Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1858-07-14
I" MEET LIZZIE AT SIX".

That was all the despatch contained. Four
little words yet what excitement they caused
in the household at Maple Cottage; the quiet,
sober household, whose members, at the mo.
ment of its reception, were on the point ol
retiring to rest for the night:
aN[eet Lizzie at six" Was our darling in
deed so near us? Two years and three months
had passed since our eyes had been gladdenrd
bv her eirlish beauty, since her voice had miil-
pled with the birl-music that floatcd all the
long Summer days among tue NAPLES. Two
wears and three months she had been buried
among books, in far away city, bowling her
sunny curls over algebra, geometry and phiioso-
phy, astronomy and botany, French and Latin;
patiently at first, because her parents desired
it: afterwards ceerfully, to please tie teachers
she had learned to love; and at last zcalously,
from pure thirst for the treasure these studies
unlocked to her. But it was "Yer now, these
toilsome years, and she was un her way once
more-our Lzzie-our pet and pridc-we should
"meet her at six !"
She had left B. in the morning; had jour
neyed without stopping all day; this we guess
ed at once; and at eight in the morning, lind
inc hasty opportunity, she had telesraphed to
Ms the words abnve. At six, the Eastern train
arrived at our station Lizzie was to ride all
nirbt, for the sake of reaching home thus early.
It was like her; impulsive, warm-hearted child
that she was.
How little we slept that night! What slight
sounds aroused us how early we were all astlr
even the baby, and the white-haired grand
father. .Meet Lizzie, chg" he said; faye,
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, bewilderins the
mother about breakfast. "Did Lizzie like coffee
or cocoa best 7" And would she make biscuits
or wafles7 And the mother, smiling all the
time. nodded her head to everything and went
hurrying about, with the gridiron in one hand
and the egg-boiler in the other, coaxing fanny
to curl the baby'S hair, and looking at the CLOCK
every five minutes. But Fanny, with mysterl-
ous spoonfuls of something, was lifting up
stairs and down, leaving buck here, hower
there dagucrreotype on the table, Or rosy
checked fall apple in the understanding
for Lizzie to sec and smile at. Unly the father
seemed undisturbed. We noticed, to be sure,
the dlmples in his checks, which Lizzie always
said she made with her fingers When she was a
babe, looked deeper when he smiled, and that
his voice was triHe less steady when he told
Thomas to bring the horses; but he dia not
like to be considered dcmonstratiVe man, SO
we looked significantly at each other, and saio
nothing. Still waters are sometimes very deep
At last the carriage came round, and we got
in; two of us beside the other, who was to
drive. There was room for more, but 1t was
quite out of her line, the mother said, to 60 on
a dashing drive before breakfast SO we lett heI
on the piazza with pickle-dish in her hand
and wping her eyes with her apron.
It was half a mile to the depot, and the sur
had not quite risen when we started. How
balmy the air was, that soft September morn
ing We thought, egotlsts that we were Ell II
happiness nat 4aen hsG been %l
Gr M a sun rising before, and as if half the glory
Of T the morning would have been wasted hae
not Lizzie been coming home.
; ~ The cars had not arrived when we stopped