The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-10-25

shook her fist III tho ar with rage, and
sobs of modification interrupted her |
outcries.
Peggy fled home rs fast as she could
90, feeling that she had been very
wicked. She could hardly bear to face
her mother. Yet how could her mother
ever know what she had done?
This reflection, however, didn't con.
sole her; and, before she had sail her
prayers that night, she had confessed
tho whole story.
Mrs. Winslow took Peggy to the old
mill the very next morning to tell Dame
Gurton how sorry they both were that
such cruel and wanton thing should
have been done.
They found old Nelly very gentle.
She looked at Peggy long while, then
sighed and said:
"You are like me when I was
young. But You will change, yon will
change. God grant you may not have
such lesson as did,"
"What was that?' asked Mrs. Win
slow.
But Dame Gurton would say nothing
more.
After that, though, she allowed Mrs.
Winslow and Peggy to visit and be
friend her.
It was only few weeks later that old
Nelly fell i'll, and her case soon Eecame
so serious that it was plain she could
not recover. When she was perfectly
sure that she must die. she asked Mrs.
Winslow, who was with her, to send for
Peggy.
Il have something to tell you both
she said. "But no one else shall hear,
and if the doctor comes, he must wait
till have DONE
Then, after Peggy had come and
taken her place beside the bed, the dy-
ing woman began.
II am glad am going to tell it. she
said, "for my whole life has been black
ened by keeping it to myself. Itwould
have been awful to die with that secret
in my breast.
"Oh, you may say it was little thing
to feel SO about; but that was what
said to myself all the time, and I was
wrong! / only did it for fun, just for
fun, rs You put pepper in those flowers,
my little Peggy. But see what it did
to me afterward! That wasn't for fun,
you may be sure
She paused, and her distracted gaze
and suffering face seemed to show that
she was looking back over her life.
Then she went on
1T was the waste-pipe in the mill
dam, and kept thinking how funny it
would be, and how Mr.. Gurton would
stare, if l could let all the water out
before he knew it. l thought it was
all right, because Will made love to me
then, and / didn't dream of doing any
harm to them that were like to be SO
near and dear to me. So went all
alone and secret, and could work at
it without being seen, because there
were bushes growing close around it..
At last got the plug out, and then /
crept away and hurried home. Mr..
Gurton--he was the miller. You know
was away. But the water got down
so it wouldn't run over the top. and the
race was shut of, so it pushed against
the dam faster than the plug-hole
would let it run out, and the whole
thing went and the water was lost.
Il didn't think even then but what il
could be fixed, though l was awful
scared. But you know, Mrs. Winslow,
what happened to Wills father, and
then to mine" Here she explained to
Peggy what has been told above.
And when found all that mischief
had been done and how people felt.
, was afraid And I durstn't tell Will,
for fear he'd hate me. And Ineyer told
anybody.
Il thought it couldn't help things any
. to tell. now the harm had been done,
, and so held my tongue. But when
, my husband died, and thought how
he was gone from me perhaps forever,
and didn't know it was that drove his
! poor father crazy. and so ledto my own
fathers death-oh. then, tell You,
saw how wrong had been to keep Sc
: cret about it!
"Just think, / Lad ruined miller
} Gurton, and lost father. mother and
] husband, all through letting out the
, pond; and vet / had been taking thei,
! love and pretending to be fit for it, al
the time.
$50 had done two wrong things in
stead of one. And all these years Ivt
sat and looked at the place where til,
pond was, and the old happiness tina
) used to lie in my heart withered ava,
,, like the water-plants that used to grow
by the pond.
"If / hadn't done that one thing fo
fun, Will needn't have been sailor
and might have had him with me til
: now, and If l had only told him every
l thing! But now some one knows a
last. I've told all, and I shall Iii
, easier"
! A greater peace came into her fac
: than had ever been there since her girl
hood; and with that look she breathe,
! her last the same night.
l Little Peggy Winslow needed no on
, to enforce the lesson she had learne,
from Dame Gurton's confession. "Ho,
glad l am, mamma" said she, "that
t,ld you right away the wrong thing
had done!"-ionth's Companion.