The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-02-04

take another step,if it might all be yours
Pretty little stories they are, Kathie
very nice to read about in books, but the,
never come true, and I'm sick of it all.
wish | had never been born, thai
you never had. What were we born. for
why, if you can tell? We have never
since | can remember, known anything
but wreichodness and want and sin, yes
sin, with all the rest. There's .f3ther,
expect every day he will be here to tor.
ment and tease you, and perhaps kill
you; he's none too good for it.
Sometimes, at the rooms, feel as il
l must come to you as if something aw-
ful was happening up here, and you alone
with your poor little feet.
Do you know, Kathie Kent" and the
girl cenched her hands tightly, and put
her hot face 50 hear the little girls that
she drew back with terrified look " do
you know, many night when we're lain
down on that old cot over there, I've
thought Id take the matter into my own
hands, SO that when you woke, it would
be in heaven,-if there is such place.
and might never wake 20 this ho7rid
life any more.
don't believe it would be any worse
for me, and it wouldn't have been hard
for you, Kathie. Perhaps you might
have found mother, and then there would
have been no more lonesome days for you,
and guess no more paiu You might
even walk then, like other girls, and have
that fearful twist taken out of your an
klcs Oh! there's no imagining the beau.
ulul things that might have been, 4"
and she laughed a harsh, bitter laugh.
" For myself" she continued, d" | don't
want any hereafter. the here has been too
fearful. too awful. | don't want to try
any new life. this one has been too much.
All | want is to sleep, to los, this old,
tired feellng-to be as if I'd neyer been."
and "; tn sudden change Of manner and
tone, he poor. wretched creature threw
herself across the breast Of her little sis.
ter, her face buried in her hands. her
whole body trembling with the sobs she
was trying to rcpross,
Kathie took the fair head in her arms,
and pas ed her thin, white hands over her
sisters face two or three times. but with
ont speaking.
Her own face was Il strange, sal pic
ture. Fear, pcrpexity, look Of intense
pain and suffering, which was never ab.
sent, a tired look in the eyes but above
all Il shade of deepest and truest sorrow
and sympathy for Mildred. She did not
weep. Indeed, the eyes were wild and
strained, as if She searched, but ia vain.
for something she knew ought to come.
1t was as if she felt there was a right, an
order, in all this fearful trouble and dis
trcss, but she could not tell wlere. or yJlo
it was should make it right, and more
than all, she could not put it into words.
At last, with her eyes fixed, as they
had been, almost constantly upon the
western sky, now one glow of crimson and
purple and gold, she said in low, quiet
voice
" l don't know what it means, Mildred, |
dear, but I'm sure it means something.
Its all tangled and snarled now, to me.
as to you, our lives | mean, and | can't
see any way to unravel it. We didn't
ask to como here, but VIC are here, aud /
know it wouldn't be right to put our.
selves out Of it. We should break the
skein, and | believe | almost know he
means to draw it out without one knot or
tangc, and make it smooth and even
perhaps mako it plain to you AMI me,
Mildred, dear, if we only wait.
True, dearie, it is easier for me to
wait patiently up here in the quiet, away
from the cares and the worries you have
but if you are more tired and vexed, it
must be so much brighter and more
glorious for you at last. Bat [ don't
know, I only think this sometimes, when
| sit as I've done to-day, with the great
drops of rain beating and storming at the
windows, and watch the thick black clouds
gather, and cover all the tender blue sky,
until it seemed to me, the sun could ney.
er shine again. But, tonight see how
they're clustered, one grand gray mass in
the west, and the sun just below, is max
ing them so beautiful. can't believe
when | SEQ the dark, rich crimson, the
amethyst, and the tender golden haze over
all that those clouds have been torn and
rent, and weeping all day. Oh, Mildred
dear, if ever God lets his glory shine up
on or into our lives, perhaps this want
and sorrow, and woe, will reflect the Grim
son for our suffering, the purple Tor our
sin, and the lovely golden haze, the Joy,
the peace and tenderness, He puts on to
cover it,"
Twilight faded, aud the night came on
still and dark.
Katho watched tho clouds as long az
she could see, still carros,ing the face of
her elder sister, who still sat in sort of
dumb despair at her feet
Suddenly, MS if remembering that
Kathie must be tired perhaps faiut with
hunger, she reused herself and in ten.
der, careful voice, said, "Will you have
your supper darling, and let mo put you
in your bed ?"
Yes, if you think Roger isn't coming.
I'm afraid he has found father some
where, and if he has suppose | can't
wait for him. Oh Mildred, the pain
here" and she put her hands to her head.
ais nothing to the aching in my heart
when think of Roger, mothers Roger"
Mildred made no answer, but with ner.
vous fingers, and crimson hushes on both
cheeks, with still the harsh desperate look /
on her face, gently, even tenderly, cared
for her little sister but she did not re-
turn Kathie's good night kiss she only
threw both arms about the childs frail /
form, and strained her to her bosom with
long deep sigh; then wrapping her own
large shawl around her own now shivering
frame she threw herself down at Kathies
side to an anxious troubled slumber.
Carefully, thoughtfully, Kathie counted
every stroke from the distant church.
Il