Litchfield enquirer., 1873-02-06

l -n6AIy ShIistmaS iO Aaura ana the Da- ] Truly yours, 1 JOHN WnDAIR. l PORTLAND, Dec if. 1867.
 I That vas Laura and Toms Christmas 1 present. An appointment as light-keep- CT, with thousand year!
 i CHAPTER ". THE BELL AND HAMMER.
 i But even ifthey had made Tom turn
 pike-keeper, they would not have made ] Laura a mlsanthrope. He, poor fellow, gladly accepted the appointment. She,
 sweet creature, as gladly accepted her
 part of 1t. Early March saw them on the
 Bell and Hammer, April saw the early l flowers come: and May saw Laura with 1 both her babies on the beach laughing at them as they wet their feet, digging holes
 Ill the sand for them, and sending the big l ger boy to run and put salt upon the tails
 of the peeps as they ran along the shore. ] And Tom Cutts, when his glass was clean ! td his mind, and the refectors polished l tq meet even his criticism, would come
 down and hunt mp Laura and the child
 ren. And when she had put the babes
 to sleep, old Mipples-who was another
 of the descendants of the lighting Iwenty-seyenth. would say, Just you go out with the Major, mum, and if they
 wake up, and 1 cant still them, I'll blow the horn.' Not that he ever did blow tke horn. All the more certain was Lau-
 "a that she could tramp over the whole island with Tom Cutts, or she could sit and knit or sew; and Tom would read to her,-and the days were the happiest days of her married life, and brought
 back the old sunny days of the times be- fore Fort Sumpter again. An, me if sach days of summer and such days of autumn would last forever!
 But they will not last forever. Noyem-
 Der came, and the little colony went into winter quarters. December came and we were all double banked with sea-weed.
 The stoves were set up indoors The double doors were put on outside, and We were all ready for the Osprey. The Osprey was the government steamer which vas to bring us our supplies for the win ter,-chiefiy of colza oil,-and perhaps some coal. But the Osprey does not ap- pear December is half gone, and no Osprey. We can put the stoves on short allowance, but not our two lanterns. They will only run to the 31st of Januory the nights are so long.
 That Is onr condition, when old Nip pies, bringing back the mail, brings a letter from Boston to say that the Osprey has broken her man-shaft and may not be repaired before the 18th of January: that Mir. Cutts will therefore, if he need oil, take an early opportunity to supply himself from the light at Suuire's. and that an order on the keeper at Squires is enclosed.
 To bring cask of oil from Squire's is no difficult task to Tripp's Cove man. lG would be no easy one, dear. reader, to you and me. Squires IS on the main-lan our nearest neighbor at the Bell and Ham per Tom waited day by day for fine fay, would not have gone for his oil, in- teed, till the New Year came in, but that totham Fields, the other assistant, came down with fever turn wholly beyond Laura s management, and she begged Tom to take the first fine day to carry him to a doctor. To bring doctor to him was out of the question.
 And what will you do?' said Tom.
 Do? my dear boy, I will wait till you | come home. Start any fine day after you lave wound mp the lights on the last beat take poor Jotham to his mothers house, and, II you want, you may bring hack | !onr shall get along with the chil- tren very well, and l will have your din Ter hot when you come home.
 Tom doubted. But the next day was worse. Nipples voted for carrying him shore, and Laura had her way. The 'asler did she have 1t, because the south wind blew softly, and 1t was clear to all nen that the run could be made to ;qulre's in short two hours. Tom final y agreed to start early the next morning. te would not leave his sick man at his nother's, but at Squirrels, and the people here could put him home The weather 77as perfect, and an hour before daylight hey were gone They were gone,-all hree had to go; Nipples could not landle the boat alone, nor could Tom: far ess conld they manage the boat, take the al, and see to poor Jotham also Wise q not, this was the plan.
 An hour before daylight they were gone, hlf an hour after sunrise they were at de Squires. But the the sun had risen nd,-and had pumped into a cloud. Be tre Jotham was carried up the cliff. the und was northwest, and the air was white nth snow You could not see the houae fom the boat, nor the boat from the buse. You could not see the foremast the boat from yonr seat in the stern seets, the air was so white with snow. hey carried Jotham up. But they told Jhn Wilkes, the keeper at SGuire's, that tby would come for the oil another day.
 hey hurried down the path to the boat aaln; pushed her off, and headed her to te westward, determined not to lose a mments time ln beating back to the Bell al Hammer. Who in the world could hFe believed that the wind would haul Dek so without a sign of warning?
 Will 1t hold up, Simon ?" said Tom to Apples, wishing he might say something etouraging.
 And all Simon Nipples could say, was, 'fod grant it may p
 And Laura saw the sun rise red and iGer1ng. And Laura went up into the tSer next the house, and put out the Int there. Then she left the children in tiir cribs, and charged the little boy not tdeave till she came back, and ran down tShe door to go and put out the other < lint, and, as she opened it, the blinding SOW dashed in her face She had not ; 6amed of snow before. But her water pof was on, she pulled on her boots, ran f dickly along the path to the other light. two hundred yards, perhaps, climbed , e stairway and extinguished that, and IS at home again before the babies miss , her. . For an hour or two Laura occupied her. ' If with her household cares, and pre- , nded to herself that she thought that is was only a snow-furry that would , on clear away, But, by the time it was u o'clock, she saw it was a stiff north 'ster, and that her husband and Nip IS were caught on shore. Yes, and she
 ys caught with her babies alone on the nnd. Wind almost dead ahead to
 lat from squire's, too, if that made any f florence. That crossed Laura's mind. I lli she would not brood Nay, she did s pt brood, which was much better than wing she would not brood. It crossed F mind also that 1t was the day before hristmas. and that the girls at Tripp's gre dressing the meeting house for dear Il Parson Spaulding And then there t pssed her mind the dear old mans q ieech at all weddings, .sAs you climb I