Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-09-08
Samantha's Celebration.

teap' and Miss Samantha Marble
walked briskly into the railway res
taurant of the Fitchburg station in
Boston and took immediate possess
sion of two chairs. She was very
little body, wrinkled and puckered
about the mouth, and wrinkled and
grey about the forehead for she hat
ed anything false, and carried her
"views'' to the point of desplsing ar
tifcial teeth and hair. On one chair
| she put her little self and on the 9TH
er she piled her little bag, her little
bundles, her little boxes and umbrel-
la. Then she took off her gloves and
her "far-away" glasses, and putting
on her 'snear-by" spectacles took up
her bill of fare and looked it over.
She had had hard days work.
| Up in the early morning riding into
Fitchburg from Hilltown on neigh
boris milkwagon in order to catch the
first train all day among the shops
buying supplies for her little millinery
store. She tucked in many neigh
borly errand between times, such as
matching Mrs. Browns best black
silk, and buying frock for feeble
Mrs. Halls last baby-and lot of |
what she called "Fourth O. July fix
ins'' for Widow Warner, whose boy
was coming up from clerkship in Bos-
ton to pass the holidays. Altogether
she had earned her cup of tea, and
would have enjoyed it, but that her
satisfaction was interrupted by the
voices of two young men, who had |
the table before her.. One sat with |
his back toward her, and his compan-
ion was saying:
"Now, Fred, what nonsense! It's
Fourth of July, and the time when a
fellow should be free, if he is ever
| going to be a man. And there you
! have stood over that desk without a
holiday since Christmas And now
to go and spend the Fourth in that
sleepy old town. l declare it's too
bad y
''Rut l promised the folks at home,
Tom, and they will be so disappoint-
ed. / confess / should like to take
a run with yeu on to New York and
see the sights, for L haven't been
there since before my father died.
He took me once but / was such
little chap that | have forgot every
thing about it, 4
go come along! We will take
night train, and have all day Sunday
for Coney Island, and Monday the
Fourth, for lots of fun.''
ssCan't do it, Tom; can't spend
the money. Better come up in the
country with me and we will see New
York some other time"
"But you have got the money,
Fred; and confound the old desk
where we stand and drudge to earn
it. There are easier ways to get it
than that, boy, and if you would go .
with me | could show you little
game or two that would double your
wages"
eff you mean gambling, Tom, none c
of that for me-"
''Well, l don't mean gambling. +
Every little game of chance don't de-
serve hard name. Draughts and
backgammon and cards, same things ,
we played at home.''
+ s'Well, Tom, I'll have to 60 to the
country. Better change your mind t
and come along t
/ ''Not l i; and 60 to church all Sun |
day = but, suddenly, as they rose to 1
go, he added, "Tell you what, Fred, /
you stay over and 60 to the theatre i
Or have game of billiards with me
tonight, and I'll 60 up on the Sun a
day train with you and spend the /
Fourth. Come now, that's fair i
AS they walked away to the door b
and Samantha scrambled her bundles h
together, and hurried forth to the I
train, she saw the faces oe the young I
men, and recognized that Fred, the f
Fred who would like to 60 to New K
York, but would go home to his moth 8
er in Hilltown, was Fred Warner, Il
Widow Warmers only boy-the boy n
for whom all those ssFourth O. July
fixins" had been bought. Her first "
impulse was to run after him, and v
tell him how his mother was sslot- n
ting" upon his coming home; and "
his sister determined to make the old n
home bright and gay, and how she k
herself had run around Boston after
Chinese lanterns, to be hung on the el
trees, as Widow Warner meant to re
have little party and gather all
Fred's old friends on the lawn on the al
evening of the Fourth. She recalled 81
also that the widow had brought W
around her old bonnet to have it m
freshened up, because boys were apt to
% come back from the city a little
pit particular about dress. In her Oh
hurry she actually started to run aft er
IF the tall young man, striding down dl
he platform, whirling his cane in his a
land, but her bag dropped and it's 10
spools, samples, pencil, OF
notebook, purse, few hither and yon. la
IN scrambling for these she lost her gl
bundles. In getting those her bun th
lie went to the ground, and when, at ye
asst, she stood erect in the door of fir
he station, with her various possess dc