Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-09-20
Miscellany.
MILLY MORE'S LET TER.
And so
You know
Do all the race of cats
Until this day.
BY MARY KYLE DALLAS.

I'm Aunty Gunter. Job Gunter is my
husband. We keep the Anchor Port
pOst-Office and q store, and sell groceries
and garden sass, calico, shoes, and medi-
cines, like other folks in our line, when
anybody asks for 'em.
When ship comes in, and the sailors
come home to their wives and mothers,
trade grows brisk. The housekeepers do
their best, and the raisins and dried cur
rants and eggs-and butter go off finely,
and it's worth while to lay in ribbons for
the girls, and smoking tobacco and long
pipes for the men.
Jack and wages make old Anchor Port
brisk for while, but at last he sails away,
and all the women seem to ask for will be
letters-letters, letters, letters-when they
have a right to expect them, and when
they haven't all the same.
It's 'Please, Aunty Gunter, look over
them and see if there aren't one for me-"
and it's 'Please, Uncle Gunter, it might
have got mixed up and overlooked some
how" often and often-God help the poor
souls!-a after Jack lies at the bottom of
the sea, and nothing will ever reach them
but the news of his shipwreck. But
plenty of letters come after ALL and some
times we have to read them for the folks,
Job and |, and so we get to know some
thing of their lives.
Milly More could read and write her
self, but still l always knew when she
had q letter from Will Massett. knew it
by the handwriting, and knew it by her
bushes, and by that happy look i'll her
face. When he came home she bought
ribbons and bits of lace by the apronfnl;
and 1 knew where the packages of candy
that he bought were to go to. And | used
to keep Job from fishing down in Pull
mans creek of afternoons, because knew
that was where Milly and Will liked to
walk. Courting time comes but once in
a lifetime, and | always like to see it
prosper.
At last he sailed away, second mate of
the Golden Dove; and When he came
back from that voyage, they were to be
married.
1t was sad day when that ship
sailed. Mrs. Captain Rawdon and her
girls were crying on the shore. Twenty
women from the Port and five from the
Hill were there to see her set sail.
1t was grim, gray day, and the voyage
was to be long one.
1t was under our old sycamore that Will
took Milly to his breast.
"Don't fret, darling!" he said, "Pll
COu1S DdCk SdlC duCl SOuuU. L COulUnG
drown now I've too much to live
for"
Poor boy! in spite of that, the Golden
Dove went down in mid-seas, and only
three men reached Anchor Port to tell
how Captain Rawdon and the rest were
lost, at dead of night, in most woful
storm.
Captain Kincaid brought the news up
n n of ctn
to tell about it. A nice old man. A bach
elor still, at FL y-eight, and as handsome,
with his white hair and red cheeks, as
picture.
That was twelve months ago, the night
/ went into the store to sort things out, as
I always did Saturday nights. Through
the week Job used to get everything mixed
up-letters in my tea boxes, candles in
the letter box, eggs where they oughtn't to
be, and all the place askew. It was a
warm autumn night, and Captain Kin
caid's vessel was in port, and we had
plenty of custom. Job served the people
while l tidied up. I found half the last
mail in a sugar box, and clothes pins in
the ground coffee canister, and l just
dumped them out
Gather up your letters, job" said /.
"What possesses you, old man?"
And he laughed, and piled 'em up.
And | made a VOW to myself that I'd
keep the sugar-box full after that, so that
he shouldn't use it for the mail.
had twenty-four pounds of sugar
known as coffee crushed, because it
was prepared especially to use in coffee.
That was the finest sugar Anchor Hill
folks often bought, though had little
cut and powdered by me, in case Mrs
Rawdon, or Mrs. DR.. Speer, or the minis
ter's lady should send in; and l took the
paper up and tilted it over the iapanned
box, pouring it in in a nice smooth stream,
when who should come running into the
shop but Milly More. She was not dress
ed carefully, and her eyes were red with
crying. -
She asked for some tea, and while job
was weighing it, she whispered to me:
"Ohl Aunty Gunter, have you looked
to-day? Isn't there letter from Wits
He said he couldn't die. ] don't feel as
if hecould. Mightn't he write, after ALI
Do look" +a 814
''My pet" says I, ''it's year ago that
the Golden Dove went down. 1t isn't