North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1864-03-02
s Selett SStJorp,
THE silver KNITTING SHEATH.

Over the sun bathed pastures, above the
fragrant bilberry swamps and the upland
gIens, tioated the liquid clarion of the stage.
horn dying away amid great piles of mossy
rocks and mountain gorges, where the most
adventurous footsteps had never trod, with
sweet, melancholy cadence, until you have
distinguished its burden from the gurgle OF
the brooks and The wood birds.
News from the seat of war! The village
mail had come in, with its undeciphered
trieSht of grief and lamentation, pride and
sadness. What else could it be, when Sun
nycliff,, like all the rest Of our New England
villages, had sent the flower of its Young
men to the battlefield ard every mother
held her breath with vague apprehension
and turned from the bright flush of June
roses with a shnddering thought of that
other crimson which dyed the pale daisies of
Southern meadows.
The MONDAY sun shone full into the great
old fashioned kitchen of the farm house
with its white board floor and windows hung
with chintz curtains. On either side of the
broad flat door stone were wooden boxes of
rank ieaved hydranges, and the giant maple
that. seemed to stretch its leafy branches
above the roof, was all musical with the stir
and twitter of little birds. just in the cool
impenetrable shadow of that same maple
Agnes Miller stood, folding up the read and
re-read letter of her brother in the wars
with flushed check, and wishing for the
thousand and first time that she was a man
to join in the glorious cause
1t would have done your heart good, in
those days of pale faces and wasp like figures,
to see such rosy, healthy, bit of bloom as
Agnes Miller ? Round checked, bright eyed,
with light elastic feotstep that never seem
ed to be weary, and a brow just tinged
with the mountain winds and June suns.
Agnes did not know what headache meant.
and was only acquainted by reputation with
the hipo ! she was as pretty in her pink
calico dress as any duchess in rose-colored
satin, and the single spray of white wax ap-
pies twisted to her hair glmmcred like
. ISdItiC ptdil -ulops.
All of a sudden, asshc stood there thought
fully turning the letter round and round, an
arm was stoled about the trim little waist
and another shadow fell on the velvet
grass
"Don't Charles % s,... ..,... .......-.9 |
You see she was not bit startled, aud |
Charles, like sensible fellow that he was
qdon't', in the right way, and
Immediately stole another kiss.
"Come Agnes, let's sit down on the door
stone, and you shall tell me, what Harry |
says, for see yonr have, a letter from him
tnefe. is1E ial .g.-l.u ~ ess-. az 5s,ss -.
Side by side, in the moving shade of the
dense old maple. The two lovers read over
the hastily scribbled lines 1t was pretty
tabeau. yet you could not have helped won
derng how 1t vas that SO fresh and beauti- |
iui creature as Agnes Miller could ever
have fallen in love with that pale little shoe
maker, stunted in growth and lame in one
foot. But the truth was Agnes looked be-
yond mere exteriors and saw the noble heart
and stead(ast wiisrthat shoae out through
Chasles Denuison's pale, though tfuF face. os