News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-04-12

| tween SWeetneafIS
Some of the more daring spirits had
even gone so far as to commit the mani
fest improperly of peeping in Marlas
parlor windows but they had only seen
David sitting quiet and prim on the
little, slippery horse-hair sofH, and Maria
bv the table. rocking slowly in her little
cane-seated rocker. Did Maria ever
leave her rocker and sit on that slippery
horse-hair sofa by David's side? They
never knew: but she never did. Ihefe
was something laughable, and at the
same time rather pathetic, about Man"
and David's counting. All the outward
appurtenances of keeping company
were as rigidIy observed rs they had
| been twenty-five years ago when David
Fmmons first cast his mild blue eyes
shvIy and lovingly on red-cheeked,
ouick-spoken Maria Brewster. Every
Sunday evening, in the winter, there
was a fire kindled Ill the parlor, the par
lor lamp was lit at dusk all the year
round. and Maria's mother retired early,
that the young people might ''slt up.
| The "sitting up was no very formidable
affair now, whatever it might have been
in the first stages of the coutship. The
need Of sleep over-balanced sentiment IN
those old lovers, and by ten o'clock at
the latest Maria lamp was out, and
David had wendell his solitary way to
his own home.
l,foy tn
know if David had ever actually popped
the question to Maria, or if his natural
sIowness was at fault IN this as IN oHner
things. Their curiosity had been Isng
exercised in vain, but Widow Brewster,
as she waxed Older, grew loquaclous.
and one day told a neighhor, who had
dropped in in her daughters absence,
that David had never RELY come to
tie pint She supposed he would some
time: for her part, she thought he had
better: but then, after all. she knOwed
Maria didn't care, and maybe twas jest
as well as twas, only sometimes she was
afeared she should never live to see the
weddin', if they wasn't spry." Then
there had been hints concerning cer-
tain pearl-colored silk which Maria, hav-
ing a good chance to get at bargain,
had purchased some twenty years ago,
when she thought, from sundry remarks,
that David was coming to the point;
and it was further intimated that the silk
had been privately made up ten years
since. when Maria had again surmised
that the point was about being reached.
! The neighbor went home in a state of
great delight, having by skillful ma
npuvring actually obtained glimpse of
the pearl-colored silk.
1t was perfectly true that Maria did
not lay Dayid's hardness in putting the
important question very much to heart.
She was too cheerful, too busy, and too
much interested in her daily duties to
fret much about anything.
There was never at any time much of
the sentimental element in her compost
ton, and her feeling for David was
eminendy practical in its nature. She,
although the woman, had the stronger
character Of the two, and there was
something rather mother-like than lover
ike in her affection for him.
1t was through the protecting care
which chiefly characterized her love that
the only pain to her came from their long
courtship and postponement of marriage.
1t was true that, years ago, when David
had led her to think, from certain hest
day night, that he would certainly ask
the mOmeutous question sool, her heart
had gone into a happy tiutter. She had
bought the pearI-coIored silk then.
Years after, her heart had futtered
again, but little less wildly this time
David almost asked her another Sunday
night. Then she had made up the pearl !
colored silk. She used to go and look at |
it fondly and admiringly from time to
time: once III a while she would try it on |
and survey herself in the glass, and i'm
agine herself David's bride-a faded .
bride, but happy and beloved one.
She looked at the dress occasionally |
now, but q little sadly, as the conviction
was forcing itself upon her more and .
more that she should never wear it. But .
the sadness was always more for David's .
sake than her own. She saw him grow |
ing an old man, and the lonely uncared /
for life that he led filed her heart with /
tender pity and sorrow for him. She did .
not cOnfne her kind Offices to the Satur- |
day baking Every week his little house |
was tidied and set to rights, and his /
mending looked after.
Once, ON Sunday night, when she |
spied Il rip in his coat that had grown
long from the want of womanly fingers
constantly at hand, she had a good cry
after he had left and she had gone into
her room. There was something more
pitiful TO her, something that touched
her heart more deeply, in that rip in her
lovers Sunday coat than in all her long
years OF waiting.
As the years went on it was sometimes
with a sad heart that Maria stood and
watched the poor lonely old figure
moving slower than ever down the street
to his lonely home; but the heart was
sad for him always, and never for her
self. She used to wonder at him a little
sometimes, though always with the most
loyal tenderness, that he should choose !
to lead the solitary, cheerless life that he
lid, to go back to his dark, voiceless
home, when he might be so sheltered
and cared for in his old age She firmly /
believed that it was only owing to her
lovers mcouigible slowness, in this as
in everything else. She never doubted F..
for an Instant that he loved her. Sose J
women might have tried fastening
matters little themselves, but Maria, /
with the delicacy which is sometimes
more inherent in a steady, practical .
nature like hers than in a more ardent
one, would have lost her self-respect
forever If she had done such a thing.
So she lived cheerfuIIy along, corded
her boots, though her fingers were get
ting stiff, humored her mother, who was
getting feebIcr and more childish every
year, and did the best she could for her
poor foolish old lover.
When David was seventy, and she
she gave away the pearl
colored silk to a cousins daughter who
was going to be married The girl was
young and pretty and happy, but she
was poor, and the silk would make over
into a grauder wedding dress for her