Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-02-13
MISS BERTHA,s VlLENTINE

should fail her, and pitied her in that easy
going way which subtracts nothing from the
pocket but leaves residue of sclf-satisfac-
tion in the conscience, while they paid as lit
tie for her services as they could help. But
Miss Bertha never grumbled she put as ma
ny stitches and as much eyesight into the fine
sewing as if she had been paid a ducat for
every stitch. 1t was her way never TO slight
any thing But sewing was not the only oc-
cupaton in which she oxcelled. If any poor
struggling mother with little children tod
ding about her fell ill., Miss Bertha quilted
her needle into her cushion and stepped into
the breach when watchers failed, Miss Ber
tina came to the front and when the small
pox visited the little seaport Of Great Her
riugton, It was she who went about from
house TO house, giving draughts and doses,
comforting the dying and making the last
ghastly toilette for the dead.
what does it matter to me p she said,
when some one oxpostulated at the risk.
There's nobody in the wide world to mind
whether / live or die I'm the light Of no
body's eyes, and as for disfgurement-law
| left of caring for my good looks, such rs
they were, twenty years ago. Time was
when I should have been as scared as any of
you about being marked and losing my com
pltxion, but it doesn't signify in the least
now. If were ugly as nightmare, folks
would give me their sewing to do just the
same, ] suppose"
"Oh, but / should hate TO be SO disfgured
that Sam wouldn't like to look at me :" said
Sue Blair, all pink and white, and eighteen,
with the world before her.
81 dare say but there's no Sam to care
whether I'm fright or not; - and Miss Ber-
tha drew in her breath with quick gasp, as
il the fact hurt her
''You don't know, Miss Bertha" laughed
giddy Sue; your Sam may be on the road
to you"
"a precious long road"
"Why, Aunt Janet was old as the hills be-
fore she married Uncle Artemas, and Parson
Chapelrs second wife was no chicken. Every
body has chances, they say"
"Yes, l suppose every body has chances
but some of them are mighty small-hardly
worth calculating she answered.
Miss Bertha, TO be sure, never accepted
any thing but thanks for these services in the
sick room indeed, few dreamed Of offering
any remuneration. One might suppose that
the universe had provided her for their bene-
fit, along with seed time and harvest, the
common air and other common blessings for
which nobody was expected TO render any
return other than to make use of them. Her
neighbors staid at home, sitting with burned
birthstone and a camphorated atmosphere,
and yet caught the infection, while she walk
ed abroad in the thick Of it, Sinking moth
ing and came out like those holy men from
the fiery furnace, uuscathed yet more or less
reduced in finances. She was q cheerful
body and doubtless sent TO carry warmth
and healing into the sick-room. But poor
Miss Bertha had not always been old and use
ful and thoughtful for others.
'You must have been pretty once that
needless chatterer Sue Blair, had said to her
one day.
"what makes you think so p asked Ber-
thn lifting her faded eyes to the mirror.
1T is like tracing the existence of the extinct
mcgntherium from footprint in the rock"
But Sue spoke truly. Bertha had been
fair in her day the hair that was white as
new-fallen snow had once been brown and
bonuy the eyes, which to-day were suuken
and pale had looked out ike lucent beryls
from under dark lashes: time and toll and
trouble had robbed the satin skin of its fine
texture, and scanned it with many a line lit
tie of youth remained to her but heart alive
TO generous impulses. and the color that still
burned in her checks in spite of the frosts of
her forty odd winters Yet, Miss Bertha had
had her hoyday Miss Johnson the squire's
daughter, who lived in the finest house in
Great Harrington, and wore silks that could
stand alone and sable cloaks reaching to her
heels who ate of French china every day
anu Ahh never huph II uhl II was 10 0untI
from hunger, cold, or fatigue, who had new
er had sorrow or lover-even she might
have envied poor Miss Bertha those halcyon
days when Angus Aiken loved her when they
walked together in the moonlit gardens in
their English home, and sat beside the foun-
tans, aud listened to the silvery monotone
like some gentle voice complaining. No
doubt Miss johnson would have bartered all
her dry goods and imported fnery for an ex-
perience as rich as this of her elderly seam
stress, about whom no romance seemed to
linger. To be sure every body in Great Her
rington knew that after the visitation of the
smallpox Parson Chapel had invited Miss
Bertha to share his temporal blessings which
consisted of a small salary and four mischiev-
Gus boys with torn jackets and dirty faces.
The parson wanted n housekeeper," the
neighbors agreed. "Of course man of his
age don't fall in love like boy-with an old
maid, too, Seems as though she must have
thought he'd ask again-with a house all car
peted from garret to cellar, and the gentry in
his gates, so to speak l wonder what Miss
Bertha expects-at her time of life too-when
offers of marriage aren't rs plenty as wrink-
les"
But Miss Bertha expected nothing. There
was that in her history which she would not
exchange for the kingdoms of the earth and
the glory thereof the dust of twenty years
had in no wise tarnished the brightness of it,
She had her anniversaries which no one reck-
oned but herself delicious anniversaries of
half-guessed happiness days full of sun
shine and the music of the spheres dark
and cruel days, when the clouds that
threatened showed no silver Innings. On
such a morning, so many years ago, Angus
and she had gone out to gather spring flow
ors, and the wood had been full of spicy
odors, aud the pale bloodroot was waiting for
them, its petals all on tiptoe at such anoth-
er date they listened TO the nightingale's fut-
ing, while the stars stole out as if to listen
with them, and the new moon hung q golden
bow low in the heavens and she had asked,
"Do you never wish by the new moon, An
gus ?" Never" he had answered "but l
shall tonight l shall wish that you may love
me forever aud ever" And then he had
kissed her, and "the nightipgales kept fut-
ing" There was that day in June which
should have been their wedding day and the
time when he kissed her last, under the gold
en- labuTuum tree and then that dreadful
morning when her father came home, black
as a thunder-cloud, and swore she should
never marry the son of the man who had ru-
inCd him, who had robbed him of the inven-
ton into the perfection of which he had put
all his money, his hopes, and his energies for
years Bertha had refused to renounce her
lover on account of his fathers wrong; there
had followed scene then her father had
seemed to soften, and had travelled to Lon
don with her to talk the matter over with
lawyer She had been glad enoughto go, for
was not Angus somewhere in the great throng
of London at his work would not she be
sure to meet himY But the day after they
reached the big noisy city her father had
taken her out and on board a ship, sight-see-
ing and suddenly, while she looked and lis
tened and wondered and talked with the cap
tain-who was in the secret--suddenly the
shoe, the masts, the steeples, began to re-
cede, and they were standing out to sea,
bound for America. Oh, what long and
hateful voyage it was how she longed for
the sight of Angus to say just one parting
n.ord 10 tau hin, n Nyae M fault of hars aud