Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-05-28

She was sitting over the embers on New
Years Eve, after her usual desponding way,
and Susan, her maid and companion was
washing the dough off her hands from the
batch of bread Just set to rise when there
came ring ut the door bell tinid
hesitating little ring much like the touch that
slight earthquake gives n bell. It was an
earthquake in Miss Sophias life, that bell
ring a convulsion of nature. Who could be
pulling at the bell at this hourl It was
something that had never happened before in
the world Directly afterward the timid
touch was followed by a peal that rung
through every room in the house, and Susan
put her face into the parlor doorway as white
as clay.
Miss Sophia was equal to the emergency
She slipped of her shoes and crept up stairs
to get her revolver. 1t is true that it had
been loaded for half score of years and no
power of hers could have brought the rusty
implement even to lalf-cock but it was a
Gatling in her estimation; and. coming
down, With Susan trembling at her back, she
suddenly threw open the front door and pre-
sented arms-to vacancy. Not soul was to
be seen in the clear moonlight Up and
| down, and far and wide, as she peered out
and about, no shadow disturbed the serenity
of the night what in the world did it
mean Is the house going ,to be haunted
Duhhn NAltu lllnh Dolhlus anu Altl btI
eyes fell on little bundle at her feet, little
white bundle that, as she touched it with one
OF those feet in some dim fancy as to Internal
machines, all at once gave muffied wall,
that might have pierced a heart of stone, and
from which she sprung back from burst
ing shell. A baby No internal machine
could have wrought more CONSERVATION,
more havoc than that sound did in Miss So
phia's mind. But, after all, she heroically
stopped to examine the article.
You'll be taking your death O. cold,
Miss :" exclaimed Susan, with her long ac-
customed familiarity and she had the bun
die by the fire in the parlor, and the door
shut and barred again in another moment.
DO you suppose it really is a baby, Su-
san - asked Miss Sophia, bending over Su-
san rs she sat on the rug, undoing the par
Gel.
"What else should it be, ma am :" replied
Susan stripping off roll after roll, as Miss
| Sophia watched her, feeling, she knew not
why, some sense of assisting at the myster-
les of creation, aud of importance at having
been selected, rather than Miss Brownell,
perhaps, while as Susan opened the last fold,
and began rubbing the little bare thing with
her hand, the atom Of a creature, warmed
with the friction aud the blaze, stretched all
its dilnpled limbs, and smiled in her face
great rosy, blue eyed smile, with the tear up
on the cheeka cherubic smile, that woke
every tender chord in Susans being.
Miss Sophia, she cried, If you don't
adopt this baby, | shall"
Adopt baby, Susan - cried Miss So
| phia starting back in horror.
YES, ma'am. Adopt baby. This baby
But Susan began Miss Sophia, AS if en-
tirely agreeing with the man who thought it
best to reason with mule, nobody does
| eurh "a thing II isn't rgsIpptall44 -
Goodness gracious, Miss Sophia As if
at our time of life we'd stop for that -
But, besides, it's the child of wicked peo-
pie, and would only grow up wicked, and
break our hearts"
"Td risk it..
And in my health How can you be so
| heartless Susan, ~
"Itn cure you, said Susan, stoldly.
They always send them to the almshouse,
| Susan. You must run right out and find one
| of the selectmen.'
"Selectmen are all abed this time of night
Miss You'll have to keep it any way till
morning, or we'll be took up for murder.
And if you keep it till morning. you may as
well keep it always-the dear little creetur."
Susan - cried her mistress, Il do believe
| you're crazy"
mo more'n you be. Not bit of it ="
| cried Susan with sudden vehemeuce, her lit
| tie black eyes swapping like Prince Rupert
drops. I'm healthy, hard working wo-
man. I've never married but I've always
though I'd like to marry wdower with IA
baby. for the sake of the baby. l amt no
opinion of men but could a stood him for
! the sake of the baby. And Low here's the baby
| without the widower IcallitA lcadin' o Proyi-
| dence II you take it, it's all the same to me,
Us / shan't never leave you But if you won't,
Miss why | can earn enough for It's little
bite and sup with my two hands, and I'll
| keep it in the kitchen"
Il couldn't think of such a thing gasped
| Miss Sophia. Sick, and old and alone, aud
the work and worry and trouble for some
body else's-"
You just hold it minute, Miss, said
| Susan, rolling some of the wrapping round it
| again, while l get n sip of milk"
The top of the milk, Susan said Miss
| Sophia, lifting the tiny weight to her shoul-
der like piece of egg shell china.
"Yes'm, | know. One third cream and
two-thirds water. I've had 'em on my hands
before this.
And when Susan came back, having been
| gone an interminable period, preparing food
also for the night, she found Miss Sophia
nodding in the big chair, with the bit of n
face smuggled up under her chin, as if she
had always been used to it,
II guess I'll have it sleep with me tonight,
Susan said Miss Sophia, after some hesita-
| ton.
IAN right ma'am."
''You don't suppose I'd be likely to smoth-
er it,"
''Pooh just wait till blow up the fire
| in your stove. This is what | call watching
the new year in to some purpose. It's the
little New Year himself ~
And when Miss Sophia went to sleep, that
haa ba kala
against her own, aud woke up in the middle
of the night, with the glow of the fire on the
ceiling it seemed as if the room was full OF
| angels and that this was what she had been
waiting for, all her life.
Il guess Susan, said Miss Sophia, as she
came down with her wide awake little bundle
| in the early New Years morning, that We
won't do anything about seeing the select
men to-day. It's New Years, you know"
Susan had Just come in with pair of knit
shirts in her hand, for which she had Just
run down to Miss Threadneedle's while her
fires were kindling.
jess you say" she said, readily. "And,
perhaps when it's gone to sleep, you'll cut
out some little things for me to run up on
| the machine. 1t ought to have its bath pret-
| ty soon" And the scene of that bath, with
| thermometer and hot blankets, and the two
women swelling with importance, in mortal
] terror of pulling the little limbs out of joint
and in ecstacies of admiration over the perfec-
ton of the miniature body, the eonvolutions
of the ears, the transparency of the tiny nails
upon the tiny toes, the roars of the victim
aud the hushing between whiles, as the wet
ting and wiping. aud powdering and polish
ing proceeded by piecemeal, is something
that defes description.
Breakfast being over, and Miss Sophia sit
ting by the fire again, with the dreaming in
FAINT on her knees, watching ntenty certain
premonitory symptoms she suddenly set up
a cry that made Susan jump.
"Oh Susan! Susan Oh do look here I!
she cried What can it be:' Aud she threw
up her hands and dropped her knees, as if
the little thing squirming on her lap were a
spider, and she wished to shake it OF
"Lor, ms'sm, youllhave itin the fire next"
cried the learned Susan It's wind. They