The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1870-08-30
BECKY HARLAND'S ROMANCE.

n suit me or not, said Miss Towers,
rehectingly
81 will do my best, ma'am,' said little
Becky.
Any objections to the country ?" de
manded Miss Towers, in a brusuqe, bust
ness-like way.
"No, ma'am."
"I never have kept girl BEFORE"
said Miss Towers, gravely, "but my
brother is coming home this summer, and
I don't want to be obliged to be in the
kitchen the whole time. Where have
you lived last?"
Becky Harland grew pink all over.
L have never lived out before, ma am,
but my uncle died suddenly, and there
is no more than enough left to support
my aunt, so Pm going to try to support
myself"
Very right and proper" said Miss
Towers. Well, Rcbecca, will try you
at all events. Six dollars month is
very moderate wages, and although you
don't look real stout, yet [ think [ can
make you very useful about the house"
So Miss Towers took Becky Harland
back with her to the old stone farm
house in the IIousatonic Valley; and
Becky was never tired of helping Miss
Towers strain the milk, and work over
the butter, and gather pink honeysuckles,
and feed the little downy turkeys. And
the roses in her cheeks grew deeper, and
the velvet bloom of her lips seemed to
catch the scarlet of the wood strawber-
ries, and Miss Towers declared, with an
admiring glance at her little " help" that
" she didn't look like the same child she
was before"
Meanwhile the preparations for Miss
Towers brother went briskly on.
"Pll make up lot of cocoanut pound
cake" Miss Towers said, with the recipe
book in her hand. "That's what he
used to be desprit fond of when he was
boy"
Perhaps his tastes may have chang
ed," said Becky, who was rubbing the
old mahogany furniture with waxed
cloth, at the other end of the ROOM"
az don't know about that" said Miss
Towers, with troubled air. "I havn't
seen MIN since
"Not seen him since he was boy p
echoed Becky, with open blue eyes.
,'Well, it does sound strange, dom
it?' said Miss Towers but you see he
I went away from home when he was fif
+, teen, and he's been out in the world evel
since ?"
"Is he very old gentleman. Mis-,
Towers ?" innocently questioned Rebecca
: as she rubbed away at the claw foot o
the antique pier table.
cold !" uttered Miss Towers, uplifting
+ both hands in amazement. "Why, he
ever so much younger than I am"
Is he ?" asked Becky. "Why, Pv
: been fancying him, all along, an old gen
tleman in a wig and cane.".
), Miss Towers burst out into fit c
" hearty laughter.
Is Is "Well, if that don't beat all 2" sh
cried, wiping the tears from under he
spectacle glasses. But after all, to
stranger that don't know the family ST.
. ry, it might very easily appear so. Yo
see, child, my mother was widow whe
sne married lOr tne second time, and
dear heart alive, what does all that lit
turkey chick, queaking like a possesse
@ creature? Run, Rebecca, and see r
afraid the old speckled hen has broke
her string, and it is worrying it,"
nS Rebecca was sitting in the twilight {
the door step that evening, one chez
resting on her hand, and her eyes dreal
8. lily fixed on the far off wall of wood
growing purple in the coming dusk
,.t Miss Towers had gone to carry q bask
ali ali of her ripest Wilson strawberries to
l sick neighbor, and Becky was alone
q. thinking over her past, and ponderil
vaguely on her future.
How strange it seems that I .shou
be here" she thought, when it is han
ly year since [ was the gayest little b.
terhy in any city ball room. The &c
,dl- oes of those old waltzes and gallops COZ
an, back to me sometimes, when / am il
falling asleep with moonlight on my ia
and the maple leaves rustling softly
my open easement and yetsI Nh far h;
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