Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-01-02

feet without her garters even, ano
but oning her dress in front as she
run, and right afores all them men
! with her coal black hair streaming
like mermaid's? And she went or
thinking-Aant Lydia did--of the
time the powerful preaching sent q
dagger clear through the stony hear,
OF Anna Maria Myers, and she could
not sleep tor thinking Of the danger
of her.immortal soul, and che got az
and walked the floor with her hands
clinched, till the nails nearly brought
| the blood, and her man couldn't pac-
lify her, and he had to come over in
the blackness of the stormy, moonless
March night, and got second cousin
to 90 over, and converse and pray
with her. And before Sally had come
to the most earnest part, Anna Maria
cried out that she was redeemed and
had found peace. And the very dewf
of despair had gathered on Anna Ma,
ria's forehead, and would have re.
manned there, only for cousins efforts
| in her behalf!
| Yes. cousin was noble woman.
And then when Sally, singing hymn
as she passed the door with the
clothes.basket tilted on her hip, full
and heaped. like a milking pail with
snowy foam, peeped in, then Lydia,
with half smile, said "The first
time you go up stairs, cousin, won't
you please look in the north end Of
my cedar chist, under the snuff color.
ed merino shawl and the embroidered
pillow biers and bring down my
incest patchwork quilt? While I can
not do anything, | can look at it for
company. May be it would be kind
o soothing, and help to pass away the
times" and Lydia pulled her middle
fingers in an embarrassed way, until
she made the knuckles crack.
And second cousin said she would
90 right away and fetch it, that her
work was mono of the hurrin' kind,
that she thought while the hops were
scaldin' and gettin' ready for to make
the Wednesday evenin' emptyin's,
she'd Just sprinkle the duds and put
'em down, so as to iron the next day,
while she tended to the bakin'; that
she might as we'll make one FIRE do
double service-same as to kill two
birds with one stone. That was the
way economizing mother allus did,
and her grandmother before her. That
it was wife's duty TO save all, while
her husband earned.
She brought the patchwork quilt.
1t had been pieced, oh, so long but
never quilted. 1t had happened that
when Lydia had lining, she had not
the wherewith to buy the batting; and
when she had the batting she had not
the lining and somehow one went
before she could get the other Then
even if she had both, why there want
room in second. cousins chamber
/ TO put up qu,;vas.s 1, sauso, e.trss ioalo
it stand, while one quilted feathers
and checks and stars, and plumes,
and herring bone border Why the
little heads would 60 a.bobblng round
under it from Monday morning till
Saturday night! Their regular line
of travel would extend corner wise,
right across the Gambler continually.
That was the way with young ones,
generally, when quilt was in the
| frames.
The first time second cousin went
up into the chamber she brought
down the quilt. Lydia took off the
towel that wrapped it as carefully as
she would have uncovered the face Of
a dead baby.
"Dear, oh, DEAR" she murmured
who'd thought !! 1t most puts the
spring into my ankles to even look at
We, ye old tell-tale ~
There was block of pink cham
brey, a piece of the sunbonuet she
wore the summer that she taught dis.
trict school at the Drift. The Drift
was where the logs, and brush, and
stuff had lodged in the bend of the
creek, and the low little school house
stood under the beeches on the rise
above, and the swish and wash of the
curving, whirling waters sounded dis
tinctly, even at the desk in the far
corner. Lydia slid her rheumaticky
old fingers over and over the pink
chambrey, and she smiled SD broadly
that one could have seen the tooth
way back--the one that ached every
time storm was brewing, either in
the summer or the winter. She re.
membered what compliment the
old pudgy doctor had paid her face
under that sunbonnet he had called
her s'sweet wild ross, the one that
bloomed on the bank above the
Drift" All girls like fiattery, especi-
ally when it is worded in such poet
ical manner, and old men, village
doctors who are used to seeing new
faces every day, know how to say
pretty things, If they are good men.
This purple was of the dress she
had on the day she was examined for
the school certificate !; and how her
heart did beat when she had to step
out and read couple of verses from
the old English Reader, she read from
the Grotto of Antiparos, and her
| UTcdtu WAS never 80 SuoTb anu 81
much needed. And this bit of blue,
oh, my! how she aid hate blue calico!
1t was not proper, but Liza Bennett,
told Lydia once what Ralph Fielding
said the time of Bob Parsons sleigh
ing party--that he'd rather had her,
second cousin Lydia, for his partner
than any girl in Bloom, only that her
bes. dress would be home made plaid
flannel or that everlasting blue calico
that the old man bought at the lake
by the quantity. And that was the
reason Ralph took Hester Burnell te
the party. She had good clothes
Her mother was the only daughter Of
old Sam Bardley, the great stock
dealer, and he was proud of her her
cheeks were like ripe peaches, and shs
could spell every word without miss
ing, from shaker" on through the
"chism table," and the hard words
clear to the 'breviations at the back OIL
the spelling hook. He dressed Hsl
like princess born.
i Aud Lydia lay there and winked
as fast and meanwhile her thoughts
just sailed, and galloped, and flew.
They took in the burdens of the
years agone, like a river would drink