The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-04-28

II couldn't endure their unfriendly
gaze. should display all my woman
ishness. should blush, should trem-
BILE, might faint. should be STUN.
bling block to the women who are fol-
lowing in the same pathway. l don't
mean to be that. My work in Scragg
End suffices me, and 1 am so thankful
for it,
81 am sorry you feel SO about Ponka-
pawket, because l have proposition in
my mind, much more audacious than the
one that made" said Mr.. Ericsson.
Miss Barton raised her eyes inquiringly
and dropped them again instantly under
the minister's gaze.
81 thought we might unite the church
esq Mr.. Ericson's voice tremblsd lit
tie, as if lie were afraid.
81 don't see it could be DONE" said
Miss Barton, frigidly.
"Of course there is but one way" said
Mr.. Ericsson, quietly. II dared not ask
you to be my wife without suggesting to
you the fact that your work need not be
given up"
The girl rose to her feet. Lysander's
stocking fell from her hand, and was
blown away by tine wind unheeded. 81
don't know what have done to deserve
this-this insult. Thought that at least
you respected me, and l thought my call
ing made me sacred from such-such at
tacks altogether"
81 am sorry that you should think it
an insult. can hardly see how man
could give you better proof of his re-
spect than to ask you to become his wife.
And as for your calling making you sa-
cred, We don't believe in the celibacy of
the clergy, you know" In spite of his
evident modification and distress, there
was sly twinkle in Mr.. Ericson's eye as
he said that.
"But II am a woman" said Miss
Barton, sitting down again, and covering
her face with her hands.
"The more reason why you should be
married." said Mr.. Ericsson, calmly
" You need a protector
81 am perfectly sufficient for myself
And l shall never care for anybody-any-
thing-but my work.
Mr.. Ericsson arose. 81 am sorry to
have troubled you." he said, gently. II
love you, and I have never known what
it was to love woman before; that is
all my excuse
Miss Barton watched him as he went
down the road, with the yellow leaves
falling upon him. She observed, as she
had never done before, how finely his
head was set upon his broad shoulders,
what manly grace there was about his
strong, well-knit figure.
"But he has no business to love me-"
she said, drawing her brows into tight
frown.
Then suddenly she remembered Lysan-
der's stocking, and went down in the
grass to look for it. 1t had blown over
the fence into the field. She stretched
her arm between the Stats and drew it
back. AS she did so she caught sight of
Lysander. lie was gathering squashes
and pumpkins on the little south hill;
she saw his figure in silhouette against
the sky. He started to come toward the
house, and she waited for him-waited
until sudden thought sent flame of
color over her face.
cit can't be-" she said, half aloud,
inquiringly. II niU keep that out of my
life. won't be failure! l won't be.w
And she rushed up to her room and lock-
ed herself in.
She came down as calm and grave as
ever when the tea bell rang, and after
tea she and Lysander read their daily
quantity of Greek, for Lysander was pur-
suing his studies with renewed avidity
since he had a companion to help him,
and had not yet given up his long cher
ished hope of studying for the ministry,
though there seemed no prospect of his
being able to leave the farm.
After that day Miss Barton devoted
herself more zealously than ever to her
work. She darned no more stockings.
When she was not writing her sermons,
she was visiting the sick and the poor,
and making, or suggesting and inducing
Others to make, improvements, sanitary
and moral as we'll as religious.
"Shs was as practical and efficient as
if she was not woman" many people
said; and old Jeremy Grimes, who had
wished to tell her when she came that
they didn't want preacher said, "They
couldn't have had such women in St.
Paurs time, or he never would have
written what he did,
But Mrs. Hewitt had a grievance
Miss Barton didn't seem to make herself
one of the family as she used to. She
was shut up in her own room almost all
the time now, and she and Lysander
didn't seem to get along together as they
used to. She never came into the kitchen
and wanted to help make cake now. or
sat with them around the fire in the
evening while Lysander read aloud. She
sc didn't seem to have anything against
them, but she wasn't free and sociable
any more"
Lysander was teaching school this win.
ter, and attending to the farm work in
his leisure time. His habit of studying
with Miss Barton had gradually died out.
To his mothers persistent questionings
Lysander replied that neither of them
had any time for it now.
Mrs. Hewitt could not make it out
" Pa" who prided himself upon being
long headed, limited that he could, but he
would not say outright what he thought
and his wife regarded his hints with
lofty scorn.
One afternoon. after school hours, Ly-
sander went down to the woods back of
the house to superintend the operations
Of some men who were cutting timber.
Just at dusk Miss Barton, coming homo
from a visit to sick parishioner, en-
four men carrying on an i'm
provised stretcher Lysander's apparently
lifeless body. He was lying white and
rigid, and there were scarlet spots upon
the snow all the way that he had come.
Down on her knees in the snow fell Miss
Barton, and threw her arms around him.