Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-09-07
The Piece That Was Lost.

There was promise Of capital hay day
so Silas Rogers decided as he stood in the
back porch after milking, polishing bis
face with coarse towel and noting the
weather signs between the rubs. A capital
hay. day; but a spell of weather might
be expected soon; for did not the almanac
say, "about this time look out for storms"
So all hands we're warned to be in readi-
ness to NOW the lower intervale in the
morning and lose no time in getting at it,
| for the lower intervale was Swampy after
rain.
The chores were done, the supper eaten;
Silts, with his chair tilted against the
wall, was sleeping the sleep of the just,
while his good wife pattered about the
kitchen setting the sponge, beating up
some "riz" griddle cakes for breakfast,
| grinding the coffee, and, in dozen provi-
dent ways, squeezing out of the tired day
a little help for the morrow. Reuben
went to the store for new scythe snath {;
| Abner, the hired man. hung over the barn
ward gate with the beloved pipe that tried
he housewives soul, and pretty Mistress
Hetty wrnked her forehead and pricked
her fingers over the new dress she was
trying to make in the few leisure minutes
sn;tItiel IIULu llpuSt"Ol AOuC "a
charming picture in the frame of the vine
wreathed window, her sleeves still rolled
above her plump elbows, the bright hair
drawn back from the rosy face which was
turned full to the lamp as she threaded
her needle, or paused to f1rt some deluded
moth away from the dangerous flame that
fascinated him. A charming picture, but
no one to look at it; for the great Norway
pine held up a screen of solid blackness
between the window and the road. even il
any belated traveller had CHANGED to walk
that way, and only Hettv's white cat
crept steulthily along the top of the garder
fence, with murderons designs upon an
untimely brood of chipping birds in the
currant bushes. Only this - ah, beware
Mistress Hetty! Evil eyes are looking al
YOU; eyes from which heather mother
would cover your face with her hands
and breathe a prayer to break the unhoy
spell they might cast upon you-a WON
ans eyes peering from the thick jungle o.
liacs and syriugas so near it seems AS !
: Hetty must feel them. But Hetty feel:
nothing, sees nothing, but the troublesome
dress; and as the perplexing rutfles art
conquered one by one, her heart grow
light, the little frown smooths away, anC
: Hetty begins to sing. What a sweet voic'
she has! 1t reaches the tired mother ant
liohtens her heart, too. 1t wakes hel
father, and then luls him pleasantly t.
sleep again. Now Abner hears it an
draws his hickory shirtsleeve across hi
ewes and that watcher in the green tangl
who can guess what she thinks or feel
5 as she sinks down with her chin upon he
3 hands, and her face quite in the dark, an
D listens to the pathetic story of "The Nine
g ty and NinePn Hetty herself is no; ha
o conscious of the pathos with which sh
5 bewais the lost one,
Away on the mountains bleak and bare,
Away from the tender Shepherds care"
and goes on through the tender story t
}. the final rejoicing, when the Shepher
i brings back his own. She is still hun
!. ming it fitfully over and over, when be
4 mother opens the door of the keepin
g room and bids her go to bed and not rui
r. her ewes with sewing by lamp-light.
. Just "a minute" says Hetty; "as 500
"a | finish this sleeve" And the minute
!. Glide on and on, the sleeve Is finished, hel
n 1p ,and admired, and Mistress Hetty too
;, off her shoes and slips softly up stairs t
% bed. She does not even close the window
What should come into the house unbidde
q save the cat and the cool night air? Every
h thing is silent. The mother bird brood
n her little ones securely unconscious OF I'll
e cruel eyes near by, until Reuben come
:, whstling along the road. and, boylik'
h stops to shy a stone st the tempting whit
Id mark on the garden fence; the prowl'
IS leaps away with long bounds over the W,
grass, and tragedy is aVerted' with notl