Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-05-29
The Leisure Hour.
i LITTLE roof.

Florence Reed was the little fool, and
Julia Willis, her cousin, it was who called
Lor so. You can Judge between them if
you like: it is story that will not take
long in the telling.
floroncc-or Florry, for nobody ever
dreamed of calling her any thing else
Florry Reed WAS not in the least what one
would call beauty; but then she had the
soilest eyes and the sweetest lips in the
world. Something at least to that effect
Charley Dennis had been heard TO declare,
and it is very much TO he believed that he
spoke as one who should know on this sub
jeci
The two had been lovers loi quite while;
lovers in the bud, as one may say, and ev
erybody knows that the bud is the sweet
est part Of the whole blossom-season. The
practical, commonplace Stage of declara-
ton had not yet been reached; it was the
time of broken hints and secret hand-prcs-
surcs, of stolen kisses and general felicity.
Florry walked on air, and forgot that it was
not her native element, till one unlucky
day the clouds melted under her feet, and
let her down to earth agai" with a rude
thump.
1t was the day cr celebration given in
Blackville TO commemorate some event
perfectly uninterosting to the world at
large, but of The very last importance in
the eyes Of the Blackvilians. For, though
Black Vile was a little place, its inhabitants
were men ard women very much like 9TH
er people, and measured the universe on
the Blackville yardstick after Il c orthodox
and proper fashion.
TIE feslivity, beginning with an oraion,
ended with picnic in a grove just outside
the town, magnificent maple grove, whose
violet scented Solitudes il was almost a sin
to prolane with the clatter Of hardware and
the popping of ginger-beer corks. Char
| ley Dennis and Elorry were there together,
as they were together everywhere. But
unfortunately for Florry, Miss Adela Brent
was there also.
This young lady was not Dlackville-born.
| She came from u much larger town, town
which would have turned up its nose very
high indeed at poor little Blackv,le, had ii
happened to be aware of its existence at all.
For which reason the BlackvilIians natur-
ally looked with admirng awe upon ii and
/ all ludl ptTldlutu 10 ll' MISS AuSld lue0,
being visitor just arrived among them,
her dcJm was an event second only to the
great event commemorated by the day.
She was not pretLier than half their own
girls there present, but she was wholly un-
like them in dress and style; in word,
she was something newi and if novelty is
one of the greatest Of all charms anywhere,
il certainly is not the least so in a small
country town where wholesome fear of his
neighbor holds each in decent restraint.
So all eyes were fastened on the stranger,
when, at a rather late hour, she made her
appearance on the ground, which in no.
wise discomposed her. She settled herself
and her hounces, gave final toss to the
frizzy wilderness surmountng her little
head, and, turning back her fan-parasol
looked around her with much the air with
which a traveller stranded among savages,
might observe their barbarous customs.
The first OF the natives on whom her
glances chanced TO rest, were Florry and
Charley, and she vouchsafed them pro-
longed examination, under which Florry's
eyes fell and her color rose whereupon
Adela, who had already mentally invento-
ried her as pretty, but deplorably without
style, regarded her anew, with amused