Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-12-17
ALL 4 MISTAKE.
BIZ l.. H. FOOSE.

Mrs. Alvord said sit was q shame
Mrs. Benton wondered how she dared
thus to impose upon people, while a
score of mes-dames and half score oil
Mr.. danes, gratified at somebody .
version Of something that did no,
happen, rolled the tit-blt under and of
their tongues with the gusto of gour
| mands
1t all happened in the quiet little
town of Carlton, where the people
mean to be and are, good and kind as
The world goes but somehow mistakes
| will occur, and human nature is prone
to accept the wrong version of things,
and then it is so pleasant 10
"Put horns on the heads of ouls friends.a
Put intrigues IN the heads OF their wives"
'To think" said Mrs. Denton, chat
Fanny Howard, the daughter of 4 con-
victed telon, should come here to teach
our children, and put on such airsl l
never liked the girl; al ways thought
there was something wrong about her.
The brand Of shame is plainly to be
seen behind her smiling face"
Mrs. Denton's ideas of right and
wrong hinged entirely upon what Mrs
Smith, Mrs. Tracy and Mrs Williams
might think, and that social conclave
had already convened and decided.
GAS for me-" said Mrs. Smith, 81
shall never speak to her again. shall
take Benny from the school At once,
and I think we should ignore her
entirely"
Mrs Smith was the wife of that very
important functionary, the village
Justice. The counterpart of her
| phlegmatic husband, she was tall and
angular, sharp in feature, and sharp in
| and sharp in tongue. Her house,
in the outskirts of the city, was
the rendezvous of that female-I had
almost said feline inquest, which
seems to pertain to small communities.
God, in his goodness, had given her
| one child-the aforesaid Benny-as if
thereby to soften the asperities Of her
nature. What she might have been
| without the gift, we can only conjecture.
1t is therefore impossible to estimate
just what part Benny had played in the
softening process. ~
Twelve months prior to the matters
| related, Fanny Howard had come to
the village of Carlton, in answer to all
advertisement for a school teacher,
bringing letters and Communications
which had secured for her the place
! sought. For one year Fanny had
taught the school with much satisfac-
ton; her sweet face and gentle ways
had won the hearts of the children.
while her zeal and conscientious dis
charge of duties had won the approba-
ton of the parents AS the last quarter
was drawing to a close, stranger,
staying for night At the inn, had seen
the school-mistreas on the street, and
upon being informed who she wos, had
replied: Il thought I was not mistaken
have seen her before; her father is in
the States prison at n
Upon all the invisible wires of social
intercourse the news few; the very
birds of the air seemed to whisper it /;
that concentrated battery Of pent-up
| country life expended its force in circu-
lating the fact. As Fanny passed,
inquisitive groups gathered at the street
corners, the women watched her from
the windows, the children even, silent
and shy, seemed to avoid her.
"What can all this meani'' said
Fanny, her eyes filing with unshed
tears, and the spectre of pain haunting
her face. 20, that Mrs. Carlton were
! heres she would not desert me-"
Mrs. Carlton was the window Of the
late Col. Henry Carlton, after whom
the town had been named The Carlton
estate extended tor ten miles n every