Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-03-22
VOL. XXXIX.

| w uaJ uhNC you DtGu uOluS All Iuls
time? said Prudence severely.
i was only giving Joe some good ad-
vice.
well. I hope he will profit by it
so do L. said Dora heartily.
'Tis rs easy to say seven years as one ;
and we read Of jacobs seven years. SER
vice for Rachel, which seemed as ono day
for the love that he. bore her. Rachel's
feelings are not thought worthy to be
mentioned in Holy Writ, but if her love
was like Dora's, every day seemed seven
wears. And here in a nutshell, lies the
difference between a mans love and a
woman's.
Jacob had the lheep to mind, and he
did mind them uncommonly we'll. Joe
went to seek his fortune in new scenes,
and only thought of Dora when he had
nothing else to do. The poet thought he
had set n hard task 10 men when he
said:
Learn to labor aud to watt"
but it is immeasurably harder to be idle
than TO wait.
Till her lover went away, Dora had
never cared to ask herself whether she
was a child or woman. Sunshine had
been plenty with her, and she had eagerly
sugared and gilded the plain things that
farm life afforded her.
Before the first day came to an end, she
felt that she soon should arrive at patri
archal age if she did not do something to
kill the time that died so hard on her
hands.
Teach school! guess not said her
father, when she broached her plan to
him.
You amt starving yet; and if you want
some new furbelows Just say so, and not
come at it slanting-ways like that
Il don't want anything, father, but
there is so little to do at home
! Nonsense In my time gals was always
full of business. Cant you make sheets
and pillow cases and get ready to be mar
ried? Who knows but somebody will ask
YOU one of these days. I'd rather teach
school, father
WAL. waal, folks can't always have
their'd rathers in this world. amt will
ing, and that is the end Of it,
Every week she walked to the post
Office, but no letter came.
But this was not the end of it. and Dora
easily obtained school. She developed q
governing talent which charmed the COM
mittecmen, and the congenial labor in the
company Of little children took her three
miles away to ask for letter, going In
with bright flush on either cheek, and
coming out pale and dull-eyed after the
stab of disappointment. / wonder that
people in the country arc so anxious to be
postmaster; IL they only knew it they are
actors in moro ira agedic5 than any member
in theatrical stock company. Much
sealed happiness passes through their
hands; but they have to refuse many q
Mariana in tho Moated Grange, weary
women who reach q hand out Of their dull
lives for letter and draw it back empty
1t was far into the second year when
Joc's first letter came. 1t was surely a
fanciful and foolish thing for school
mistress to do, but Dora carried it to her
own little room and put on the red dress
before she read Joo's letter.
Joe was working in the mines Of Col
orado. His luck had not come, in nuggets
at least, but hard work and sober living
wcro slowly giving him the advantage
over the other miners. lie was never SO
well and he loved her better than all the
world.
Dora lived on this letter for many weeks,
uuu SuD sat NOlOlduC lOL ~ COpI SO Ollbu
to her scholars that they will write the
word bettor than any other to their dying
day.
Letters came ofener rs years drew on
sometimes Joe was up in the world, some
times down; once his carefully boarded
gold was stolen from him; and he had to
begin over again; but that was nothing to
a long illness, in which friend wrete to
Dora as soon as Joe was out of danger.
Then Dora envied the doves their wings.
New Years day was the hardest to
bear. She could not help strong pres.
sure of excitement when she put on the
: red dress, which grew more and more old
fashioned, and watched the sun 60 down
on the road Joe must travel when he
should come home. The next morning
she fitted her shoulders sadly to the burden
Of another year.
One young farmer after another found
his way to the old farm house on Sunday
: evenings, and Dora pushed them down an
inclined plano of encouragement 50 gent
ly that they scarcely knew whether they
|. had meant to court her no not. 1t was not
the least of her trials to meet the entreaties
of her mother and the rough arguments
of her father, when one or two more per-
: sistent suitors would take nothing less than
no for their answer.
Dora would give no reason for repeated
refusals to marry, only she loved no one
well enough-a reason which would be all
sufficient if parents remained Immortality
p young. but it loses weight after sixty.
! As the seventh year drew to close, Do.
ras heart beat light within her. Joe had
mentioned seven years, as if he had meant
to come homo then, at any rate. She wore
out the first day of the glad New Year
with busy cares till late in the afternoon
, when an old man spent with much walking
! stopped to rest himself in the farm house
kitchen. Prudence bestirred herself to give
= him hearty luncheon, and when he was
: warmed and fed he began to talk of his
travels. lie had been seeking his fortuHc
u all over the west, and never finding it had
a come back to die at home lie mentioned
y Colorado and Denver, and when Dora
c found herself alone with him for moment
she said, E Did you see Joseph Raymond
= in Denver?'
e Joe Raymond? Oh yes. l knew him
I we'll; lived with him on to month. Iii:
y wife was real good cook; couldn't be
i, beat in them parts
u You say he was married9'
To be sure; a right smart feller, ant
7 mighty fond Of his wife. Women art
u scarce out there
Prudence camo in and tho old man wen
on his way. all unconscious of the grea
c stonc he had east into tho still wavo 0
, Dora's heart.
What is the mattcr?' said Prudence
Won arc aS white as a sheet
3 Dora's only answer was to start out O
the house and run as for her life dowi
the frozen orchard path, by which sh,
y could gain upon and overtakc this terribl
a a old man. She might have said, with ho
IL ly Ilcrbcrt:'
My tho'ts arc all a case of knives,
u Wouuding my heart
With scattered emart,
only misery must have time to crystalliz
p into memory before it takes the form O
n poetry. She stood before the old man a
the turning bare.headed and breathless
d How did the Joe Raymond look that yo
Is lived wilhP' gasped Dora.
l. Il never said Joe Raymond said tn
y old man neevishlv. II said lin Ioa