The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-05-20
A Slice of Bread and Butter,

-" Dorothy-Dorothy Valdez cried
Miss Lorinda Cross ("crOss by name
and cross by nature,"the children
yes, and many of the grown ups-of the
neighborhood declared her), as she
pounced upon the huge loaf of bread
which she had taken from the oven
and put into the big stone crock only
half an hour ago, just before she
turned her neutrality-suspicious. back
on the kitchen. to stalk to the garret
after :" that idle hussy, Molly"-the
maid of all work" who had been
twice as long as she ought to have
been IN liking the beGs there"
said the huge loaf. | should have
said half the huge lo"f, for only that
proportion OF the newly baked bread
remained.
"Dor-o-thy Waldo o.om again
cried Miss Cross, in an ascending
scale, with an oninous tremoio on the
last note.
Yes, aunt" replied sweet, fresh
voice; and p city young girl came in
from the garden, with basket OF
cherry-red currants in her hand.
A tiny thing she was, with round,
dimpled, rosy face, innocent child-like
blue-gray eyes, and fair hair, some
short tresses of which had escaped from
the braid into which they had been
bound, and were making a delightful
use of their freedom by curling in the
most charming manner about the low
frank brow and little pink tipped ears.
About "sweet SIXTEEN" stranger
would have pronounced her; but
Dolly, as her youthful companions,
much to the disgust of her aunt Lor.
india, called her, was older than that
by year and a half.
An orphan at the age of twelve, she
had been left to the care of the only
relative she knew, her mothers eldei
sister-a woman nard il speech anC
manners. and anything but soft in
heart This maiden lady soured ir,
revocably on her twenty fourth birth.
day. which should have also been hel
wedding day; but at the very moment
she was fastening the orange blossoms
in her hair, had come the news that
her betrothed had eloped with the
girl-friend she had chosen for her
bridemaid. Lorinda tore the bridal
wreath into frag nents, and sea tered
it to the winds; never mentioned the
false pair from that hour, banished for.
ever all the womanly grace and tender
SIS she had ever possessed (truth to
tell, she had never possessed much), and
became the hardest worker of her sex
that ever worked upon a farm. In a
mans boots, coat and hat, early and
late, hot or cold, wet or dry, with sci
mouth, lowering brow and silent ,ips
she toiled side by side with her sturdy
old father, until the day he was struck
down by the pitiless sun, and died .
few hours after died just in time tC
be saved the pang OF hearing that hi:
youngest and iavorite daughter was
lying at the point of death, widowed
and friendless, in far-away city
Lorinda buried her father-if she wept
for him, none saw her-promoted q
man who had been long in his employ.
ment to the position she used herse!
to occupy, and started for her sisters
bedside. When she returned to Fern.
vile again she brought dear little
fair-haired, soft eyed Dorothy with her
and some OF her neighbors lancied
that since that time she had been a shade
less stern; but if she had been, it was
SO slight shade That it was almost i'm.
possible TO perceive it. True, she did
less out-of-door work, and devoted part
of the time thus saved to TEACHING her
niece to sew and cook and churn. and
other like mplishments; but new, :
were the lessons accompanied NV an
approving smile or kindly word. much
less loving kiss. Even to the gentle
winning child, Lorinda Cross remained
a cold, stern woman. But Dorothy
God bless her! was so sunny in dispo.
sition that the stern ways and darl
face Of her aunt could not cloud hel
young life. And though shut out from
that infiexible wOman's heart, she founC
the doors of all other hearts open t
her. The dogs, the cats, the hens, tn,
chickens, the horses, the cows, tht
calves, the very geese, regarded hel
with alteration. The farm laborer
blessed her pretty face whenever sh,
came among them; and as for Molly
Ioor hard-woTked Mollyi-she woul'
have kissed the ground the little fee
trod upon.
What wonder, then, that Dan Howell
the young surveyor, VINO lived half &
mile away, in the old stone co ltage, anC
whom she had known from the very
nrst day of her arrival in Fernyili,
(when he, then tall, bright-eyed bo,
OF fifteen, passing her aunt's gate, anS
seeing the sad-looking little girl, in Lel
black dress, standing by It, silentl,
offered her the prettiest white rabbi
she had ever seen-a rabbit he had beer
coaxing Abner Brown for q month pss