Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-05-11

weeks had accomplished but she often re
marks that since Harrie must marry somebody
| land pretty girls generally do), she is awfullJ
| glad that she chose sensible young man like
Nel.-Rose Hart,rick Thorpe.
MATTIE'S TROUBLE.
"And must live here always ?" said Mat
tie Fox, despairingly, as she clasped her hands
on the low ledge of the open window.
"Here" was no earthly elysium, to be sure
A lonely farm house, perched half way up 4
desolate mountain whip-poor,,wills moaning
on the edge of the woods owls hOOting sol
emnly by the lake ;mournful winds sourgine
around the tree-tops, like the rush of an un.
seen garment-all this was so different from
the crowded city life to which she had been
hitherto accustomed And even as the tears
Of vague homesickness rose to her eyes, the
voice of the old farmer and his wife, in the
room below, rose audibly up through the stove.
pipe hole, which had not yet been sealed up for
the summer months.
"What are you going to do with her ?'' said
Mrs Fox.
''We must do the best we can," said Elihu,
her husband. "She's my brothers orphan
daughter, and she's got nowhere else to CO."
"And why, in the name of goodness" quer-
ulously demanded Mrs. Fox, "couldn't she
SIdy WllEl6 Suc was, lllSUSdu VI luDulllS OuV
here and taking US all by surprise 20
ssI amt clear about all that myself, Rhoda.
But as nigh as 1 can calculate she's been dis
app'inted in love. She was a shop-girl, Rho
da, don't you know and it seems there was
genteel young man used to come there to
buy neckties and ribbons, and sich fol-de-rols.
And this girl, she s'posed he was dead in love
with her, and all of sudden it come out as he
had another sweetheart, as he was goin' to be
married to this very next week."
ssBless and save us ?" said Mrs Fox.
While Matte, sitting silently by the win
dow as if she had been frozen into stone, felt a
peculiar sensation of dull curiosity to hear
what would come next, as if all this were spo-
ken about some other person, entirely different
to herself.
"And she is proud girl, Matte is" slowly
went on honest Elihu. cit runs in the Foxes
to be proud and she won't stay there to be
jeered and made fun Of by the other shop girls.
So she come here because she had no other
place to come to and that is all that know
about it. guess we'd better see if the doors
and windys is all safe and 60 to bed for it's
past ten, and them haying hands will be here
afore daylight, to see about cuttin' that twelve
acre medder.''
Mrs. Fox had a talk with her niece the next
''Mattie," she said, Pm going to show you
how to bake apple-pies, this morning because
if you stay here, Of course you will want to
make yourself useful"
"Of course" said Matte, listlessly.
"And as it happens, hain't no girl" went
on Mrs. Fox and there's the work people,
and my summer boarders are coming next
month"; .- .-..... ...
Summer boarders ?" Matte lovked up
quickly, with red flush overspreading her
cheek. She had come here for solitude, for
rest, for utter isolation; and now, almost be-
fore she had unpacked herlittle trunk, horde
of city fashionables would be upon her. On
Aunt Fox, do you keep summer boarders ?''
Every summer of my life," said Mrs. Fox,
briskly. "They comes in July, and mostly
goes away in September, with the first frost.
There amt many ways for US to earn bit of
spending money, you know, Matte; and, of
course, if you help me shall expect to divide
with you, square and even. And remember,
it's sinful to spend your time weeping and
wailing and gnashing your teeth for lost
beau,' piously added the woman. ''There's
as likely fish in the sea as ever come out of it ;
and, p'raps one of the hay hands will take a
shine to you-whO knows 20
And thus Aunt Fox dismissed the question
of her niece's heart-trials.
After all, perhaps it was the best treatment
that her poor, fostering wounds could receive.
A sharp, sudden cauterizng-a merciful cru
city And Matte set herself diligently, if
spiritlessly, at work helping to feed the huge,
hungry farm-hands, to shine the glittering rows
of milk-pans--even to milk the horned beasts
of which she was at first so nervously afraid.
She learned to bake white, sweet loaves of
bread, to churn butter, to raise young chick
ems she gathered wild-fowers, and made a
rude wicker cage for blue-bird, which she
found with broken wing and treated" sue
cessfully. And she began to smile now and
then, and Mrs. Fox remarked, complacently,
''that Matte was quite decent-looking girl,
now that the color had come back to her cheeks
little"
But one day the mountain stage numbering
slowly over the rough roads, with its four
horses, and luggage-covered roof, stopped at
Mrs. Fox's porch, and down came the ava
lanch of city guests.
Matte was Strengthening the muslin curtains
of the upper windows, and hurriedly filled the
large blue pitchers with water when the trunks
were brought up.
'sIt's MI. Bassett and his bride, all the way
from Boston," said Aunt Fox, complacently.
sis everything ready? Because they are COM
ing up stairs directly. And 1 never did see
any one dressed as genteel as she is. A regu-
lar beauty, too!''
Matte stood quite pale and silent, with the
homespun towels in her hand.
''Bassett ~ she repeated, "And from Bos-
ton Oh why Of all places in the world, did
they come here 20
And the next moment the homespun towels
lay like drift of scattered snow at Mrs. Fox S
feet and Matte was gone.
itMprcy on uS ~ said Mrs Fox StOODlnp to
recover her lavender scented treasures, is the
girl gone crazy ?''
The soft, crimson glow of the sunset was
irradiating the lonely glen, when Harold
Basset parted the overhanging boughs with
one hand, and plunged into the leafy wilder
ness where, on one side, the mossy rock rose
almost perpendicularly, and on the other
brown-waved brook ran, with clamorous CUR
gle.
''Matte!" he exclaimed, stopping short.
cam dreaming?'
49, H,o4