Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1873-01-14
Rais CELLAR NEous.
ALICE HALLS DUTY.

ALICE HALLS DUTY.
gHS LICE HALL poor orphan, and Ernest
gS Morton, rich young gentleman, were to
be married in week, when news came that
Peter Drew, Alice's step. father. was living on
his death-hed in Wisconsin, and would soon
leave her three little half-sisters orphans like
herself. Alice tel. it her duty to 60 to tho
help of the afflicted ones, aud Earnest, en-
ragged at her action. bade her good bye forever
And so Alice Hall left all the fairest vi
| sions of gIrhood and the sunniest hopes of
life behind her, and went out to the log farm
house in Wisconsin, where Peter Drew lay
on his death-bed
$50 you've come, Alice" said tho DYING
man, cropping for her hand in the shadows
that were closing more darkly over him than
any twilight could have done. 'Somehow, I
felt it borne in me you would como. And
you won't let the little oues starve-will YOU.
Allie, my girl? You'll take care of 'em for
the sake of your dead mother ?"
awhile live thoy shall never want for
protector" she answered, in a voice whose
gentle frmness fell most soothiugly on the
ear that was so fast dulliug to all mortal
sounds.
"IIeaven bless you. Allie, vnd heaven helm
you. Now. shall die with my mind at rest"
Alice did not watch long. Al midnight.
when the tempesuous winds were wrestling
with the tree>tops overload, and the great
river rushed past with moaning soun6, like
the cry of a human sufferer, Peter Drew
drifted peacefully out of the life that had
never heen aught but struggles and trials to
him. And Alice knew that she was left
alone, to take care of three little ones, the
eldest scarcely seven years old
ho
! rare and difficult TO be had in this Western
wilderness and she kncw also that she could
easily obtain the position of teacher in the red
colored wooden school, house at the Cross
Roads. two miles beyond and insenSihly she
iunnd herself planning out the future lives
aud drstinles Of hcrself and tho three help>
less little girls who were sleeping in their
cribs up stairs
I'VE must live very humbly and plninlv,"
said Alice to herself; "but we need not starye
while I am able to work.
Alas! how different was the dull lead color
of this future to the roseate cloud that had
foated round her brain scarcely more than
we, k ago! She woud never he anvbodv's
wife now ; che would settle quietly down into
the old maid elder sister of the three little
Drews. Had not this perturbiug cross cur
rent flashed into the tide of her by
gone happiness, :o-day-tho day now drawing
with sulcu streaks of red in the eastern sky
would have been her marriage day
Who could blame the girl for letting her
head droop on her hands, and shedding few
quiet tears? Then she rose up, resolved and
firm to face her duty.
eyes," said old Squire Beab, "we'll he
glad to pay you ten dollars a month for
teachin' deestrict school, we ha'nt had no
efficient schoo'>ma' am, not since a biah Smith
married old Rogers youngest boy. And as
tor the sewing, why twas onl " yesterday Miss
Bean Was frettin' cause Melinda Steers
couldn't come to make up her new green
deaine. Melindy's mother is sick, and Miss
Bean wouldn't grudge dollar to have it
made neat aud ship shape"
A dollar! Alice felt that it would be some
time before, at that rate, she could accnmu>
late enough money to carry out her cherished
scheme of taking the three small sisters east>
ward with her but she meekly assented to the
Squires terms as being better than nothing
at all.
Tt was nearly week afterward, and Alice
Hall was coming home, tired and weary, from
her first days experience in the red school
house, where the seventeen Western urchins
had started at the new school maam from
down East" as if she had been gorilla or a
L"o>heaueu sIIeep. Ine november leaves
rustled softly under her feet, aud the sweet.
decaying scent of the old woods breathed over
her senses like some gentle opiate. She had
nearly reached the turn of the road, when
her own home would be in sight, when the
eldest of her haf-sisters, little Lucy Drew,
came running to meet her.
''Sister, sister, there's strange man sit
ting by the fire. He's been waiting ever so
long to see yOu"
Alice fastened her footsteps at this rather
startling piece of news, while Lucy frisked
about by her side.
'.And he took Bessie on his lap and told
her stories. and said we were nice little girls.
sister; and brought him bowel of milk,
and some of the biscuits you made last night"
Alice smiled as she opened the door of the
humble habitation that had been built bv
hard>working Peter Drew: but her cheek
suddenly blanched as she beheld the coun-
tenance Of this 'strange man." who had been
the subject of little Lucy's exuberant hospi>
tality.
1t was Earnest Morton who sat by the
Western freside, with Bessie and Jane cling.
ing to his knees.
Earnest ~
AT first she thought it was baseless delu-
sion OF the brain-some fancied resemblance
springing from the secret, unsstisfed long.
ings CT her heart. But when he was holding
both her hands, and looking straight into her
eyes, she knew that it was none other than