The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-22
CHAPTER III.
'ALL IS WE'LL

Next morning Lucy was up early, and the
season being one of those mild and open ones
which have of late taken the place of the Sc
verer ChIistmases of our fathers she ran out
and amused herself, as children like to do by
digging.
The place she chose for digging was just in
side the garden gate, where she was accus-
toned to wait on fine mornings to get the let
ters from the post office.
The garden gate was not quite visible from
any of the windows of the house, the path
being curved; but Edie running out betimes
Cfor they We're all early risers) found the
child busy there. She had excavated very
neat little grave, and was just giving the
finishing touches to her work.
Who are you going to bury to-day, LOoi'
she asked.
'Oh, l know said the child, you 90
along. It's not you; it's a wickeder than you
Il see the postman coming round the cor
ner,' said Ede; run in as soon as you get
tho letteTs;' and % she left hor.
In another minute the child had the letters
from the postman--some four or five; and in
an instant Gas soon as his back was turned)
had selected the wicked one (the London let
ter with the prim little seal, which she had SO
often whipped in vain), had pitched it into
the little grave, deity filled in the earth, and
made all smooth above it, then ran into the
house with the rest OF the letters, out of
breath.
Nothing again., said Andrew, as he turned
them over. But doubt no news is not good
news this time. Franklin would have writ
ten, | am sure, if he had had anything to
write which would do US good. Sure you
have not dropped any letters, LOOP Bat
when he looked round he found the child had
slipped ont of the room, and nothing more
was said when she returned.
Neither he nor the girls indeed made any
mention of the letter which had been ex-
peoted, or of the subject to which it should
have referred; but that subject weighed not
the less heavily on all of them.
| To each of them it was clear now that in
| this matter of the mortgage nothing could be
done, that the money must be paid, and that
to pay it there must be sale, and they must
| leave the dear old house. AS they passed
from room to room that morning, or from
| walk to walk in the garden, feeling grew
upon them all that they were taking farewell
looks of all. And as the girls decorated the
pictures and mirrors with the Christmas
holly, they thought sadly that when Christ
mas came again other hands would cut the
shrubs and trim the rooms for other people.
Happily those duties which lay nearest to
each of them were sufficient in great measure
to distract their minds from dwelling too much
| upon the future. Let come what would to-
morrow, to-day had its own work waiting for
| each of them.
While the girls were busted therefore about
their household morning work, doubly diligent
| that they might hurry to the church. Andrew
| Walter went with the mason and saw the me-
mortal he had provided for his son erected
| over his own pew.
This did not occupy him long, and he was
| soon at home again, walking brisl1ly in his
fields, perhaps hoping to find in weariness OF
limb some rest for over-anxiety of spirit.
| AS for the fine old church, when the bright
sunlight poured in through the many y-colored
window panes, and fell on the sweet patient
aces OF these girls as they wreathed the
| pulpit, the communion rails, and the grand
columns of the nave-as they decked the holy
table itself with living green and scarlet, and
expended all their loving ingenuity and taste
in the decoration of the quaint old rood screen,
it was by no means place OF gloom. Even
| The time-staiDed monuments upon the walls
The ancient knight and lady still uplifting
stony hands in silent prayer-the grotesque
| faces of the corbes all seemed to wear q
brighter, tenderer aspect under the influence
| of the Christmas green. The old dead stone
and the young animated faces seemed alike
| touched with a new and deeper expression
under the influence of the gracious season and
the work that in itself was surely sort of
| worship.
AS column after column was finished, aud
arch after arch showed its rich free outline in
bright green; as one after the other the branch
ing candelabra grew into graceful bushes of Leaf
| and fiuit, the sun sank down and the shadows
| crept out. Tnen when all was flushed, aud
Isthe old sexton with one solitary candle was
sweeping up the scattered fragments from the
tioor the wears wife and the rest of those