The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1870-12-06

Uieu oVer her neau, came into the kitchen,
where, Miss Agnew was frying ham and
eggs for breakfast.
Child where were you last night P'
severely demanded the elderly maiden,
brandishing her gridiron as Knight of
old might have poised his lance. "What
is the meaning of this unaccustomed
absence?"
Mabel hung down her head.
ell went home last night p
"Went home! -Four miles all by your
self, after ten o'clock at night ?" severely
echoed Miss Mehetabel.
1T wasn't so very far, Miss Agnewr'
And how did it happen? | insist upon
knowing all about it, Mabel Martin !"
sternly went on the catechist
Mabel grew scarlet and white in
breath.
81 went down into the garden, after I
had gone to my room"
"What for?''
"The moonlight was soft d.
"Wellr
"When l came back, the door was
fastened, and----''
"Why didn't you knock for me to como
down stairs and let you ?''
ell didn't wish to disturb you, so 1
went home to my fathers p
Alas, poor Mabel ! she might have known
that from one mustard-seed would rise the
fatal tier of falsehood but she had not
paused to think that it would have been
better to tell Miss Agnew all about James
and herself and the innocent love-gleams
that were beginning to brighten her life.
Miss Agnew listened with set lips, and
brow which betokened no very favorable
state of mind.
"Very good" she said coldy, as Mabel's
hesitating voice died into silence. ''You
may go to your work"
And as soon as Mabel was fairly esconced
in the buttery skimming pans of lather-
wrinkled cream, with hands scarcely as
steady as usual, Miss Agnew eclipsed her
head in huge green sun bonnet, stiffened
with paste-board, and rushed down the
garden path to a huge pear-tree, whose
gnarled trunk concealed deep hollow,
curving obliquely downward to its roots.
Into this hollow she thrust her arm cropping
eagerly in the soft black mold and slippery
moss that lined this casket of natures own
fashioning.
81 thought it was so !! / feared it was
so p she muttered to herself, pale and agi-
tated. 81 would rather have put them
into the fire with my own hands, than be
compelled to believe that Mable Martin
was-a thief ~
For the Government bonds that Miss
Agnew had hidden away the night before,
were gone!
care you sure there's is no mistake Miss
Agnew?'
Justice Cornell, a soft-hearted old man,
looked kindly down upon the girl, who was
kneeling on the floor with her face buried
inthe window curtains, her low voice break
ing the ominous silence with piteous itera-
tions of sobbing sound.
81 am innocent indeed, am innocent !'
How can there be any mistake, Mr..
Cornell?" demanded the inexorable spin
ster. 81 put the papers there after ten
o'clock at night BY her own confession
she was in the garden after that time, and,
of course, she must have seen me conceal
| them"
GA queer place to put Government bonds
in" said the justice wrinkling his eye
brows. tli
l "Bother the bonds wish that they
were in the Red Sea, so I dop' calculated
Miss Agnew SO sharply and suddenly that
the fat justice inyoluntarily started back.
"lt you'd had half the trouble with them
as have, you wouldn't wonder at my
wanting to hide 'em. However, that,
neither here nor there. She's absent al
! night long, and comes back next day will