The Hickman courier., 1877-12-07

the sheet oil paper adorned with mono
gram like that upon the envelope, and
read as follows:
DEAR GRANTLEY-You went away
angry with me on Sunday evening, and
said that if ] would not take back what
had said you would never come to see
me again And | was too proud and too
angry to say word to keep you. But,
Grantley, dear, Pm sorry Tor it now.
You were in the right and | was to
blame, and | take it all hack-eveTy
word. | never meant il. You are so
downright you think one must mean all
one says, but indeed | never meant it.
And so forgive me and come again next
Sunday night. find that life would be
a very sad thing for me if we really
quarrelled. Yours forever, ANN"
"So!' muttered Mrs. Webb, between
her teeth. 1t has gone so far, then +;
and she has been showing her temper
and angering Grantley. Well il he has
| spirit enough to stay away one week,
he'll have spirit enough to stay away al
together, perhaps"
Then she gave an angry stamp.
why do comfort myself with that?'
she said. a. know this letter will call
| him back To her, and he'll be more in
love with her than ever. Oh,
if she had not written know my boy
well enough to know that he would not
go back to her without that. Well, he
hasn't seen it yet; and il l choose he
never need. 1t is for his good, 1 know
Ann BurdOck Is Lot the girl for him.
Tll keep him from her"
She dropped Ann Rurdock's letter
upon the fire There it lay, a black and
shrivelled fold of tinder, as her sons step
sounded in the hall, and she covered it
from sight with the kettle.
In come Grantley, his face bright with
the outer cold.
Setting yourself ON fire, mother ?' he
asked. Il smell something scorching."
"Its not my dress, she answered, and
busted herself with the teapot, and rang
the bell for the tea things.
In came the girl with the tray, and .
again Mrs Webb had little fright.
ANY letter for me-" asked her son, /
with an eager look in his face. +
"No," she answered family. Did .
YOU expect one %
SNot I !" said he, his brows contract
ing. "But | met the postman on the
hill, and he called out to me to hurry
home and get my love-letter. His joke,
I suppose"
at was impudent Of him." said Mrs
Webb, not daring 10 meet her sons eye.
That's q love letter, is it2"
She tossed him the bridesmaids circu-
lar. lie glanced at it and put it down.
How sad he looked What gray tints
there were about his eyes and temples
How much thinner ne seemed than he
did a week or 80 ago,
Was it all that quarrel with the Bur
It, c. ltr~--t-I t---- e-..--
that he should have had that mono
note
The mother put the thought from her
She spread the little store of dainties be
fore her son and tried to make him eat
and though she had been so frightened
by his questions, she could not help APP
preaching the dangerous subject herself.
Are you going out tonight" she
asked
No" he answered think not"
The neighbers were telling me you
went over the hill TO the Burdock's
rather often" she went on.
sWell, If have, mother" he answer
cd, " that is no sign I shall go again
Well, there are better places than
the Burdock's," said Mrs. Webb, 1" and l
thought you'd never think of girl
whose father quarreled with yours, and
may have the evil temper of her mother
She's firt, too, they say"
Then she bounced out OF the room.
When she came back Grantely had gone
upstairs.
She heard the boards of his bedroom
floor creek as he walked up and down for
hours, but she did not see him again that
night.
& Well, we'll" she said to herself, " he'll /
get over it."
But. whatever the feeling was, love, /
anger, or grief, it did not agree with
Grantley Webb. He took less interest in
that which went on around him. He
avoided all the other young people of the
place, and seemed to have neither youth
nor spirit left.
Could it be all about that girl Ann,
old Mrs. Webb asked herself, trying to
cheat herself into the idea that the boy
was only IL.
But in vain she made him warm pos
sets and bowls of herb tea. Even if he
had drunk them, which he did not, for
they all went to water the grass OF the
old orchard-even if he had drunk them,
they would have done him no good.
Only one thing could help him--the
only thing that seemed to him impossible
as he sat at his window, staring through |
the starlight midnight at the roof of the
Burdock dwelling, never guessing that
under its caves Ann BurdOck sat, at once !
angry and sorry, thinking of him and |
none other.
He had not answered her note; hewas
unforgiving; but she had vexed him.
She was partly to blame.
The old lady in the ruffied night-cap I,
who often started from her sleep in
the big front bedroom OF the Webb home
with dream OF letters that curIed up
into finder over the red coal--had more |
on her conscience than she knew.
For though Aun grieved, she did not
wear her heart upon her sleeve, but was
outwardly gayer than ever, and firted as
she never had before, until at last the
same neighbor who had brought the news
of Grantley's love affair to his mother,
dropping inUo tea, gave Mrs. webb and
her son bit Of gossip as they sat at the
table together.
" Ann Burdock is going to be married
at last. It's that young man from Lon
don, Mr.. Millet
'' believe weddings when I see them
noy." said Mrs. Webb.
2 IL