Litchfield enquirer., 1875-08-19
From the Atlantic Montbiy.l DELY'S COW.

DELY'S COW.
 Iwent down to the farm ard one day, and as oDened fl.. gate heard Pat Ma lonv sar. EDIddyI Biddyr I thought al arst he was calling hen, then I remem- bered that the hens were all shut into the poultry house that day, to be sorted, and numbered, and condemned: so 1 looked again, thinking perhaps Pats little lame sister had stFayed up from the village and gone into the barn after Sylvy's kittens. or pigeon egg, or to see new calf; but, to my surprise, I saw a red COW. of no par ticular beauty or breed, coming out of the stable door, looking about her as if in search of somebody or something; and when Pat called again, "Biddyi Biddy! Biddy" the creature walked up to him across the yard, stretched out her awkward neck, sniffed little. and cropped from hls hand the wisp of rowen hay he held, as composedly as if she were a tame kit ten, and then followed him all round the yard for more, which am sorry to say she did not get, Pat had only displayed her accomplishments to astonish me, and then shut her in her stall again. I after ward hunted out Biddy's history, and here it is.
 On the Derbo turnpike. just before you enter Hanerford, everybody that ever travelled that road will remember Joseph Germans bakery. It was a red brick house, with dusty windoWs toward the street, and just inside the door a little shop, where Mir. German retailed the seal. loped cookies. futed gingerbread, long loayes of bread. and scantly filled pies, in which he dealt, and which were manufac- tured in the long shop, where in summer you caught glimpses of four barrels all arrow, and men who might have come out of those barrels, so strewed with flour were all their clothes,-paper cap and white apron scarcely to be distinguished from the rest of the dress, as far as color and dustiness went. Here, too, when her father drove out the cart every afternoon, sitting in front of her counter with her sewing or her knitting, Dely German. the bakers pretty daughter, dealt out the cakes and rattled the pennies in her apron young farmer came into Hanerford with grain or potatoes or live stock, who did not cast glance in at the shop door go- ing toward town, and go in on his return, ostensibly to buy a sheet of gingerbread
 
 the drive homeward. It was a curious thing to see how much hungrier they were on the way home than coming into town. Though they might have had good din- ner in Hanerford, that never appeased their appetites entirely, while in the morn ing they had driven thelr slow teams all the way without so much as thinking of cakes and cheese! So by the time Dely was seventeen, her black eyes and bright cheeks were we'll known for miles about, and many youth, going home to the clean kitchen where his old mother sat by the side of the fire knitting, or his spin ster sister scolded and scrubbed over his muddy boot tracks, thought how pretty it would look to see Dely German sitting on the other side, in her neat calico frock and white apron, her black hair shining smooth, and her fresh, bright face looking a welcome.
 But Dely did not think about any one of them in 8 reciprocal manner; she liked them all pretty we'll, but she loved mo- body except her father and mother, her three cats and all their kittens, the big dog, the old horse. and a wheezy robin that she kept in . cage, because her favor. ite cat had half killed it one day, and 1t could never fly any more. For all these dumb things she had really intense af- lection: as for her father and mother, she seemed to be part of them; it never oc- cured to her that they could leave her, or she them; and when old Joe German died one summer day, just after Dely was sev- enteen. she was nearly distracted. How ever, people who work for their living have to get over their sorrows, practically, much sooner than those who can afford time to indulge them; and as Dely knew more about the business and the shop than anybody but the foreman, she had to re- sume her place at the counter before her father had been buried 8 week. It was a great source of embarrassment to her ru- ral admirers to see Dely in her black frock, pale and sober, when they went in; they did not know what to say; they felt as if their hands and feet had grown big all at once, and as If the cents in their pockets never could be got at, at which they turn. ed red and hot and got choked, and went away, swearing internally at their own blundering shyness, and deeper smitten than ever with Dely, because they wanted to comfort her so very much, and didn't know howl
 One, however, had the sense and sim plcity to know how, and that was George Adams, fine healthy young fellow from Hartland Hollow, who came in at least once a week with load of produce from the farm on which he was head man. The first time he went after his rations of gin- gerbread, and found Dely in her mourn ing, he held out his hand and shook hers heartily. Dely looked up into his honest blue eyes and saw them full of pity.
 '1'm real sorry for youi" said George. My father died two years ago."
 Deiy burst into tears and George could not help stroking her bright hair softly and saying, "Oh, don'ti" So she wiped her eyes, and sold him the cookies he wanted; but from that day there was one of Dely's customers that she liked best. one team of white horses she always look ed out for, and one voice that hurried the color into her face, if it was ever so pale; and the upshot of pity and produce and gingerbread was that George Adams and Dely German were heartily in love with each other, and Dely began to be comfort ed for her fathers loss six months after he died. Not that she knew why, or that George had ever said anything to her more than was kind and friendly, but she felt sense of rest, and yet sweet rest lessness, when he was in her thoughts, or presence. that beguiled her grief and made her unintentionally happy: it was the old, old story; the one eternal novelty thai never loses its vitality. its interest. it's be witching power, nor ever will till Time shall be no more
 But the year had not elapsed, devoted to double crape and triple quillings, be- fore Delys mother, too, began to be con soled. She was pleasant, placid, feeble natured woman, who liked her husband very well, and fretted at him in a mild, persistent way good deal. He swore and chewed tobacco. which annoyed her he also kept tight grip of his money which was not pleasant; but she missed him very much when he died, and cried and rocked, and said how afflicted shs was, as much as was necessary, even il the neighbors' opinion. But as time went on, she found the business very hard tc manage; even with Dely and the foreman
 to help her, the ledger got all astray, ana
 the daybo0k followed its example; s.
 when old Tom Kenyon, who kept the tav
 ern half mile farther out, took to coming