The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-08-11
Maggie Ryan,

"But just let me stay until morning
maam. 1t is cold, dreary and dark along
tho road, and, indade, I've no place to go
but widow Yarrow's and that's miles
away"
Sc spoke sad, worn-looking woman
standing on the threshold of well-to-do
farmers house, just as the last rays of light
were fading from the evening sky.
The person she spoke to, large woman
in bright lowered dress and white apron
mistress of the house-turned away pet
tishly
you came at night, Maggie, it seems to
me, and you can go at night. You don't
suit. | never saw such shiftless ways in
my life. And Jane Smith 10 here, and
I've only one bed for the servants, and l
can't expect tidy girl like Jane to sleep
with-well, with strangers. I've paid for
your three days, and goodness knows,
you've worried me out of my senses since
you've been here, and ] can't keep you
another night, and the earlier you go, the
sooner you'll get there, wherever it is'''
"Well, that's true, anyway. Then
ma'am," replied the woman, land you are
mistress in your own house, but God knows
it's not dog I'd be drivn' out at night"
Then che tied her little pittance in the
corner of her pocket handkerchief and
walked away out of the gate and up the
road, not looking back once. Her heart
was heavy as lead, and she was very angry
at a world that had been a very hard one
to her.
"Three years since Pat wint away" she
said to herself, "and niver word from
him. He's dead, no doubt; and it's the
last kind word I've heard. wasn't shift
less and good for nothing to him. "Mag-
II ~ I.asl II o,o Cow
body's wife" Och, he was the man and
so good to me when l was faded and worn
out with the hard Twin and losin' the
childer, as he was when l was purity girl,
with cheeks like roses, an he was boy
coortin' me. Och, Pat, WHARF did you go,
at allp You died in a ditch like dog,
maybe forlall these hard-hearted gentle
folks care, we all might"
She turned and shook her fist back at the
house she had just left, only bit of the
roof visible over the rising ground now.
"My heart was aching for the childer
| and for Pat" but you could have no pa
| tience if pertatie was burnt, or a towel
not that smooth. Ye sent me out with the
night falling Bad luck to ye and all yer
| like"
Then she plodded on again but the wo
man she had left was not as she had fanciec
her. In her thrift and tidiness she copld
not understand this untidy, careless being
| She knew nothing of the misery at hel
heart, or the sorrow that made her forge
the pots and pals. She was actually hall
afraid of her and anxious to get her out Of
her house. She had felt it great mistake
to hire q tramp from the road, as it were
and che had paid her and felt conscious o
no cruelty.
The daylight fed apace the moon, risel
long ago, became visible-a faint streak o
new moon that set in little while-onl,
the stars were left-and Maggie, wander
ing on the road with her bundle under he
arm-a bundle of rags and odds and end
tumbled together in an old flannel petticoa
began to lose her knowledge of it. Her
and there she saw lights in window, bu
they were no promise of hospitality, to hel
If she could get to widow Yarrow's tina
parsonage, who took the laborers to board
would let her lodge while she could pay
but where was the widows cottage-to tn
right or to the left2 She could not tell
the darkness whether she had taken I'll
proper turning Hard by was rushin
sound, as of water. Danger there, pc
haps. The railroad was somewhere at han
: and though Maggie felt that the world WI
poor place, she did not feel ready to me
{ death yet.
"IllI Just drop down in the grass som
where" said the poor woman. "And &c
hetween me and harm. If could find
bit of hay now, 'twould be q comfort"
She stretched forward, peering throul
I the darkness, and her foot struck son
lose branches that lay upon the groun
with cracking sound.
: Whats thatf" said voice very ne
her, in sharp whisper.
dts an imp of squirrel" said anolh
voice. $50 on with your work, Jim. T
train will be along In fifteen minutes. |
with that rail. H! Wen have them Il
, time"
h "Hold your tongue, fool" said the fiji
y voice. "You're half drunk, tell you
thought 1t was STEP"
And now Maggie who had sunk fiat up
the ground, knew all. Those who VIII
pered near her were train wreckers.
'I'll make no noise,' said she, 81
none of my business. =,
But lying in the grass, the sharp stroR
ur of steel on steel smote her earl she cou
not forget them. And suddenly 1t cal
upon that it was neither more nor less IN
= murder that she was waiting there to sec
,. that In lying quiet while 1t was done
helped to do it.
"God forgive me-" said poor Magg
III not do 1t but what am l to dor FL,
will l stop themp It's my own death
bring about nothing else
And Just then the sound OF ste'
whistle far away caught the ear. The tr
was coming
= "Were ready for them," said the vo
II she had heard before. "Come Into
Dy bushes"