Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-05-13
Kit.

as Katherine Allen; admiring friends
had called her 'Little Katy" and her
mother, gathering the plump little form
to her bosom, had thousand times kiss
ed and called her Darling Kitty" But
the mother, grown fretful and weary in
the struggle against poverty and starva-
tion, was chary of pet names or caresses,
admiring friends were few and far be-
tween, while the parish record lay musty
and unopened in the dust and gloom of
the clerks office. She was simply kit,
exit Allen" or "that hateful Kit" ac-
cording to the humor of the nelghbor-
hood.
Master William, as he was respect
fully addressed by the operatives in his
fathers brickyard, had found her years
ago, crying bitterly by the roadside, as
dirty and forlorn morsel as one could
we'll conjecture. The swollen face, where
tears had furrowed channels in the dirt
was an appeal of itself, to say nothing
of the pitiful tale of father, dead from
drunkenness and exposure, or the half
starved mother and babe, weeping be-
side him in the wretched hovel near by.
Here, indeed, was field for the exer.
else of every kindly impulse of his no.
BILE. generous heart He had listened
with pitying interest to the widows sto-
ry of want and desolation, had furnished
means to lay the husband and father de-
Gently away where the earth should COW
er all his frailties. Then, as a suitable
conclusion to his labor of love, he had
installed the widow and her babe in the
only habitable room of tumble-down
farmhouse on the edge of clay y-bank
above his fathers brick-yard.
Freed from all obligations as to rent,
the Widow Allen had no occasion to In
trude herself upon Master Williams no.
tice. A year or two later, when the lit
tie babe had been laid to rest in the IT,
ny coffin, he had crossed the threshold
and stood reverently in the presence of
her dead. Kit, cleaner than her wont,
had felt once more the pressure of his
firm, white hand upon her head, and
had heard his words of sympathy for her
loss-a loss which Kit was prone to re-
gard as blessing in disguise, since
Master Williams bounty again replen-
ished the scanty larder, and she was
freed from attendance on the crying
child, while her mother toiled with her
needle.
Released from the care of her babe,
the Widow Allen had found better en-
ployment at the village across the river,
and Master William, in the pursuits of
a cultivated, prosperous life, had quite
forgotten her existence. Somehow, she
found small favor with the women who
dwelt around the brick-yard. They scru-
tinized her closely with set lips and
wrinkled brows as she shuffled past their
dwellings, in faded, clinging garments.
They criticised her unwashed windows
and dirty floors, passed audible COM
ments on Kits uncared.for condition,
and voted her ''shiftless" word of
prodigious meaning in the lexicon of a
Yankee housewife.
The widow cared little for the opinion
of her neighbors, since her daily employ
ment gave her so little time among
them but Kit, left to herself, was not
slow to perceive the prevailing senti-
ment, and took revenge in many a bit
of mischief, which in nowise improved
her reputation among them.
A veritable Ishmael in the region
round about the brick-yard, she had
crept into her twelfth year, a stoop-
shouldered, freckle faced, ungainly girl,
quick-witted and by no means unkind,
yet with little that was attractive or
lovable about her. Indeed, her only
friend at the brick-yard was the sharp
tongued mistress at the dingy boarding
house. who had discovered in the neg
lected child an invaluable aid at the
dish-tub whenever press of business
presented. This friendship was thor
Oughly practical, consisting largely Of
advice, sharply administered, and fire.
quently emphasized with cuffs and
shakes, by way of impressing it upon
, her. The only sentiment about it was
the wages promptly paid, with an occa.
sional gratuity in the shape of slice Of
cake or wedge of pie from the board.
ing-house table.
, Kit was well satisfied in the main
| since in this way she was able to add
many dime to the family treasury, but
on this day of which we write the bur
den of labor had been overmuch. The
sharp tongue had been harsher tb an ev
! er, and she was glad when the testy wo
: man had placed the battered dime il
| her fingers and had warned her out o.
: her sight
The little old house on the clay-bank
standing bare and hot in the fierce sun
!. shine, offered little promise of rest t
o the weary child, SO. strolling listlessl,
across the sun. .ha knd s,,rfano &C IL