Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1875-07-02

and sugaring, clearing the syrup, and
skimming the boiling mass as if she were
a machine made for the purpose of pre-
serving, and nothing else. But all the
time sad refrain sounded in her ears
monotonous unchangeable-" Silas and
| have parted" She heard it in the bub-
bling of the music like song.
The clock ticked it. Aunt Peggy, at
the sewing-machine in the next room,
droned it out with her regularly beating
foot upon the treadle
The wind, among the vine-leaves out
side the window, whispered it; and oh,
her heart, at every beat, measured it off,
:" Silas and / have parted - But she
never thought of giving in, or writing,
at least in effect: "Come back to me-"
She only wondered vaguely whether
anything would ever be worth doing
again, and whether she should come to
be like Aunt Peggy, grimly calm,
though, long ago, one Solon Schultz, to
whom she had been troth-plighted, had
been lost at sea-
Meanwhile, the young ambassador
from Silas was clattering up the village
street with the note in his hand which
was intended to make all smooth again.
and Mrs. Spinner was dusting and set
ting in row upon the table the large
jars in which the preserves were to be
stored away.
One, two, three, four, five, six, sew
en-, eight, nine," said Mrs. Spinner.
" The kettle will fill nine of 'em. Phoebe,
when you are ready, the jars are. )"
Then she went away, and no one re-
manned in the dining-room but Aunt
Peggy, sewing her long white seam"
And at this juncture entered the boy,
who was Cupid's medium. He saw Miss
Peggy, and through a door, bending
over the kitchen stove, figure he knew
to be Phebe's.
"Here's the letter." said he. "Say,
here's letter."
Nobody heard him. The buzz of the
machine was in Miss Peggy's ears. The
simmer of the boiling preserves in Pho-
be's; besides, she was listening eternally
to that sad reiteration of her heart,
/" "Silas and | are parted" The boy
thought he was heard, however, and
eager for his play, laid the white mis-
sive across the top of one of the jars
and bolted. As he vanished Phoebe
came in at the kitchen door, and her
mother at another. A little jar on the
table followed the closing of the latter,
and down toppled the little note into the
great jar. 1t was jar number nine.
Phoebe set the steaming kettle she had
brought with her on tray, and began
to fill the first jar.
Needn't look into it so careful, said
her mother. "When | wipe things |
wipe EN-"
And Phoebe did not look into the rest.
One after another she filled them up,
and nothing happened when she came
to number nine, and she piled the red
sweetmeats upon the white dove that
bore the olive branch of peace.
And SO Silas waited in vain for an
answer, and grew angry again; and SO
in the days to come the two met and
passed without word, and the gossips
had their talk, and, as often happens,
love saddened the lives of those il once
had gladdened.
Summer passed; autumn was gone;
winter was nearly over; and Mrs. Tenn
pletower came to take tea with the Spin
ners. She sat in the parlor and crotch
eted, and Mrs. Spinner advised Aunt
Peggy.
Get plum cake and peach preserves.
We had ounces and pound cake the last
time she came. Take number nine
jar number nine, Peggy. There's only
enough for once in that. | don't want
to open new jar and have it sour and
spoilt."
They sat down at table half an hour
after, Mrs. Templetower's tongue going
hard.
Silas Western has got fever" said
she. "He's very bad, they say-might
go off any day. It's pity; he's a young
man yet; but it amt so bad as if he
was married, you know
at is to be hoped he'll get better
soon," said Mrs. Spinner. And her
mothers eye saw Phoebe flush. "Why
don't you help the peaches, Phoebe ?''
she said sharply to call the girl to her
self. "The dish is before you"
Phoebe took little preserve-plate in
her hand and dipped the spoon in the
dish. or tried to. 1t did not 60 in easily.
She tried again. Something fiat and
stiff leaped off the top of the fruit upon
the cloth.
Goodness !" cried Mrs. Spinner.
Why, Phoebe, there's bit of stick, or
something"
Il