Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-07-02
The Lost Letter.

Safely up to his sunset-day.
The Lost Letter.
eff he cannot love me when he hears ]
am poor shop girl, he cannot love me at al"
All very well in theory, but very poor in
practice. fold up Fred Langley's offer of
marriage, and sit down to write him that,
before he makes any further plans, with me
as one of them, he must know that I am one
of those superfluous beings, a girl who came
into this world with no special place pre-
pared for her; that have clerked at Sharp
& Sniper's ever since was seventeen-and
! am now twenty-three; that | have two
young sisters depending on me for support,
growing mp in gawky, illclad ugliness,
shade palmer than myself even.
Some way, when | first met him at that
pleasant summer resort, the first breath had
had out of Sharp & Sniper's store for two
years, was so happy forgot to mention
the scrubbing life I had left behind me at
home, and as ! was sick of poverty and
tbird-rate people, was glad to forget it.
How should he, being man, know that
the dress I wore had been turned twice that
trimmed my bonnet myself that the dia-
mond ring wore | had borrowed from my
married sister, being the unvalued relic Of
some forgotten lover of hers that the beauty
he saw in my face was due to the happiness
in his society? For do think the old say
ing " BE good aud you'll be happy" ought
to be reversed.
How did he know that charming naivete Of
mine was learned trying to induce customers
to buy?
Old Sniper always says, when he expects
to sell a large bill of goods 10 customers
"Let Miss Jo manage him she can smile
the dollars out of his pocket If any one can. /"
So smile and smile, and yet am no vii
lain, for they are enforced and impudent
smiles for bread and butter.
How round and rosy grew in those few
weeks of ecstatic Joy What lovely walks
and rides we had up and down the wood
paths and ravines What charming sails
through the dels, through the Witchs Gulch
and about the Devils Elbow.
How brilliant and agreeable and how hand
some my Fred was Dare / call him my
Fred before he knows that | am clerk al
Sharp & Sniper's2
am no strong-minded woman frankly
confess that do not like to take care Of
myself. l am no clinging vine, however
never had anything to cling to. l have
grown up stiff and straight all by myself
like weed in the middle of bare ten
acre lot.
Perhaps will not make such bad wifi
after all. / am good house-keeper, and
having been no trouble or expense to an,
one since I can remember, do not see VIII,
, should be so very much trouble now, eveI
with my two sisters thrown in for ballast
Still, Fred must know all about the povert,
and membranes, and make up his min'
: accordingly. So waste great many sheet
J of paper writing an answer that shall b
, frank and truthful, and yet ladylike.
, inform him, in my most genteel manner
that he must marry three when he leads m
to the altar
send it off in a pink envelope, my hear
beating a painful tattoo, as think of tn
: elegant sister he has described to me, and @
{ him, rising young lawyer and membe
: of the legislature
/ piece down my sister Sophia's one sun
, mer silk dress for her, that bought at sue
: a bargain, thinking peradventure there ma
be wedding soon. | do not scold Ma
r when she comes home late from the picui
a with my best sash drenched and soake
n through, my lace fichu torn, and her tot
. through both her boots, and creeps into be
= beside me. hug her up into my arms il
r stead with that hungry, unsatisfed longin
i | always have for kisses and caresses bl
a she only says, " You strangle me, 10, yo
n soft, mushy thingl" and moves along out ,
r my reach.
!. My name was never 10, but have alway
q been called this on account of my enforce
d manly accomplishments.
+. For week | sing about the house like
~ lark the next week do not sing so mucf
d the next week do not sing at all, but
A about heavy-eyed and slow, and burst in
,r tears when May sits down to the old, fain
h hearted piano and begins TO storm away
a IL Bacio," Fred's favorite waltz and min
II might have known all the time that
would never answer that letter it has alwa
been my luck. Let me see how many love
have had.
There was one waiting on me when faith
X died of heart disease and left me pennile
ct at seventeen. He came TO see me after t
,e funeral, and told me he had great sympat
a. and respect for me, and that he should nev
ce marry unless it was some poor girl throy
at on her own resources, and with no one
u. take care of her, as he thought that was
IS true way for gentleman to do, and wi
Sc these sentiments he bowed himself out
k, the last time.
at Most heavenly philosophy but then,
fe married the same year the daughter of
Id wealthy BcnlAcudu VIM uoNoi uiu dlytnl
,u harder in her life than to curl her front HI
ld over slate pencils.
ou Then there was the young man who wrt
ee poetry, and threatened to die or shoot hi
us self il | refused him-this was years a
tn He is now in good health and has W
h. and two children; but always hated m
ni- who wrote poetry.
Ist Then there was Judge Featherby.
70 visited me for a year, and told me he loV
or me but something he dignifed by the ma
= of pride forbade him from saying more, a
| have since been heartily glad that he v
ashamed of me. But the thought OF none
these well disposed and settled gentlem
made the non-arrival of that letter any eas
ne for me. ! get weary and cross; my chest
aa getting weak, and get faint and dizzy
as. spells.
ey Some days when stand at the lace col
ne ter waiting upon some fashionable lady "
's' is pricing this and cheapening that, thi
'w shall fall over in dead faint from sh
Dts exhaustion, Women are so much harder