Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1877-03-01

blank, to be inserted when the sun should
thaw the ice in the river The.early win
ter twilight was deepening into darkness
and the kettle was singing on the stove
when Kitty finished her letter One ol
two of the hard words in which her heart
rooted grieffound utterance were searched
| out in the dictionary for this suicidal
young lady would have deemed it shock
ing indeed to have left behind her SC
mOmentous document with any slips OF
orthography. Thus Webster reassured
her doubling mind as to melancholy,
and determined the order of vowels in
"relief." And it was while Kitty wal
yet picturing to herself the effect which
this pathetic letter would produce upon
those who loved her-in which category
Mr.. Jack Burroughs was not Included
that the sound of Uncle Randolph s voice
broke in upon her reveries. With a
blush and start, Kitty thrust the sheet
of paper into the dictionary and closed
the volume.
He is scoundrel and thief" she
heard her uncle say, as ho drew near the
door. lyon can't tell me .nything about
the Marshalls; I've known the whole race
of 'em for twenty years. Old Silas Mar
shall went from Windsor to Hartford, and
sold soap and candles, and, during the
Jackson campaign-"
Precisely what the late Silas Marshall
did during the jackson campaign was
not told at that moment, for the door
opening cut short the thread of the con-
versation. Uncle Randolph walked into
the kitchen, while behind him, self-confi-
dent and smiling, walked Mr.. Jack Bur-
roughs. Trembling all over, Kitty rose
up from her seat and thanked the twilight
which hid her face.
where's your aunt Martha ?" in
quired Uncle Randolph. Jack has
come over to 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 Mr.. Burroughs
proffered match. 'sI'll go and call her. "
And with this the young lady beat a hasty
retreat.
"That Josiah Marshall is scoundrel
and thief" resumed Uncle Randolph,
as he took down the kerosene lamp from
the mantel-piece. I'D like to kick him,
and the whole tribe of Marshalls along
with him -
"It's pretty numerous tribe OBJ
served 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 mp, as she expressed it, until late
in the afternoon, entered the room. Miss
Martha was a capital housekeeper More
over, she was what the New Englander
calls "smart" and the Englishman
"clever." And she was what all the
world, in divers tongues and dialects,
calls :. eccentric" Perhaps one of her
most noticeable eccentricities was that of
mixing the names of the members of her
own household. Tom Turner was called
Randolph" quite as often as he was
Tom, and Kitty answered promptly,
when addressed as Nancy" albeit the
only Nancy I'm the family had married n
dozen years before, and was living now
in Oregon. Jack Burroughs had long
before grown familiar with this pecul-
iarity, so that when Miss Martha, upon
entering the kitchen, said, lis that you,
William" ?" Jack responded, cheerily,
"It is.
"Well, Tn proper glad to see you,"
exclaimed Miss Martha. at seems an
age since you've been inside the house.
Take of your great-coat, and come into
the sitting-room and get warm. How's
Lydia and the folks %
Jack gave satisfactory account of the
health of the Burroughs family, and
Miss Martha then withdrew to look after
the supper.
Meantime Kitty, who had rushed to
her own room, with face flushed, hands
trembling, and bosom heaving, had
donned her best black alpaca, and
combed out the braids of nutbrown
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 il for anybody
anybody who was going to stay to sup
per. And she tried hard to convince
herself that il was not because of Jack
that her face flushed and her hands
trembled. What was Jack to her now? |?
Had he not sent back her letters and
picture, and kept away from her whole
month? And was she not heart-broken
maiden, resolved to die as soon as the
ice in the Connecticut river melted !?
These thoughts whirled through her
brain as she fastened 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 O final
peep at her pretty self in the double
sectioned mirror. AT all events, it made
her conscious of her beauty. and caused
her to forget the terrible letter lyingfbe-
tween the pages of the dictionary down
stairs.
When Kitty went into the sitting room
to announce that "supper was ready"
she saluted Jack with chilling politeness,
and addressed him as "Mr. Burroughs. :"
This ought to have stabbed the young
man to the 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 a desire, re-
strained only by continued exertion, to
burst out laughing. Naturally this
vexed the young lady to degree where
tears would have been a sweet relief. II
was not nough, then, that this wicked,
deceitful, cruel Jack should make play
thing of her heart, but he must needs
exult over his atrocious conduct. Kitty
could have cried with a relish, but she
remembered her letter and her resolution
to die, and 80, in lieu of tears, she drew
solace from that grim thought.
At the supper-table Jack was unusually
talkative. He complimented Miss Martha
upon the excellence of her faky biscuits,
and emphasized his appreciation by eat
ing half dozen of them he expressed
his cordial sympathy with Uncle Ran
dolph's desire to kick the tribe of Mar
shalls, and evinced deep interest in the
plot of the story which Tom Turner had
Just devoured he shouted the praises of
Aunt Charity's knitting in tones 80 lusty
that the old lady was made to hear, albiet
she was wont to declare herself /" 80
proper deef she couldn't hear anything"
and as for Kitty, this wicked Jack bonn
barled her with such volley of inter-
rogatories that she was forced into an un-
willing conversation. When the meal
was at an end, Kitty persisted in helping
Miss Martha wash the dishes.
"Youll only hinder me, expostulated