning, through the rose
bush by grandma's bed room window-drag
ging that clumsy go-cart,' with its green
curtain, up and down the street while John
nv Gray, who was, thought, the crossest,
biggest, homeliest baby in Christendom, rolled
and squalled inside.
But, from the time that neighbor Gray's
bound girl set foot upon the steps opposite
our cottage, my sympathy had been warmly
enlisted in her behalf while my curiosity had
been kept alive by her isolated position and
the atmosphere of mystery which seemed TO
environ her.
One day this latter had grown insupporta-
BILE. saw her coming down the road, and
resolved to run across and meet her, and have
one good look into her face, and, if l could,
muster resolution to speak to her. The for
mer of these feats | achieved, but when she
raised her little, sad face, and looked at me a
moment with eyes whose color likened to
the August sky at noon, my heart misgaEe me
Il could not even smile.
But the little white face haunted me mora
than ever after this, and watched, more fire.
quently than ever, through the crevices of the
blind the green go-cart and the little girl
But, one afternoon, | sat there, wishing my
little neighbor had just such grandma to love
her, as had, and wondering lchy she had not,
until, at last, some very skeptical doubts found
their way into my thoughts, and some very
unorthodox premises sorely puzzled my little
craninm.
sGrandma,' was the audible conclusion of
gny mental augmentation, didn't you say
God loped everybody .n....
- Yes, nay ehild,' answered soft voice by
abe table
ss And didn't you say He could see everybody
too1'
Yes, Annie, His eyes are never closed
darkness and day are alike to them
Well, then,' said impatiently, if He
lOres neighbor Gray's bound girl, and secs her
dragging Johnny from morning till night, and
knows. Just as we'll as do, she's tired almost
10 death, why don't He do something to help
her, when He can, just as well as not!'
h4Clouds and darkness are round about Him.
Righteousness and Judgment are the habita-
fion of His throne = said my grandmother, in
tones whose solemnity thrilled my heart
GCome and sit down here, Annie, and listen
TO all say gal .s". '-
brought my stool TO my grand-mother's
feet, and she laid her dear hand on my head,
and talked to me long time of the Great Fa-
TIERS goodness and mercy, and how tie had
promised to hold those that loved Him IN ev-
erlasting remembrance, and how at last we
should learn that all our trials here had worked
together Tor our good, and how we should not
mind them for the happiness that should come
hereafter and before those words of faith and
love, my rebellious murmurings were hushed,
and my momentary skepticism vanished, and
then my grandmother told me, perhaps,
could devise some method to assist the little
bound girl at least, 1 could pray for her.
That night lay awake long time after
grandma had left her goodnight kiss on my
forehead. / remember how the moon beams
painted the high bedposts with silver, and
filled the chamber with dim ghost light
which metamorphosed the two old chairs in
the corner into grim, misshapen giants with
glaring gholl-eyes but / was not afraid, for
right before me stood the pale face of the
bound girl, and was too much absorbed in
schemes for her benefit to devote much atten-
ton to giants, which / knew were the old
chairs, after all. ...-.
Asthousand plans had been suggested to my
smind, and dismissed as Utopian and impracti-
.,cable, andrI was beginning to grow discour-
aoed. when one less amenable than any of Its
predecessors to such censure, presented itself.
I'm the garden, by the gooseberry bushes, stood
"a young peach tree, all my own, as grandma
had repeatedly affirmed. Three early peach
.es, the first Of its progeny, lay among the long
slender leaves. How had watched them all
Summer, and ,beheld with such delight the
mellow, hues which crept along the side near
est the sun, and the rosy streaks which stole
over the downy, transparent, covering.
And at last these were fully ripened.-
Grandma had promised me should gather
them the next day. She must, Of course
have the biggest but the larger of the other
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