St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-09-13
The One That Ran Away.
EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER.

EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER.
There were three of the Peters chill
dren, and if there had been one more
or less this story wonld never have been
told, for it was the odd one who ran
away.
The odd one was Marcia. Joe and
Jenny were twins; they were rocked
in one cradle, and from the day they
were born they always wanted the same
things. They looked SO precisely alike
that it was great relief to the neigh
bOrhoOd when Joe had his first trOwsers,
because you could never be positively
sure which one you were scolding so
long as they both wore pink calico
dresses and white sun n-bOnnets. Joe
and Jenny had round, rosy faces, round
blue eyes, tangles of yellow curls, and
were, as Grandma Ellis declared, "clear
Peterses, every inch of 'em.n But Mar
cia, with her dark skin, straight black
hair, solemn eyes, and quaint old-fash-
ioned ways, nobody could even guess
whom she was like, until one day grand
ma was looking over lot of very old
pictures, and suddenly came upon one
which made her exclaim:
"Well, l do declare if there isn't the
baby to the very life; eyes and chin
and mouth !"
"Let me see," said Mrs. Peters "why
that is Mr.. Peters stepmother; she's
no more relation than Adam"
''The baby's her livin' image, relation
OF no relation" persisted grandma, and
from that day she called her Marcia,
after her step-grandmother, if there be
any such relationship. The old-fash-
iOned name suited her precisely you
would no more have thought of calling
her Kitty or Dot or Nellie than of being
familiar with Mrs. Martha Washington
or Queen Victoria. She seldom laugh
ed or cried, and never was astonished
at anything, so you must know she was
rather trying to Joe and Jenny, who
took life in the most natural way, and
were always in ecstasies or agonies.
She couldn't ''make believe" worth a
straw, Jenny said, and always looked
and acted precisely the same, whether
they were pretending to hide under the
current bushes from a scalping party of
wild Indians or going in their best
clothes to a grand wedding in the barn
chamber. So it happened that Marcia
was left out of the play and out of the
fun, and more aid more as she grew
older took to going off by herself and
taking long walks in the woods and
over the hills. Even grandma said
Marcia was queer, and her mother de-
clared she did not know what to make
of her. When Joe and Jenny had their
bed time frolics with their father, and
went away all flushed with laughter
and rumpled up with kissing and hug
ging, Marcia only looked gravely on,
without attempting to join in the fun.
If her father said, "Come, little daugh-
ter, can't you give me kiss before you
go ?" she would come very obediently
and kiss him, but she never put her
arms about him, but stood stiff and
straight by his knee. -
"Such a strange child,n her father
would sigh, "she either has too much
feeling for her comfort, or none at all. !"
'She isn't like a child at all,n her
mother would say, "there doesn't seem
to be a particle of affection in her ma
ture, unless it be for that dreadful old
doll that Jenny threw away. She
actually dragged it out of the ash bar
rel and hid it in her bed, and she will
have the dirty thing in her arms every
night" .l....4 .....
perhaps if you'd pet her little
more" Mr.. Peters once mildly sug-
gested, but his wife laughed at the very
idea. ..
"Tve no time to pet anybody" she
declared, "and as for petting Marcia.
why, l should as soon think of cosseting
you" rt. .
Mr.. Peters was a big burly giant of a
man, and he only looked down at his
little morsel of wife, and smiled and
sighed, and gave the matter up.
One day it was on Fiday, the 18th OF
August, about 8 o'clock in the morning.
Joe and Jenny sat under the "sugaI
sweetlng" tree, eating wormy little
wind-falls and talking between the
bites. The sugar sweeting tree grew
In the rye field, and the rye stubble was
particularly hard on bare feet, and
though Marcia could see them very
plainly where she stood holding Anna
ranth and looking through the bars,
she could hardly make up her mind to
venture any nearer, but it was easy to
see they were planning some sort of fun
BY and by they came back, Jenny pick
ing her way carefully, and Joe tramp
ing steadily along with his horny little
feet that always had one or two invalid
toes.
"a house in a cave is better'n tent
said Jenny, 'tand we can make reg'lal
lire and cook things. 1 shall take all
my dolls"
1--WE shall want the hatchet and the
old butflO. robe, and tin pail and a
fish pole, and you get grandma to give
You lots of gingerbread
"P'r'aps we can find some buckle
berries there's lots over in the north
pastnre-Oh my suz, now here's Marcia .
Joe and Jenny stopped short and
looked at Marcia, and Marcia grasped
poor old Amaranth little tighter and
looked anthem. - :
said loo ~ o'