Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-04-16
When Elihu Came Home.

All her life long Sara Holmes had had n
romance. 1t began and ended with these
words: "When Elihu comes home" And
though she was but nineteen years old, ut the
time of which WRITE it seemd to her on
the evening of that burning July day, rs she
sat in her bedroom and looked out upon the
moonlit fields, that she had been living one
or two centuries in this world, and all the
time dreaming golden dreams of Elhu, only
to find them shivered into atoms at the last
For ElIhu had come. And the time and
the manner of his coming were so unlocked
for and so unexpected to her, rs well as to
every one else, that the girl sat there in the
moonlight, saying to herself :" He is here.
need never watch or wait for him again.
In the next chamber to mine he is sleeping
that is if he can sleep, poor Elihum
The earliest stories she could remember
had been told to her, by her mother, about
cousin Elihu" and the enormous fortune
he had made down South" at time when
fortunes could yet 'be made in that unhappy
land She had heard fabulous tales of the
palace in which he lived, of the negro slaves
who flew to do his bidding, OF the beautiful
carriages and horses that bore him from
place to place, and of the jewels, the silks,
satins and velvets that fortunate woman
would possess who would one day become
Elihu's bride.
Other girls had heard these stories also,
and the belle of the school at Holmesdae
often said that, when she was sixteen, she
should Ego travelling and find her way
down South, and "set her cap for Elihu
Holmes. That the result would follow fol-
which she looked, no girl among them doubt.
ed, for even "the masters stern face soft.
ented and smiled upon Rosanna Meadows
when she shook back her golden curls and
lifted her large blue eyes with a blush to
his.
Poor Rosanna! Sara leaned her cheek on
her hand, and looked over the hilltop to-
ward the yillage-grave yard, whore the vii
lage beauty was now lying, with her blue
eyes closed, her golden ringlets smoothed
back from her white brow, and her hand:
clasped in an earthly quiet on her breast
Elihu had never known how her grlish
heart went out toward him. And now Elihu
had come home!
AS Sara Holmes grew up and developed
from the tall, angular girl into the queenly
and self-possessed young woman, the thought
would sometimes occur to her, as she stooC
before the mirror braiding her dark hair, 81
he should come back, would he think mt
pretty, now when Rosanna is gomez" ThC
broad, low brow, the oval cheeks and dim
pied chin answered; the heathiul color, thu
deep, dark eyes, the sudden, bright, Devil
dering smile, said, Eyes" For hers wa
now higher beauty than Rosanna's pink
and-white loveliness had ever been, and thu
treasures of her mind and heart might wei
have won an older and wiser man to Low,
her, long before Elihu came home.
And now she drew long BREATH and sc
herself to recall all the incidents of that sud
den and startling return.
Tea was over, the milk was strained, AM
they were all sitting on the front piazza, un
der the shade OF the naples and the loeusts
while her father read bits from the week.,
village paper aloud. Her step-mother wa
knitting; her sister Grace was lining hat
and her brother Ben was whiting out a to-
boat from bit of wood, while she, Sara, sa
beside him and held his tools as he needle,
them, and lost herself in a reverie about on
hero from the South.
A carriage drove up the village road an
halted at their gate. Tho driver descende
from his seat and beckoned to her father