Litchfield enquirer., 1878-10-17
PANSIE.
A STORY IN TWO CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I.
 .sNot & drum was heard, not funeral note"

she looks up from the delights of IcGahOe and yet will not raise my head from the paper whereon my pen is hurriediy tracing words that some one's eyes will gloat over tomorrow morning.
 It is more than week since have been able to find a moment to. write to Dick, and he will be hungry for letter; at least, think so, judging frommy own sensations whea three or four days go by without bringing me a big envelope, directed in clear hand, to ] Miss Merivale, Mornclff, near York" It is a good thing am the eldest of the Merivale family. for my Christian name might provoke the postman into adisrespectful smile
 '.Pansie"-a quaint name truly, but mother and know what it means, and we love it at least she does; and love 1t because it sounds so sweetly from her lips when she tells me that I am her 'sHeart's-ease." Well. as I was say | ing, things have seemed to come in a crowd of l late, and mother has been suffering more than usual, so that have left Dick without letter for more than week.
 "Not drum-.''
 Iranhoe has taken flight through mid-air, and Chubby is ''hard hit"
 There is mortified gasp from Maud, who is seated by the window hemming handker- chief. and pricking her little pudgy finger at every third stitch, and then she filings her work upon the ground, and lifting the corner of a not particularly clean pinafore, makes strenu- our efforts to wipe poor Chubby's face, where on combined tears and dirt are tracing sorry streaks of woe.
 | look up at Nell, and see her standing be- fore me veritable figure of penltence her head droops, her long black lashes lie upon her rose-fushed cheek. What beautiful picture of shame and sorrow the little lassie makes But am in no humor to appreciate the pie turesque side of things just now. One of my rebellious fits is on me; feel all one protest against the atmosphere of discomfort that per vades Morncliffe. 1 have none of heroine's pleasure in trials and annoyances: am sim l ply weary of petty strife and miserable anxie- ties; and this noisy rioting among the young sters seems to be the last straw that is doomed to break the back of that sorely-tried camel my patience. Instead, therefore, of reproving the combatants as in duty bound, lean my l head upon my hands, and splash goes tear upon the paper before me, making great blur upon Dicks letter!
 1 ''Pansie-Panse-oh dear-I am so sor- ry!"
 Thus NelPs voice, broken by sobs pleads for pardon, the while two arms steal around my neck.
 ''I think it's me you ought to say that to, D puts in Chubby, setting grammar at defiance j; as he sits on.the floor, ruefully rubbing his in- l jured crown.
 s'Well, and am sorry-there !" says the of fender, and then falls to hugging me again.
 ''Nelty ish solly," proclaims baby Maud tri- umphantly, smiling at poor Chubby, and stand ing a-tiptoe to investigate the nature of his in juries.
 ''Pm sure Nelly is sorry" echoe, with an air of grave conviction, ''and now fine will help Chubby to finish learning his poetry" l Na1lo lnoR hot rifif,pl ac stoop to pick up the prostrate I0anhOe, and de- pesit him on the bookshelf above my head j; but she accepts my suggested expiation of her wrong doing sits down bravely by Chubby's I side, and the two little dark heads bend over the same book, and attack the difficulties of Sir John Moore's famous obsequies. | ''I wish they hadn't never buried him at all, :" mutters Chubby, as these difficulties prove l hard to surmOunt.
 s'You mean you wish nobody hadn't never | written about it." reioins Nell, with all the superior wisdom of twelve over eight and a | quarter.
 But refrain from rebuking the super-abun- | dant negatives contained in these remarks. 1 am writing at railway speed writing to tell | Dick that at last the obstacles in the way of my leaving MoFncliffe for four whole delight | full weeks seem to be overcome:
 Aunt Emily, mammals only sister, is coming | to take charge. of the house and children-l wonder how she and my dear undisciplined Chubby will hit it off land so, for the first time since can remember, am to go away | upon visit.
 A long way too, down to the Cornish coast, where, in grand old manor called Merle wood, dwells Mrs. Celquhoun, Dicks married sister. have never seen any of Dicks rela- tions yet, so this visit is rather formidable affair to me but for all that look forward with great delight to the change. l suppose | It is that when one is young, and in faultiess health, the instinct that leads one to wish to enjoy life is strong Looking back through the vista of my seventeen years, l cannot say that have done much in that way hitherto. You see, what with the children, and mammals bad health, and bills-and-well, and other things too, that papa and Iknow Of-there isn't much time to think about enjoying ones l self | Our old nurse Janet, who has lived with us ever since can remember-sometimes getting her wages at spasmodic intervals, sometimes going wages-less altogether-says, that the worst piece of ill-luck that ever befei the Mer- ivale family was Cousin Stephen leaving Msfn- cliffe and five hundred year to papa. 1 Until that happened he used to work m a desultory kind of way, but still proftably, at his profession afterward, he just let his con- | u6cblUu uI0p, di1O tOOh 6O ANC AtAO | an independent country gentleman developed a taste for the turf, and, we'll it is hard to tell the rest
 Mammals health gave way under the cease less pressure of anxieties, and so it came about that I, Pansie Merivale, cannot remember ever feeling young As soon as had sense enough l to think, it seemed as if mamma and were l all at once the same age, and weighed down by the same burdens. Then, as time went on, and she-dear patient martyr !-grew weaker, | and suffered more and more bodily pain, seemed to grow the elder of the two, and It began to began to feel sort of sin to let things come to her knowledge, if 1 could possibly bear them on my own shoulders alone. Of 1 course some things she was obliged to know. l When papa came home late, and brought noisy companions with him, used to creep up to her room, and crouching down upon the floor by her side of her couch, lay my head against her shoulder, and hold her hand-how. thin and worn hand !-in. mine. As now and then louder burst of merriment came from below, she would press my hand close, and whisper to me that my love was precious to her, and that 1 was her dear, dear ''Heart's- ease. flE sf sad
 When the guests went away, and we heard papa coming up to his room, she would put me gently from her, and say, ''Go now, darling, ' and kiss me with lips that trembled yet, spoke no word of dread. And so I had to leave her to what words of jeering cruelty, what sneers at her helpless pain, who could say? Iused to steal softly and stealthily to my own room, and, kneeling by my bed, pray that the God of the fatherless and the widow would look down in pity upon that gentle, loving woman
 who was worse than widowed.
 Strange experiences these for girl Vel
 might all the bouyancy of youth die out under
 such cruel discipline. But when Dick came
 l seemed to grow young again all at once. |
 was as if had been some swimmer fighting
 along stream; bearing up against the deat
 weight of burden that threatened every mo ment to drag me down; and all at once, jus when my heart began to fail me, To blessed
 sense of help and comfort came upon me, ant
 the weight of the burden that had seemed well nigh too heavy to be borne, was suddenl,
 frightened. Gods hand had led me across tn
 path of one who was fated to be my aid an, l comfort. A new courage, new strength, wa a infused into my soul: nothing seemed to-