Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-05-23
The Leisure Hour.
MISS DOLLT COR.vBRBD.

"I shouldn't be surprised any day, Dol
ly, to see David Wiggin tying his horse at
your gate" said Mr.. Blount, roguishly,
gathering up the reins.
"Nonsense, brother ! any thing the mat
ter with his own hitching post?' retorted
Miss Dolly turning in the doorway.
Mr.. Blount laughed. Everybody felt
bound TO laugh at Miss Doly's crisp say
ings. She had kept her friends in good
humor these 40 years.
"And when David does call on you,"
pursued Mr.. Blount moro seriously, 81 do
hope, Dolly, you'll give i'm chance TO do
his errand. That'll be no mOre'n fair, and
the man won't be easy till he has freed his
mind"
"What mischief are you the forerunner
of now, James Blount?" cried Miss Dol
ly, facing about like a soldier on drill.
"What upon earth have I to do with Da-
vid's errands?"
"well, his wife's been dead year or so,"
said Mr.. BIount, seggestively, shutting one
eye, and squirting with the other down the
length of his whip-stock, land lately, he's
been asking about you. You can put that
ana tDdI tOHtlntT W Sull yOuiociis
"Fiddle-sticks said Miss Dolly, encr-
getically.
81 shan't say have him, or don't have
him-though there isn't a likelier man liv-
ing than David-but I do say, Dolly, you
ought to give him a hearing" And hav-
ing convinced himself beyond reasona-
BILE doubt that the whip was all right, Mr..
Blount tickled his sleepy horse with it, and
drove away.
"Oh, my sorrows!" calculated Miss Dol
| ly, closing the door with an afflicted coun-
| tenance, and sitting down so quietly for
once that photographer might have copied
her then and there.
Not that he could have done her justice,
for her expression was too quick and vari-
ed to be caught by any trick Of chemicals,
and without it Miss Dolly's physiognomy
would have been rather characterless but
for her prominent Roman nose. This or
| gan gave tune to her face. By which I
would not be understood literally, as say
| ing that she talked through it in nasal
| whine. l mean simply that in metaphor
| ical sense this bold feature spoke loudly of
energy. And Miss Dolly had always had
abundant need of energy-else why the
nose? Every two years during her child
| hood she had been tiptoed into the east bed
room to see new baby till, at her moth
ers death, five little brothers fell to her
charge to be coaxed and schooled into man.
| hood.
y "You can't bring up them boys" croak-
cd dolorous aunt. "They'll run square
over you, Dorothy Ameda."
Dorothy Almeda was Miss Dolly's bap-
tismal name, but it was so manifestly too
as soon have thought OF labelling a hom1-
pathic vial with quack medicine adver-
tlsement as Of calling her by it.
| "Let 'em run over me, as long as it does
| MT hurt 'em - laughed Miss Dolly, skew
ering her flaxen hair with a goose-quill, and
| tying tow apron over her calico long
short, preparatory to "brlnging up" said
| youths.
From that day forward she went cheeri'
ly on making the best of everything
though 1t must be confessed she often had
odds and ends TO work with, as people us.
ually do who are born with faculty.
Somehow she found time for all her duties
| excepting matrimony. If that wero du.
! ty, it was one she couldn't and wouldn'
attend to while her father and the children
needed her. Divers young men thought
this great pity, among them David Wig
gin.
"Don't be silly, Davidp' said Dolly
when he limited as much to her, whereup
on David went oil straightway and mar
ried Olive Searle, the plainest girl in thu
parish. This happened thirty yeals ago
and now David was again wieless. ant
again the current of his thoughts turne(
towards Miss Dolly, who still lived at tn,
old homestead near tho foot of Bryant's
falls. Her father had died some months
before. or the boys, James and Ezekio
had settled on neighboring farms, and tn,
remaining three were in the west. David
benevolent heart warmed with compassion
as he remembered Dolly's lonely condition
and he felt that IL would be exceedingl,
kind in him TO offer her a home, especial,
as he owned as good place as you'd fin,
on the river, while the Blount cottage wa
fast falling to decay. He wouldn't let he
former refusal Of him tell against her, for
now he looked back, he really didn't so
how she could have married anybody a
that period. She ought to DO rewarded 70
the devotion she had shown to the family
and, for his part, he felt magnanimoui
J enough TO give her second chance 10 &C