Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1872-11-06

s1us eioos were mmihAr 20 every one who !
dNeit al0ngshore; and : rude sort Of respect /
vas accorded her, Notwithstanding that she /
ranked among the poorest u the poor. !
thonough-going woman was Aunt Mar ,
get after the New England type; angular.
thrifty, uneompromising: having no thought
Of adapting herself 20 modern times aud ,
ways; having no m'sgiving Of her fitness for
anything in this world or the next; neither
humiliated by her position nor harboriny a
thought Of rising above Il.
She cultivated her little garden-pash with
her own homey hands, aud In the season
eked out her scanty living BY selling fish, OF
clans or the like to big hotels farther down
the shore
II had never occurred 10 her that any kith
or kin Of hers was entitled to he on the charity
list because her hands were hard with labor
and her back overburdened-bless you, mo-
There was Tom, now, the wild Young fellow:
she had had her hands full with Tom; but.
after all, the boy had turned out not so bad
not so bad, thank Providence, after ALI
Yet why her poor silly sister should have
married foreigner, and FrenchmAn at tLat
"A FER do-weel, who never did anything |
in the world worth doing bat going out Of Il /
why Providence should have permitted |
such thing, was a problem she could not
clearly make out. Bat when the sister died |
also, leaving her little ten-year old Babette |
TO Marget's keeping, the burden was cheer
fully accepted, without reference to the prob
lem involved.
Not knowing exactly what to do with her |
little pensioner, Aunt Marget sent her TO the |
village academy-that at least would get the |
problem out Of her way for little time, and |
the child would be losing that heathenish ac-
cent.
Uar,, sco,,t ,,axa tba acraniyo,. that want 20
support the orphan at school, and Babette
had some bitter experience Of her own in the
way Of half pupil, half teacher and wholly
drudge In the great seminary which was the
pride of the place.
| Very few friends she had, fewer still since
Tom had gone for sailor. She longed for a
friend, and fate, as is its won't had sent
sinister answer TO her prayers In the shape Of
Professor PEBBLES, the teacher Of mathematics.
This man made himself odious 10 the girl by
oficious attentions, which her humble posi-
tion rendered more annoying because she was
80 much In his power.
Politely, and with as little expression as
possible, she hated the professor and his
mathematics. Abig empty-headed man, with
a soul the size of a cipher, smart figure,
wig, and gold-headed cane; an elderly man,
who had never attained the beauty and dignity
of age, and never would-oh, the learned
professor, with all his arithmetics at his back,
could not render any solution of this one
humble maidens shyness and coldness.
Neither Euclid nor common sense shed any
light, and he pursued his stupid fancy until
the Young girl learned to shun his presence
With unspeakable antipathy.
And here he was seeking her out again.
And she had accepted gift from him, and
shone and blushed and been happy in the rag
that her anger should have burned to ashes.
Her whole nature felt demoralized and beg
cared by the thought. But over all the ruin
, and desolation the remembrance OF Tom lin
|. gered like glmmer Of sunlight To go out
into world which held Tom in 1t might not
be SO utterly desolate, after all.
J And so thinking, she stretched herself out
wearily on the old boat and fell asleep.
The twilight faded over the sea, the long
stretches of sand lost their yellow lustre, an
| ominous shadow, like an east wind made visi-
I BILE. brooded in the sky-aHd still Babette
slept.
Slept while the tide came creeping, creep
ing. With snake-like silence and rapldlty,
! farther up the shore, tapping In the drifts OF
I sea-weed to wash them ocean-ward again, and
making an island of the sand-bank where the
Q old hat stood. .I
AT last it touched the top Of the upturned
shallop, it kissed the barred feet OF the sleeper,
I and she awoke. Scared and amazed, she
c rubbed her eyes and looked about. On every
? eide n yery ocean seemed to stretch, rising,
e rising, swayed by fierce wind, gathering
[ wrath against the day of wrath, the blacken-
1 ing. on-rushing tempest Only at the back
I of the hut slim, thread-like peninsula still
S stretched little way out toward the rocks
beyond
: On this peninsula at this moment stood
d horseman-a wiry, well-brushed man, angu-
Il lar as one of Euclids problems. Babette
n looked uson him with wide, startled eyes, as
t If she saw an embodied nightmare
, "Ouick p he cried "There's not mo-
Is ment to lose. You will have to ride for your
life, or swim. Come, my pretty one, I've
n been waiting for you all the afternoon. Give
h me one kiss, and mount here by my side"
a Babette shuddered +" You do well to in
suit me when no one is near, Master PEBBLES
- I am in no need Of assistance. will wait TIL
II the tide falls ,,-.4.
Fails p he repeated, with an unpleasant
IT laugh, 'the tide tonight will be many 100
Is over that old hovel. Come. HIgH
d There was no answer.
"You are a little fool, : said the school
" master. violently. ~ can compel you X
i come with me. | have you all in my powe
now. He stretched out hishand but Babett'
n "You viii not stay here and die" HI
a. oueried. = ~ VS..
IF God sends no one else to my rescue
"Come. come, that is childish nonsens
and stubbornness. God has sent me. Yo'
RI are risking nv life as well /; shall have som
ado now to reach shore with this old nag
,t though he can swim pretty well. The tide
q rising every minute there Is great storm
q. coming. Nobody will see you. Only on
kiss. and will bear you in my arms TO sale
OF ty." hnn -
=, % Rut Won shall 70 he cried, his face gather
! ;no ,,ass;on and insolence at the unaccustome
al m wartine of his will at is my duty :
N IN save your life, my girl, and ] must do it ii
st my own way A..
" ory OF fear and despair broke from tn
re Inns of Babette as she looked at the face con
al fronting her-a face whose hard ana crue
lines a lifelong submission to rules and &c
20 cencv had only deepened. Those lines, dis
~ torted now. losing the sanetimonions smir
that yyas their wont, revealed as on map
RI very villain; =, shs said and turned
dc soe-~wbitberi To fling herself into tn
nd IVA YES and be carried out to tho great hungr
nj DEPTHS beyond' Death was not plcasan
n thing for young girl to contemplato-,a @ youn
sirl full of rosy life, just lifting ner ne piosson
tn like head to look at the world lnere was I
ou M uocd @ deal to love- after all, in the world, wit
~ al al its shadows and there was Tom; Ioi
10 a. no shadow. But Babette did not hesital
~ ~ for @ one instant. She had some OF the o.
S ,es Puritan blood in her veins, or, perhaps SON
10 of the old Huguenot- stubbornness that "a "a
,aode good martyrs when need was oI
- % would have died than submit to be saved