News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-11-23

six dollars, the result of her horticultural
labors, lay comfortably stored for some
time of need.
Monday came. The Thanksgiving
squash was stewed and strained. Tues
day came; +; the spiced currants were
| fetched from the cellar and examined
They were not fermented at all.
At tea-time Peter came coaxing and
putting about for his supper, his eyes
| bright and the Incorporating comb fresh
and red. He was white and plump, and
held his head on one side and peered at
them with look of demure fun.
Miss Joe looked at her sister, and Miss
Clorindy looked the other way. A chick
en- ought, by all the laws of cookery, to
be killed and dressed more than two or
three days before it is cooked but Stat
ford custom was contented to slaughter
its animal food over night
IF Peter was to be parboiled next day,
and set away to ccol before enerusting
and baking, he mu7t be killed and picked
tonight. Both sisters knew it. They
had thought abo,.t it and dreaded it
silently for a week. This was the last
minute for action.
Miss Joe looked at Peter, nesting
against Clorindy's gown and looking up,
expectant, for erumb.
81 can't do it, said Miss Joe, loudly
and promptly. 81 can't, an I won't. Eff
you want chicken-pie for Thanksgiving,
Clorindy, you can starter the cretur your
self. So there !"
Miss Clorindy burst into tears. go
seephy! I'd Almost as ieves kill nd eat
you [ don't care cent for no pie, but
[ set by Peter like my eyes, and couldn't
no more eat him than I could you, as /
said afore"
Miss Joe laughed, but the laugh quay
cred, "Guess 1 should be Almost too
tough for to eat, Clorindy; but you've
sot my mind to rest. I've been a-think-
in and a-frettin' in'ardly quite spell
about this matter. 1 hated to give up
your Thanksgivin' dreadful but could
not noway see my way to kill Peter.
Well hev to be thankful on squash pie
couldn't be thankful a eatin' Peter, not if
[ had Fourth O July cold collection
along with him."
''No, nor I nuther, Joe; bless the
cretulr I couldn't stan it without him,
and [ think fish-cakes are the best Of
vittles p
Joe looked at her sister. The delicate
appetite, resulting from steady diet of
patent medicine, had scorned fsh-cakes
for many q year. She could not quite
understand the change. Our moral and
physical forces are so inwoven, so sympa-
thetic, so strangely allied, that deeper
philosophers than Miss Joe Mills have
been puzzled by them.
But she was content to wonder and ad-
mire, and when Peter had been hugged,
petted fed to repletion and consigned to
his roost, the sisters slept the sleep of
contentment, and got up in the morning
with a sweet consciousness of impending
evil forever removed.
But where was Peter? He did not
come to breakfast. He was not to be
found anywhere. For an hour they
hunted anxiously, when Just as Clorindy
was peering under her hand into the dark
corner of the woodshed, where Joe had
climbed over the pile to inspect certain
old boxes and barrels, Peter flew out
right into the inspecting Josepha's face
with loud and eXrllting, "Cut-cut-cut-
p and the astounded and
confOunded woman screamed out
''Clorindy Mills for the lands sake
As sure AZ yo'-src. lssz-E, Peters laid
egg =
This settled the matter. The sisters had
never kept chickens in their lives before,
and had taken it for granted that Mrs.
Emerson would not sell them hen, and
indeed it was an oversight ON the part of
the good woman herself
But this unexpected development con-
soled Clorinda and Joe for the weakness
they had shown about killing their pet,
even for the solemn feast of Thanksgiving
Day. To kill white Brahma pullet
would have been the slaughter of the
goose with golden eggs over again.
So Josepha went at the making and
baking of her pies with joyful alacrity,
and Clorinda had just laid the Goldfish
on the table to flake and soak it for the
dinner tomorrow, when the door opened
and Mr.. Hough, stumping in, laid down
on the nearest chair a plump young
bag of cranberries and big
red cabbage.
81 knowed We had squashes 'nough,"
he said looking out of the window straight |
at the pump handle, as if nobody was in
the kitchen, ''and-and- she alters
looked out fur ye Thanksgivin', an L all
lers calc'late to.
Then he stumbled out of the door, |
drawing the back of his hand across.his |
eyes. And they had their chicken-pie,
though Miss Joe's experiment was fail
ure- Youths Companion.