The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1881-08-13

level the day vas mellowing away to ito
close, the sunlight falling upon it like
winnowing grain. Miss Richardson felt
the timid and conAding little touch again,
and turned to meet with her handsome
eyes the wistful, appealing ones looking
toward her.
"Would you let me go into tho dining
room to dinner with you 2" asked the
flute voice, with a trsmolo of apprehen-
sion in it.
"Oh, yes" said Miss Richardson smil-
ing I'D just as lief you would as not
"Oh thank you so much" wns the
reply, after breath of relief. 81 should
never have the courage to go in and eat
alone. The walters are in such hurry,
and don't know where to sit, and l can't
find my own car when I'm ready to come
back"
So it was that Miss Richardson came
to Lave a charge, and, somehow, so much
cliuging timidity opposed to her own in
dependence seemed sort of bond. Be-
fore the second day was out she had CIV
en- her dainty and pretty companion
petting tap or two, short and contented
laughter bubbled up between them, con-
fidential undertones of talk frequently
passed from one to the other, and Miss
Richardson leaned forward and said;
Il haven't any idea what your name is
1 think that it ought to be posy, though >
And then the small woman laughed as
she answered
1T isn't though, It's Martha--Martha
Fairchild."
And then the magnificent, gorgeous,
radiant Kate replied, just as she would
have caressed bird
"Ah and 1 shall call you Martha,
then, shall not?"
Not one dim thought of warming had
she, not single swift feeling of recoil,
not an idea that she was hugging to heart
a rival-she who held sway among men
with waltz, and tete-a-tete, and repartee.
But under the feet of those who tread
volcanoes the ground will sometimes
break ; one cannot forever safely walk
the edge of precipice Thin ice will
part.
They were sitting side by side, as usual,
one evening, the window framed a calm,
mild star, Sitting so silently how
strange if they had known each was say
ing over and over the same name. Tn /,
star was shi ing kindly - shining and
t@inkling like an eye mildly shrewd and
then 1t gave place to another and anoth-
er, till the night sky seemed shaken full
with lustered dust. Presently Miss
Richardson began TO hum little, in her
soft contralto, and Murtha's thread like
soprano took it up like q carol, under a
breath. The men under the dull lamp
in the further end of the car held their
fingers on their cards for moment, and
the fretiul baby ceased its crying. Two
women hushed gossiping and stared, and,
under psetense of a flare, the passing
porter turned down the fame in lamp
while be stopped to listen.
Martha, said Miss Richardson, gent
ly, "where did you learn that? It's such
an old-fashioned, sentimental thing, l
shouldn't wonder if it had been a love
song in rs"
"Oh, yes 1 shouldn't wonder if it had,
l learned it away back in Vermont oh,
how far away that seems now used to
sing it with Richard-but that seems
only yesterday, though it has been years
and years. I've never told you about
Richard-have /? His name is Powers,
and it's he that l am coming to Califor.
MIA to meet A long, long time ago when
I was such little, little girl can hard
ly remember it, some kind of sickness
broke out, and mother and father took il
and died. oan just see mother lying
with white flower in her hand as they
closed the coffin lid, and then in n day oi
two some woman said she wondert d what
was to be done with me- Somehow OF
other got TO grandps's, in among the
little hills, and the cows that gave me
living. Grandpa was just my mother t.
me over again. and there l stayed, anC
was SO happy with him. 1 have always
been a little girl, and l think / shal
never be anything else. When am al
old woman it seems as though / shoulC
still be little girl. How it ali cam,
about never could imagine, but it wa
just as the flowers come up in the spring
and as the fruit gets ripe in the tall
Grandpa said one morning he shoulC
have young man come to help with th,
: milking, and before night knew Rich
ard and, somehow, think must have
been ripening ready to know him. for N,
heart was all open TO him from the first
He came up to me when it was twilight
aud said he "Good-evening, Martha,
and then seemed to fall into flutter
and to feel that he must know it. Oh
never can tell you how Richard seemed
to me. Every night, after that, as / wen
along the meadow path, he came and said
"Good-evening, Mlrtha"-just SO, aud
took TO listening SO hard for his comipl
that my heart hu t me, and beat in m,
/ cheeks and lips. And all the time grand
pa never knew. One day the sky was 81
blue and the air was so sweet ! was Ger
tain that something was going t0shappen
| and whether it was the birds singing o
my heart beating out rhythm do no
, know, but in moment / seemed to b.
standing among the flowers, for Richsrt
: had taken me in his arms.
"Ob, life bad Just begun to me then
and not one day since, not even the da!
grandpa died, has been all sorrow bu
dark days there have been, too, for in
few weeks more my Richard went away
so that bye-and-bye he could afford Il