Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-04-19

"Sixteenl And what do you know p
Redolette laughed. "I know that. +"
Willie knew that too. "Sweet sixteen
sweetest sixteen |" he said in his
heart.
He asked her, gravely, "Where have
you been at school?"
"I went for some time to DR.. ks
class at 2, but have not been the
last three terms. Judge Hunt does not
believe in schooling for girls. Just now
1 am taking lessons in housekeeping OF
my aunt. l stitch shirt bosoms every
day-four threads OF linen forward and
two threads back, the regular old-fash-
ioned way. 1 sew and cook and bake.
"Bakep repeated Willie, Indignantly.
upon whether tits douginuts or bread.
would rather fry than bake; it is more
exciting"
81 should think so, indeed. Why,
Redolette, these are the tortures of the
Inquisition for you. Fry and bake
They might as well roast you at the
stake. OF course these things have to
be done. We must have shirt bosoms
and bread, and it is right that you should
learn how to do them, or how to have
them done; but-spend your life at such
tasks? The idea is absurd. We might
rs we'll harness doves to drays, or burn
rose-buds in our CRATES. Every work
has its own workers. My dear child,
there are two rules for practical life
first the greater must not be sacrificed
to the less, and second" Here Willie
was going to quote Carlyle at length,
but he recollected that he was talking to
q girl, and he modified the grand SEN
tences of the philosopher ending in,
"Know what thou canst work at, " into,
"And you should do, Redolette, what
you can do best. Now if you can really
do nothing better than cook, then that is
your work. But in this age of the world
you are not forced; you can have choice;
and you must remember that we are liv-
ing in the time of sewing machines and
scientific cooks. There is no need of
immolation in those departments of la
Dor. We are living in time" Willie
hesitated in the midst Of his eloquence,
flurried by q little thing, very little
thing; just the touch of his hand by
Redolette's-an action softly, shyly
Lone, but causing him to descend from
his speech to look into her face. He
paused for moment. enchanted by the
serious sweet gaze of her dark eyes
fixed upon his. But he recovered him
self and went on 4: "Do you know what
age of the world you belong to, Redo
lette? You have no right to go back to
an age that you were not born in; you
have no right to marry a man who be-
longs exclusively to that age, and avail
yourself of nothing that has occurred
since in the great march of progress
You can go back if you desire it. You
are free you live in free land. But
if you do not desire it, if you feel that
there is something in you higher than a
life of drudgery, unlighted by liberty
that makes drudgery divine unlighted
by love-and oh ! Redolette, you do not
know what you are relinq1lishing when
you relinquish the possibility of love
if you feel q stir in your pulse that beats
with what is highest and nearest true in
the time we live in, darling Redolette y
(this time the emphasis was laid with
sufficient stress to compensate for the
former restraint), "then would die a
thousand deaths rather than see you
met in these woods by a selfish soul,
like Red Riding-hood by the wolf, and
lured into thatched hut, and eaten
up, with no ear to hear your poor inno-
cent cry of Oh. what big eyes you've
got and, 'Oh, what sharp teeth you've
gotl' -"
Willie was excited now. He fright.
ened Redolette. She sprang up before
him with low cry-a genuine cry OF
pain, like hurt child. A sudden pallor
swept her face; the paleness as of q
w0man's pang swept her childish face.
Then Willie took her in his arms, and
called her his precious love, and soothed
her with his tenderness, as he had
aroused her with his wrath. And then
and there, in the mountain solitude,
witnessed only by lonely height and
lonely wood and lonely earth and sky,
he made her make one solemn promise.
Not the promise that his heart burned
to have her make. For what he wished
so ardently, that nothing "before OF
after " could compare in ardor with that
hours wish, was to make her promise tc
be his wife. He reminded himself thai
he had no right to do this. He was {
young fellow not yet graduated from
college; and after his senior year, JUS
commenced, there lay before him {
course of professional study, and ther
the establishing of his profession s prac
tice, for his patrimony was by no means
commensurate with his wants. He hat
no right to ask her yet.
He only made her grant promise
formed disinterestedly and exclusively
for her good.
By this time the sun had set. Shadow
mingled with shadows. The air gathered
that strange pure cool which seems tx
blend and at the same instant define tn,
precious woodland scents. The sof
rustic of leaves, the twitter of sleep.
birds, the faint crashing sough of "th1
long rank bent" as they entered tn
fields, the infnitesimal fine yet clea
sounds of the summer night rasped no
unmusically by the tiny sharp cries ant
beating hum of the insect world-thes
were the vocal accompaniments of tn
homeward way, for Redolette and Will
hardly spoke. Clasping each other
hands they went down the rocky sleeps
and across the meadows home.
And at the garden gate he kissed he
goodnight" " and kissed her "good
by" for on the morrow he was to leav
the mountain farm, and she would nc
see him again.
Redolette fingered in the porch som
time before she entered the house. Sh
watched Willie's figure pass down th
road, and disappear at the river turr
then she thought and thought. An
when she went into the lighted rool
where Judge Hunt sat in his arrn-chai
reading the evening news, Aunt Rhodl
looking up from her needle-work to gre,
the child with some reproof for stayin