St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-11-23

laid with mathematical precision, al
unwOnted air of trimness pervaded hi
familiar crockery, and-there was n,
pie on the table. But there was mack
erel baked in cream, and mashed pota
toes, and nicely Drowned toast, and the
dOughnuts.
"Mis' Harlow don't feel able to come
ont to the table this morning, and
guess I'll take her bite before
eat'
And so saying the squire took plate
and commenced piling things on it in {
prOmiscuOus way
"Oh," said Molly, 'Het me do it.
| have had long experience with sicI
people. They must be tempted, you
know"
She looked up at him with her bright
smile, and the squire gave in at once
and watched with wonder while a tray
was brought, clean napkin spread
over it, piece of the mackerel laid on
plate, with the cream ladled daintily
over it Molly had seen too much OF
plates where the meat seemed to have
been launched on them by an
avalanche of gravity); then came lit
tie plate of the potato, n slice of brown
toast, S-A>sle plate of butter, II cup OF
coffee, knife, fork, spoon, etc. Then
she whisked into the pantry, and out
again with saucer of strawberries, land
added them to the contents of the tray.
"Wait a minute she said, as the
squire lifted his burden, and in n twin
king she was out of the door, and back
again with spray of white lilac,
which, in tall glass, was given the
place of honor in the middle of the
tray.
''ShO ~ said the squire, with his
slow smile, "that'll just suit my wife.
She's famous for having things fixy."
Mrs. Harlow had missed the accus-
toned smell of frying, and wondered in
a feeble way if Molly couldn't find the
pork.
"Why, Bethuel," she said, as her
husband set the tray down beside her,
show pretty! | really believe | am
hungry"
And the squire went back to his own
breakfast so happy that he entirely
forgot the absence of the pie.
Well, this was the beginning, and
though life afterward was not all
cream and strawberries and white
lilacs, and though bread would some
times burn, and pastry fatty refuse to
be tlaky, and though unused muscles
sometimes ached with the new work,
yet the girl kept up brave heart.
The squire and his wife were uniformly
kind, and the latter, who had suffered
as much from lack of cheerful society
as from any physical cause, gradually
grew stronger, and would sit through
the long summer fOrenoons in the great
airy kitchen, placidly knitting or par
ing apples, and though she sometimes
looked wistfully after Molly as she
tripped from pantry to cellar, and
longed for the girlish figure which
used to fit about in the same way, her
heart took great comfort in this bright,
cheerful stranger. And the squire,
hearing the fresh young voice sing
ing about the house, would give a
great sigh foI the lost voice, but some
how the old house seemed less lonely
to him, and after a while his first ques-
tion would be, "Where's Molly 2"
The plain country society readily took
her in and considered her high au-
thority i'll the matter of "lOopingn of
overskirts and "doing up" of hair,
and at last no merry-making was COM
plete without Molly Perry.
Those of yOu who have followed this
story in expectation of some absent
son or nephew or younger brother of
the family appearing and taking Molly
for a wife may as well stop here, for
nothing whatever of the kind hap
pened, for the squire and his wife had
no sons, and their nephews and broth
ers We're all married long before Molly's
day. 1t is true that some of the smart
young farmers of the region round
about tied their horses occasionally at
the squire's gate, and it is equally true
that Molly said no to some of them,
though they one and all swear by her.
This story is not written to induce all
clerks and shop girls to rush into
housework, for not one in twenty
would be capable of doing as Molly
did, and not one in Il hundred would
find such home it is written simply
to show what one girl did Hester
Stuart i'm Harper's BaZar,