Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-04-20
sold soap and candles, and during I'll

| did during the Jackson campaign WAS moi
! told at that moment, for che door opening
cut short the thread of the conversation
| Uncle Randolph walked into the kitchen
| while behind him, self confident and smil
ing, walked Mr. Jack Burroughs. Tremb
| ling all over, Kitty rose up from her seal
and thanked the twilight which hid hel
face.
"Where's your aunt Martha ?" inquired
Uncle Rand ,lph Jack has come over tt
| eat supper with us. Why don't you light
up?"
Here's match,' said Jack, and he
held out his hand.
Aunt Martha is up stairs,'' answered
| Kitty, addressing herself to her uncle, and
paying no heed to MIR. Burroughs proffer
ed match. 'sl'll go and call her. and with
this the young lady beat hasty retreat.
! 'sTIat Josiah Marshall is seonndre
and a thief" resumed Uncle r ,ndolph, AS
he took down the kerosene lamp from the
mantle-piece. Il d like to kick him and
the whole tribe OF Marshalls along with
| him !
| tits q pretty numerous TRIBE - observed
Jack. good-humoredly. LET me help you
| to put on that chimney"
| While Jack was adjusting the lamp Miss
| Martha, WHO never found time to dress up
as she expressed it, until late in the after
| noon, entered the room. Miss Martha was
capital housekeeper. Moreover, she was
! what the New Englander calls ''smart' y
and the Englshnan ''clever." And she
was what all the world in diverse tongues
and dialect, calls ''eccentric." Perhaps
one Of her most noticeable eccentricities
was that of mixing the names of the mem
bers of her own household. Tom Turner
was called Randolph" quite as often as
he was "Tom," and Kitty answered
promptly when addressed as Nancy" al
belt the only Nancy in the family had mar
ried dozen years before, and WAS living
now in Oregon. Jack Burroughs had long
before grown familiar with this peculiari-
| ty, so that when Miss Martha, upon enter
ing the kitchen said f: lis that you, Will
liam ?'' Jack responded, cheerily: cit is. y
"Well, I'm proper glad to see you," ex-
claimed Miss Martha. cit seems an age
since you've been inside the house. Take
off your great coat and come into the sit
ting-room and get, warm. How's Lydia
and the folks p
| Jack gave a satisfactory account Of the
| health of the Burroughs family, and Miss
! Martha then withdrew to look after the
supper. g 5s
Meantime Kitty, who had rushed to her
own r. ON with face flushed, hands tremb-
| ling and bosom heaving, had donned her
| best black alpaca, and combed out the
braids Of nut-brown hair, which was hers
} by growth and not by purchase. Not that
she did this in honor of Jack Burroughs.
by no means She would have done it for
anybody-anybody who was going to stay
| to supper. And she tried bard to convince
| herself that it was not because of Jack
that her face flushed and her hands trem-
bled. What was Jack to her now? Had
he not sent back her letters ana picture,
and kept away from her for whole month?
And was she not q heartsbroken maiden,
resolved to die as soon as the ice in the
| Connecticut River m tied? These thoughts
whirled through her brain as she fastened
a bit Of white lace at her throat-lace
which Aunt Charity had once worn, when
knitting was not her sole aim in life-and
took final peep at her pretty self in the
double sectioned mirrOW. That peep must
have been eminently satisfactory. At all
|
ty, and caused her to forget the terrible
J letter lying between the pages of the die
| tiondry down stairs.
| When Kitty went INFO the sitting-room
to announce that supper was ready" she
saluted Jack with chilling poiteness, and
addressed him as MIR. Burroughs" That
ought to have stabbed the young man to
heart, but it didn't. He looked very grave
to be sure, and called her miss Gibson,''
but there was the old roguish twinkle in
his gray eyes, and Kitty detected at once
that, under his assumed gravity, there was
Il desire, restrained only by continual exer-
ton, to burst out laughing. Naturally
this vexed the young lady to degree
| where tears would have been sweet re-
lief. 1t was not enough, then, that this
wicked, deceitful, cruel Jack should make
a play-thing of her heart, but he must
needs exult over his atrocious conduct.
Kitty could have cried with d relish, but
she remembered her letter and her resolu-
ton to die, aud so, in lieu of tears, she
drew solace from that grim thought.
AT the supper table Jack was unusually
laxative. He complimented Miss Martha
upon the excellence Of her flaky biscuits,
and emphasized his appreciation by eating
half dozen of them; he expressed his
cordial sympathy with Uncle Randolph s
desire to kick the tribe Of Marshalls, and
evlnced a deep interest in the story which
Tom Turner had just devoured; he shout
I'd the praises of Aunt Charity's knitting
in tones SO lusty that the old lady was
made to hear, albeit she was wont to de-
clare herself $50 proper deaf she couldn' It
hear anythlng;'' and as for Kitty, this
wicked Jack bombarded her with such a
volley of heterogeneous that she was
| forced into unwilling conversation. When
the meal was at an end, Kitty persisted in
( helping Miss Martha wash the dishes.
"Y Quill only hinder me- expostulated
the elder maiden, 'and besides you've got
on your best dress. Go into the sitting
room and entertain Jack.''
| But the younger maiden was fixed in her
purpose. So she went to her room to don
an apron, and left Jack to entertain him
self.
Thereupcn, the heir of the house of
| Burroughs picked up a bulky volume and
! sat down by the open fire in the sitting
room. The bulky volume proved to be
Webster's Dictionary. which careless Kitty