Litchfield enquirer., 1870-07-07
TESTERS FOURTH OF JULY.
BY ANNIE s. FROST.
''Hesteri''


 "Hesterr'
 She was busily mixing and stirring some delicious looking compound in great yell low bowl, and evidently full of care as to the proper proportion of the ingredients thereunto appertaining, but she looked up brightly when her name was called. Be- fore she answers, however, let him describe the scene. You would like, perhaps, to have your heroine introduced to you in gala dress, with ball room lights to enhance her beauty, with Strauss waltzes sound ing in her ears, and a bevy of admirers pleading for her hand. Look elsewhere, then. for my heroine wore chintz dress, great white apron, and was engaged in a New England kitchen in the manufacture of cake; she never had owned ball dress in her life, Strauss was an unknown name to her ears. and her lovers, if she were to have any, were in the future. She was Hester Shaw, orphan neice to Farmer Law ton, of Greysfeld, and one of large, hard working family.
 When Hester looked up from her bowl of batter for cake, you could see that she was very young, seventeen or eighteen at the most, and had face strangely at vari- ance with her surroundings. Cheat black eyes full of suppressed vitality and fire; features as regular as those of Greek statute; a rich brunette complexion, teeth white aad even as kernels of young corn, and a dreamy wistful expression. She was tall, too, but exquisitely formed, and the hands welding the wooden spoon in the batter, were small and gracefully managed. She looked up, as I said, with bright smile that effectually chased the shadows from her black eyes. as her cousin Maude called her name.
 sI was thinking what we are to do about Mir. Ramsay" t" said Maude, who was also deep in culinary mysteries.
 "Do about him?" queried Hester, look ing puzzled.
 ''He is English" said Maude, again, ''and we might offend his national predju- dices if we go to the picnic
 Hester's head took lofty curve at once, and her ripe lips curled little. 'I am not''-she began, but Maude interrupted her.
 ''You! of course you don't care; but but" and the blood began to rise in her cheeks.
 Hester dropped her spoon in sheer amazement. ''Has he been making love to you?"
 ''Dear me, Hester," said Maude, pet tishly. "You have such an abrupt way of putting questions. If Mir. Ramsay has paid me some attention"
 "Oh ]" interrupted Hester, "is that all?"
 ''But about the picnic, Hester Would you go?"
 II am going"
 'But if you thought
 "If was courting Mir. Ramsay" said the downright girl, II suppose shouid attend to his predjudices, as you call them; as am not courting him they do not in the least trouble me-"
 With which answer Maude was obliged to be content, for Hester, having poured her batter into a small army of little tin pans, took up the waiter upon which they were drawn up in battle array, and march ed off into the outer kitchen to put them in the oven.
 The oven was very hot, ''in first rate ba- king order" as she told Maude when she so the deep flush on her usually pale cheeks might have been the result of stepping over it so long, putting in the lit tie cake pans one by one. It was quite a long operation, and Maude had apparently forgotten her anxieties with regard to Eng fish predjudices when it was over, for her first question was:-
 'Two cups of butter or three, Hattie, for Westmoreland cake?"
 ''Three. I'm going out to gather straw berries If you will watch those hearts and rounds, Maude?"
 "Very we'll"
 Pretty, insipid-looking Maude was thus left alone in the great summer kitchen, mixing and stirring, occasionally running out to peep in the oven and wondering whether Mir. Ramsay ''meant anything by the attentions he had paid her, or whether If she stayed at home from the picnic it would be sheer waste of amu- hilton. What Hester thought was never told, but her cheeks rivalled the berries, which her nervous fingers picked so rapid ly, hulling them as she plucked them, be. fore dropping them into her great white dish.
 It might be that these were not the only maidens in Greysfeld who were weighing the weights of Mir. Erastus Ramsay against those of the Fourth of July picnic. The latter was an annual gathering of time, honored importance. and of the leading ju- bilees of the country for miles around. New muslins, crisp lawns, aud bright rib bons were prepared for the Fourth of July picnic from the first advent of summer weather, and the young man or girl who could not afford 8 new rosette of national colors for that day was poor indeed.
 But-Mr. Ramsay was an Englishman What else was this important parsonage? He had come to Greysfield with creden- tials from leading men in New York City, and had put out a modest door, plate:
 EPAsTUs RAMSAY.
 ATTORNEY AT LAW,