Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-03-15

Lilly chartered and laughed. But all the
while she kept thinking, "vho sees my
new gloves? They arc hidden in my nun,
and even that Is under the robe. My brown
ones would have been just MS well-two
dollars might have taken that girl to her
brother"
oh it was cold. Tho long icicles hung
upon the trees as they fitted up tho road.
The horses foet crunched through tho
crustod snow with a sharp, cracking noise.
Ashbury's features looked stiffcned under
his fur cap, and Lilly kept her nose buried
in the muff half the time.
"Nothing TO what 1t was last night" said
Ashbury and again Lilly thought of that
girl.
1t was not, on the whole, very pleasant
ride. There had boon little filtration be-
tween herself and Ashbury, and on the
way he told her something he should have
told her before. He was engaged to be
married. A lady who lived at the South
was his finance.
you'll like her so much" said Ashbury.
Lilly was not so very sure of that. She
had liked Ashbury himself too well. 1t is
old-fashioned and ridiculous nova days
to be in love. Girls don't think Of such
folly. They have neither sentiment nor
passion for any one. But Lilly meant TO
say Yes, If Ashbury asked her to marry
him. So, you see, there was little pique
to get over. And when one has squeezed
your hand and all that sort OF thing, you
know, why, he has had the best of ii.
Lilly was glad when the sleigh stopped
at their friends mansion and the other
sleighers, who were all there before them,
ran out to greet them. The lunch table
was delightfully."- spread the house was
warm. Several of Lilly's special admirers
were there. She turned the cold shoulder
upon Ashbury and flirted with one OF these ;
and she really began to enjoy herself after
a while. She sat at the fireside well salts
| fed with dainties
Some one was playing delightfully."- and
she loved music; and Tom Scott was really
making love to her, no doubt of that. He
told her that she grew prettier every day I;
he Would hold her little gloves, just to touch
something she had touched, etc. 1t was
partly love and partly wine, but 1t was very
pleasant indeed for all that, and Lilly had
quite forgotten the girl in the thin shawl,
when suddenly the door burst open and
one of the sons of the house, a tall stripping
of sixteen, stood in their midst, with hor-
ror depicted on his countenance.
"Oh beg your pardon, all of you'll! he
calculated "but 1 couldn't do anything
else. There may be life in her. I've told
them to bring her here. They're coming.
It's woman frozen to death, believe.
Frank, the stableman, found her on our
very grounds, mother. And DIR. Holden
is here, and thought-Here they are y
And without further preface, two men
tramped across the threshold with their
burden.
Lilly had shrunk into corner, pale and
trembling, and clinging TO Tom SCOTS
arm, but she could not help pressing for
ward to look at what they laid upon the
crimson sofa.
A girl, with a white frozen face and fro
zen hair. The thin shawl did not ilutter, il
was stiff with ice the wrctched shoes were
blocks of ice themselves, they had tramped
through so much snow; the eyes, wide
open, had no expression in them now, and
the hands were frozen to the frozen breast.
But this was the face that had been in
Lilly's mind. These were the wretched
rags that had fiuttered in the breeze; these
were the hands that had caught at her dress;
those were the eyes that all her life she
never should forget again.
20 my God have mercy !" prayed Lilly
to herself. 81 seems as though l have
killed her."
She was quite dead. No effort could re-
store her. And in her pocket they found a
little note written on a scrap Of paper, and
pinned there to keep it safe.
These were the words written in 1t:
"If any good Christian finds me on the
road, 1 beg them 10 write to my brother
Jim, and tell him died trying to get to
him.
"Perhaps can do it. They say If / walk
on up along the river, III come there after
a while. I've begged and begged but they
won't give me any money. They don't
think good girl would beg along the
streets but tell Jim was good and mother
was dead, and if l hadn't been good l
needn't have begged. God kept me from
worse. It's cold along the river, and my
clothes are thin. And I'm hungry. think
/ shan't be able TO do 1t.
"God save my soul, and God bless Jim
It's Jim Hunter, at, with Smith the
carpenter. Tell him 1t was sister Annie"
And that was all. Somebody wrote TO
Jim. Somebody buried Annie.
For good while Lilly felt like muir
deress. But Tom Scott when he gets her
as he will-will have better wife for this
hard lesson. The poor will have a friend
in Lilly all her life, and no one will ever
leave her door unaided.-N. y. Ledger.