The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1879-02-06
EIizabeth'S Revenge.

claw sakes! What's the child afeerd
of? G'long, Liz, straight away; the
dark won't hurt ye."
1t was eleven O'Clock of summer
night. The heat was intense, and the
sky as black as ink. Occasionally a
low growl of distant thunder was heard
and among the heavy trees the fitful
wind complained with unearthly moa-
ming.
On the piazza of the Marks farm
house, in the dull, yellow light that
fell through the open door, stood girl
possibly twelve years of age. She made
most grotesque and unpoetic picture
with her bare, tanned feet, her untidy
frOck, her tangled, coppery hair, and
her small, brown, sullen face.
"Come, Cinderella, make haste" "
laughed beardless young man, who
sat smoking by the window; "whO do
you think would hurt such a lazy, ugly
little imp as you are?'
The darkness and the sounds of the
night were appealing to the child; and
the offensive manner and speech of this
indolent, idle young man reused
the anger and dislike she had felt to-
" ard him ever since he had been the
guest of Mr.. Marks, whose despised and
unpaid servant she had been for a year
or more.
81 don't go to the spring tonight for
you nor nobody else,' she declared, her
young voice shrill and her big eyes bla-
zing defiance.
"How care We talk like that to a
gentleman, and my nevew, too, We vi
cious little beast" cried Mrs. Marks
angrily. at ye don't start for the wa
ter this minute, Liz, yen repent it. i
won'tspare the rod to spile We, as sure
us yer living"
"Nelse Marks is no gentleman and
never will be, nurther," persisted the
child. 81 guess know"
The poor little creature had no small
reason to know the fact so recklessly
asserted, as she had been the especial
target of his unkind pranks and ridi-
cule from the hour she saw him first ;
and ignorant as she was, she felt that
the true gentleman would never waste
his wit on an object so insignificant as
herself.
"What's that the creetur sez?" de-
manded Mrs. Marks.
"Never mind, aunt" returned the
Young man; 81 think | can manage
Miss Impudence.
lie flung aside his cigar and striding
out on the piazza, seized the luckless
child roughly by the arm and thrust
her headong down the steps.
IL think you will go now," he said,
with an unseemly, witless laugh as he
returned 10 his seat.
Little Elizabeth's fall wasslight, and
physically she was unhurt; it was her
undisciplined, resentful human spirit
that suffered.
w'll run away, will" she sobbed,
as she sped out into the black night
like a wounded, haunted animal.
The darkness no longer terrified her,
he no longer feared ghost nor goblins,
nOr did she hear the growing thunder
nor the groaning wind.
AS she ran on, painting and weeping,
she rushed blindly against a gentleman
who was hurrying up the path, and
who instantly caught her in his arms.
The child struggled and shricked
with fright, but he held her fast.
"Why, is 1t really you, childY" he
saidas he recognized her; "whcre were
you going at this time of nightH"
80, Mr.. Raymondw she cried glad
ly, becoming calm Mt once.
And then, while David Raymond lis
tened kindly and patiently, she told
him all her childish trouble, much of
which he already knew, as he was
spending few summer weeks In the
mountain village. and was college
friend of Nelson Marks.
"And so you meant to run away, Eli
zabeth," he observed consolingly.
"That was very wrong and not wise.
You must be patient, little girl. You
must let me take you back to Mrs.
Marks.
She went with him obediently
enough, holding fast his kindly hand
all the way.
Nelson Marks laughed loudly when
he saw them,