Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-05-10
NO. 115.
Gales ano skettbes.
CARRIE FAME.
~ MARY y. PRESCOTT.
Confined from Yesterday

"IIey? what did you say" asked Mi
Parrott, waking suddenly. What ha, ,e
YOU there, Caroline Fame ?''
'Iour last will and testament" ar
swered Carrie. picking it up.
My last will and ties amento Have
yon been ransacking my things before tie
breath Is ont Of my body? Put it away.
safely"
Il mean to; I'm going to put it in the
fire"
And take the bread out of Your mouth
Don't be an idiot. girl. Lock it up and
put the key under my pillow. III see
Lawyer Equity in the morning. There,
good night. Burn it, To be sure, What
fire bonfire il would make Houses and
what not swept away in single night by
the devouring element! It's safe with old
Equity if he is slow coach There,
shall 20 to sleep. now"
While she dozed off again, Carrie held
the will In the reviving blaze till it drop
ped into shreds and ashes upon the hearth.
And crouching beside it till the brands
were cold and the gray dawning looked in
at the easement, trying to follow the
tangled clew of right and wrong, to justi-
ty error, to make sure that her motives
were unselfish-that she needed the money
not so much lor her own comfort as for
poor mamma, who had struggled
bravely through years of poverty, and
merited iustice-wondering how it would
seem to have enough to keep the wolf
from the door. since, after all. this would
enttle her mother to share her grandfath-
er's estate alike with the other heirs of
Miss Parrott-wondering if the one whom
DIR. Gilbert was going to marry would
have resisted such temptation. or if he
would have loved all the same-till her
brain seemed reelng, for retribution had
fairly overtaken her. The king snail
have his own again - she cried, rising at
length, benumbed and shvering
Had any one spoken, or was it the echo
Of her own voice through the silent cham
ber' Miss Parrott was sleeping-the
sleep of the Just, shall we say?
"lou have been watching all night ?''
asked DIR. Gilbert, when he came softly
into the rOom after hasty summons, re-
garing her haggard air, her languid
movements. the dullness of her eyes, and
the pallor of her face white to the lips.
Il had been up she answered, mot
watching. | was-l was busy that was
all
"Ilad she seemed worse after | left
Did you have any reason to expect
change ?''
NO she was somewhat confused at
one time, when she walked suddenly; but
that often happens
The ashes and Scorched fragments of
the will We're scattered upon the hearth.
stone when he had passed down stairs,
she gathered them hastily and hid them
away.
Il wouldn't have thought that Carrie
set so much by old lady Parrott'' said
Mrs. Stare to DR.. Gilbert after having
been over to condole, in neighborly
fashion. Though felt sight more like
offering congratulations. she confessed.
''She sat there with sort of an absent
look in her eye, and when you spoke to
her it was rs if her mind had been PLAYING
truant thousand miles away. If She had
poisoned the old lady she could not have
looked more wretched. I've heard say
that moneys mighty unsettling. Maybe
they've told that there amt any will to be
found? Mrs. Fame shares her grandfath-
er's means with all those hussies, who
haven't right to Il red cent
They have told me nothing said the
doctor, who was puzzled himself by Car
rie's mood.
You We're very fond of Miss Parrott? ?"
he ventured to say, when they met again
"No, answered Carrie, honestly and
briefly. aS if the subject were dismissed.
"WaS it the near neighborhood of
death, he asked himself (which lent her
that distraught air. that frozen. mpassiye
gaze, rs if the objects of to-day passed be-
fore the retina without impresSing them
| al hnI 1f
den possession wrought the strange spell ?''
Whatever the cause, she grew daily
more reserved aborbed one needed to
address her twice before claiming her at
tenion. \ deep unnatural color burned
upon her checks, or left them white as
snow her eyes grew hollow and glitter
ing, and month from the date of Miss
PARROTS death DIR Gilbert found her in a
high fever.
1.-The king shall have his own again.
she muttered, looking into his face with
no answering recognition. 1T was all your
own, YOU know-no harm done. Oh those
ugly beads. How bio they've grown rs
biz a, cannon balls, They will crush me
to death don't let them, Pick them up.
How it blazed, too. pretty bonfire, by my
! life, Mammals grandiathers. There
they come again, those beads, yellow as
gold. Take them away; they're like II
milestone about my neck. don't want
them; want nothing only sleep.
Poor child thought the doctor,
good fortune has worked her i'll. Miss
Carrie, will YOU drink this-for me ?''
''For You cup of poison? Oh, DR..
Gilbert with a gleam of intelligence,
quickly fading away. Would the woman
he lDves have done so it it had been her
gre -grandiather'>? Would he have
loved her Just the same? Just bit of
paper to make all this coil If tell Aunt
Parrott when she wakes, she will see her
mistake and do better. How cold she is /!
Aunt Parrot, speak. speak. speak Oh,
the beads II tell him he will hate me,
despse me,',
And so, day after day, with occasional
CLEANS of consciousness, with confused
mutterngs and references to some harras-
sing care, ut which DIR. Gilbert could only