Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-07-15
"Meet Lizzie at Six"

That was all the dispatch contained
-Four little words; yet what e4citemen
they caused in the household at Maple
Cottage; the quiet and sober household
| whose members, at the moment of its re
cePtion, were on the point of going to res
for the night.
"Meet Lizzie at sixI" Was our darling
indeed SO near 10 US! Two years and three
months had passed since our eyes had beer
gladdened with her girlish beauty, since
her voice had mingled with the Bird music
that foated all the long summer days
among the naples. Two years and three
months she had been buried among books,
in fer away city, bowling her sunny curls
ever algebra and geometry, grammar and
philosophy, astronomy and botony, French
and Latin; patiently at first, because her
parents desired it; afterwards cheerfully,
to please the teachers she had learned to
love- and at last zealously from the pure
treasures these studies unlocked 10 her
But it was over now-these toilsome years
and she was on her way to us once
more-our Lizzie--our pet and pride-we
should "meet her at six"
She had lett B. the morning; had
journeyed without stopping all day; this
was guessed at once; and at eight in the
evening, finding hasty opportunity, she
had telegraphed to us the words above. At
siy the eastern train arrived at our station;
Lizzie was to ride all night for the sake of
rI.tn k.,rr n,
her; impulsive, warm-hearled child that
she was!
How little we slept that night What
slight sounds aroused us; how early we
were all astir-even the baby and the
white haired grandfather. Meet Lizzie,
eh!" he said; "aye, indeed will wei" And
the old mans voice caught youthful tone,
and his crutches an elastic movement, as
he hobbled about the house, giving orders,
as if all the responsibility rested upon him,
to be sure.
There was Hannah, too, bewildering the
mother about breakfast. "Did Lizzie like
cuffee or cocoa best" And would she make
biscuits or waffies! And the mother smIl-
ing all the time nodded her head to every
thing, and went hurryiBg about, with the
gridiron in one hand, aud the eee-b boiler in
another, coaxing Fanny to curl the baby's
hair, and looking at the clock every five
minutes. But Fanny, with mysterious
apronfnls Of something, was fighting up
stairs and down, leaving a book here, u
HOVER there, dsguerreotype on The table,
or a rosy checked fall apple in the window
something for Lizzie to see and smile at
Only the father seemed undisiurbed. We
noticed, to be sure. the dimples in his
cheeks, which Lizzie always said she made
with her fingers when she was babe,
looked deeper when he smiled, and that
his voice vas little less steady. when he
told Thomas tv bring the horses; but he
did not like 20 be considered q demonstra-
tive man, so we only looked significantly
at each other, aud said nothing. S,in wat
ers are sometimes very deep.
At last the currisge came around and we
got in; two of us, besides the father, who
wcs to drive. There was room Tor mLre,
but IL was quite out OF her line, the mother
said. to go on a dashing drive before break
fast; SO we left her on the piazza, with the
pickle dish in hor hand, and wiping her
tears with her apron.
II was half nile to the depot, und the