Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-05-26
The Pail of Blackberries,

in the eastern heavens, promising to
send his beams at midday, like a
breath of fame upon the earth. Char
lie Walter half regretted promising
Aunt Martha pail of delicious ripe
blackberries for dessert that day.
"Now, Charlie DEAR" she had said,
as the young man seated himself in
| the shadow of the -wreathed
porch for his mornings readings,
"you see, honey, it's only nice lit
tie walk up to Beaver Hill where
there's oceans of blackberries. You
can fill your pail and get home long
before it S very hot, and then your
berries will be so much nicer than
little Biddy Finn hers are always
jammed and poled up so afore | ge2
'em. Come now, that's a dear. -
One would have supposed from
Aunt Martha's talk that Charlie was
some school-boy just entered upon
his teens, and would have been sur
prised to see six feet Of manhood
with moustached lip come out from
the shelter of the vines and take the
bright tin pail from her hand, with
| just shadow of reluctancy, we must
admit; but at all events he took it,
and donnlug light panama hat, set
off whistling down the garden walk.
"Law now, child, you amt going
blackberrying with them white pants
and cloth CATERS on, are you? Why
the grass is wet as water, and the
vines'll tear your shoes all to pieces.
Run right up and put on a pair OF
your old pants, and I'll hunt up q
pair of your fathers old boots for you
to wear. How careless these children
are" kept on good Aunt Martha tc
herself as the good-natured Charlie
vanished up the stairway; they need
looking after just like babies. If
didn't watch him, in months time
he wouldn't have thing fit to weal
to meeting" By this time Charlie
reappeared before the eyes that al
most idolized him, arrayed in pail
of cest-off pants, and drawing on ;
pair of old boots which he laughingly
declared a mile too big for him, ht
set off a second time down the gar
den path. Aunt Martha's form diC
not follow him, but he- voice did
He heard it echoing through the pea
trees and clinging vines,-''Don'
stay out too long, dear, for it'll b,
awful hot by ten o'clock" A smile
such as | sometimes think the angel:
must wear, lit up the pleasant fac
with strange beauty as she agail
turned to the snowy bread her hand
r were molding, saying softly to her
self, 81 wonder sometimes our Char
. lie amt spoiled, but | do believe he
e the dearest child in all the world"
> Child, Aunt Martha? All well
Charlie was child to her, though
= was twenty years ago one May morn
;, ing, when the robins were singin
and the violets opening their starr
4 eyes, that she received him from hi
e dying mothers arms. BE mott
/ er to my boy, Martha" murmure
the white lips of the dying woman
n and truly had Aunt Martha kept tt
~ fearful promise, "God helping IN,
Mary, will - and neither the hea
~ of the boy nor the home of the fatht
+: had ever missed the love or care ,
,e tenderness that the dead moth
would have given them. She reignt
a supreme in the home of Farmer Wa
H. ter, and next to the dead wife of b
- - early manhood and his only son, h;
she the warmest place in his heart.
r So our hero had grown up in /;
S atmosphere of love and tenderness
of had finished with honor the course
O. study at the village academy, and
June before we introduce him to t
ne reader had come home from Yale
- spend his first vacation. A you
os man, as Aunt Martha sometim
= quantity said, who was ''sight f
,e- glad eyes to look on full of you
ay and hope and promise not withc
IN his faults, to be sure, but genero
~ and noble and true. Just such
young man, my reader, as you and
na have seen and loved many a tin
nd and just such one as God grant
he may see and love many times agair
But while we have been going ba
,u- to the time of his birth, Charlie |
H. been filling his pail with berries, a
- now we find him stretched at f
nj. length on the flower-sprinkled turf
the shade of maple on the hill-si
F., The humming of the bees in the {
md yer, and the dreamy, fitful murn
'tl- of the breeze in the tree-tops, seen
Il. i. like Il lullaby wooing him into f
do getfulness of early dinners, bla
the berry desserts, or pleased Aunt M
thas.
gan Just then the figure of little
he might be seen coming up the wo
ing land path that wound along at
~ great distance from where Cha
ovS was lying. Her slight form seer
f bending under the weight of a bas
ev- of vegetables that she balanced
the her shoulder, while in her disenga
neo hand she carried a pail filled v
blackberries. She had chosen
if path through the meadow and VIC
can land because it made her walk to
two village nearly mile less, and
'WO cause the shady path uac n 0ra Fl