St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-08-08

to be friends.
Partly because she was shy, partly
because she was an American girl, she
did not go to her mother with this note,
or, indeed, cOnfide it to any body; yet
Miss Sally's sharp eyes read the secret
with the acuteness of fifteen-when fif-
teen is acute Laura at twenty was no
match for her. Mr.. McCraw smiled a
grimly pleasant smile when he received
Laura's answer. Worldly wisdom was
not wanting in him; he regarded her
regret and hope as tantamOunt to an
acceptance, and in week or two re-
appeared at Mr.. Stockton's house as
pious, poetic, and prim as ever, and
was received by Laura exactly on the
old footing. She. was pleased to think
he cherished no i'll feeling at her rejec-
ton; he was as much pleased to be
virtually accepted by her smiling well
come; and Sally, who hated him, was
furious to see that he had returned to
his former footing without even a dint
or stain on his mail of conceit.
She turned upon Laura as soon as he
| left the door that morning. "Laura
Stockton are you fool ?''
"Why, Sally, what is the matter ?
what have | done now 2"
"Done When you refuse a man,
why don't you refuse him, and not have
him dangle after you like this 2"
''Who told you l refused him ?" said
Laura, blushing red as fire-lily.
sYour face told me, and various other
indications. | can see with my eyes,
if you can't"
"But, Sally, what have dOne7 |
don't see any reason why one can not
dislike to marry a man, and yet like to
be friends with him."
"Perhaps you don't, but he does. In
six months see if he don't offer again.
I'll give you my gold bracelet if he
doesn't. He don't feel rejected; not at
all, assure You. Laura, if you had
been little yellow gosling on the edge
of Cross Pond, you couldn't be more
silly than you are"
Laura opened her large eyes. "Sal-
ly, don't think you ought to talk that
way about it; you're only little girl"
IA little girl Then you're only a
baby, Miss Laura and | believe in my
heart you area great, big, dear, i'm
practicable baby. Just wait till he Of
fers again, and we'll see who is right
then"
'Sanyp ~ But the lecturer had van
ished in wrath.
| However, as the summer went on,
matters reversed to the former footing
entirely. Geology now occupied the
McCraw mind and with bags and
hammers he led his neOphytes up and
down, and filed the echoes with sounds
of gneiss, syenite, volcanic, formation
dip of strata, and the like utterances,
and gave occasion for the enemy to
mock him in the person of Sally, when,
being asked by visitor in search of in
formation what certain blue mountain
in the distance was, he curtly answered,
''Trapw the astonished girl having
meant to ask its proper name.
But when winter covered all geolOg-
ical formations, and walks were brought
to sudden end, this strenuous youth
devised a new dissipation. Collecting
a ragged evening school in the lower
part of Dennis, he beat up recruits
among lFis own sort to become teachers,
and Laura took up the project with ear
nest enthusiasm. So docile was she in
adopting all his suggestions, so devoted
: to the work he had inaugurated, that
he considered himself before long to
have formed her mind and moulded her
character, and looked upon his creation
in a certain proper way, much as Pyg-
malion looked at his peerless statue, yet
no doubt with profounder sense of his
own power and glory in the fashioning
of such an image. Seeing in Laura a
reflection of his own goodness and
greatness, deeper emotion stirred
within him than she had ever before
awakened. Selt-love was his strongest
trait, and he learned to love her from
this motive; his eyes shOne while he
talked with her as pleasantly as green
eyes can shine, and milder pink than
the spring breezes bestowed though
still visibly vivid-suffused his cOunte-
nance with an arid glow whenever she
came into the school-room. He was so
certain that he was in love with
her that he resolved not to wait
tillthe year expired which he had
set for the limit of his delay,
and before spring had fairly begun he
again, though in rather less formal
and shade warmer manner, requested
Miss Laura to accept his heart and
hand, adding: 81 make this offer in
the confidence that such union will
cOnduce to Our mutual spiritual good,
and render more useful to both of us
the discipline of this life and the means
of preparation for the life to Gomez
Unluckily the girl who received this
curiously methOdic and stilted note at
the door carried it to Sally, who recog-
nized the tall and angular script she
had SO often said was "a perfect photo
graph of the man.
So she ran up stairs with it to Laura,
and maliciously stood by while she read
it; for Laura was too simple to under
stand expedients, and dared not quite
ask Sally to leave her. Poor girl she
could be silent, but her face spoke for
her. Even to her unsuspecting soul
this letter was ungracious as well as
ungraceful between the written lines
ran that annexation that letters so often
betray the self-love, the innate tyr
amy, the obtuseness, the stiffness of
the mans nature underlined his words.
Sally unteelingly watched her face as
she read. .. ..--
J "Will you have my gold bracelet ?"
she asked, mOckingly, when her sister
laid the note down. "Oh, Laura, you'll
: believe me next time, won't you? The
wretch! the miserable pink prig does
he think he's fit to touch my dear, good,
sweet, silly, lovely Laura's shoes? Fd
like to express my mind to him %
"Oh, Sally, don't think of thatp ~ said
innocent Laura.
"My dear, it would do no good if l
did. But, Laura, do, do reject him
once for all this time. Shut the door
on him, or, as mamma used to say
, and you know you always did leave the
doors ajar- you'll have to do it over