The Princeton union., 1881-04-28
A DARK DAY.

"A DAhh LA L.
Hetty Lockwood sat at the open win
dow-a big basket of undarned stockings
by her side, copy of the last
magazine on the table close by, while
within reach a bright butterfly lowered
about newly-opened honeysuckle grow
ing against the window. The spring
breeze breathed balmily into the apart
ment, filling her senses with delicious
dreaminess, and her eyes wandered visit
fully out beyond the shaded village
street to the green fields and budding
willows bordering the sparkling river.
On morning such as this who could
endure to stay in doors? Who could
endure to sit quietly down and darn
stockings?
A girlish voice aroused Hetty. Look
ing from the window she saw Susie Lake
leaning on the little front garden gate.
"Oh, Hetty, do come and walk with
me down to Aunt Ellen's. The morning
is lovely, and I have something to tell
you."
II am afraid I can't, Susie. It is
Saturday, you know, and I am sewing
and watching baby asleep, while mother
is in the Kitchen"
"Then Twill have to tell you now, I
suppose"
She came close under the window,
and said, with mischievous smile:
"Whom do you think l saw just now,
Hetty?"
II don't know who. The new min
lister ?"
"No, indeed somebody very differ
ent from that fat, red-faced old codger."
returned Susie, irreverently.
"Oh, Susie, but who was it?"
"Now, it was MI. Walter Hayes.
Now, amt you surprised?"
A vivid blush dyed Hetty's fair face.
She made no reply, and Susie contin-
ued
-, - His employer, Mr.. Mitchell, sent him
on business from Philadelphia to g
and, as this wasn't much out of the way
OF his home, they give him leave to stop
here for day or two, so he told me
when I met him just now. He arrived
only an hour ago, in the stage from
Cox's Station, and that is how came
to see him before you did, Hetty," she
added, laughingly. . -.
She passed on, leaving Hetty with
flushed cheeks and frightened eye. No
wonder. For more than year past the
thought of Walter Hayes had been the
brightest spot of her life. One year ago
he had stood at that same little green
garden gate, in the moonlight, bidding
her good-by before going away to the
great city to seek his fortune. She re-
membered the warm, lingering clasp of
his hand, and how he had said to her.
IN a voice that was low and trembling ::
You must not forget me, Hetty. I
shall always think Of you, Hetty, and
when I come back"
And just then her mother had come
on the porch and called her in out of the
damp air, and so he had left her reluct-
antly. But now he had come back and
she would see him to-day,
II do declare, Hetty.s exclaimed her
mother, bustling into the room, flushed
from her pie-baking, "you are the lazi-
est girl l ever saw. Here you've been
upward OF an hour darning one pair of
stockings What have you been
about? Dreaming away your time as
usual, no doubt, and with all the chill
dren's Sunday clothes to look over and
lay out for tomorrow, beside the Satur-
days chores"
Hetty penitently resumed her work !;
but she was very glad when toward SUM-
set it was all done, and she had leisure
to run up to her own little room, and
never in her life had she taken such
pains with her appearance rs now.
How anxiously she listened for the
expected ring ut the front door. How
TN 1x,
length, it came, and how heavy it sank
when old Deacon Brown stalked in to
discuss some church matters with her
father. Then she began to look at the
clock, and her heart grew fainter and
fainter as she saw it travelling slowly
around to o'clock. In Riverside they
Kept early hours, and when, at quarter
OF 9, Deacon Brown took leave, Hetty
also rose, and, lighting her bedroom
candle, went slowly and sadly up stairs
When, next morning, she came down,
her mother remarked, as she busted her
self about the breakfast table:
"Hetty, Walter Hayes was here last
night"
"Oh, mother!"
There was something almost pathetic
in the look and tone, but Mrs. Lockwood
was too busy with the steaming coffee
pot to perceive it.
He came in just as you had gone up
stairs" she continued. "He asked for
you, but it was so late I thought it
hardly worth while to call you back
again. He had been seeing Miss
Mitchell home to her aunt's- that Phila-
delphia girl, you know, and didn't know,
until he mentioned it, that she was niece
OF his employer, Mr.. Mitchell. He is
certainly improved. To my mind there
is nothing like city life for giving people
what they call style now. Make Ed