Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-03-20

and experimenting all
"The fuss and fixing have done her no
end OF good" Mary and Tilly agreed pri.
vately when she sat down TO table, flushed
and smiling, chatting in her old blithe way.
"She hasn't seemed so chirk before in an
age"
Sam and Joe were to occupy the high seat
in the front Of the spring wagon. In the
family rookaway, drawn by pair Of sturdy
roadsters, the girls and James would be es-
tablished.
'T told Sally Mayo last night there would
be plenty Of room for her. You won't mind
stopping by for her, Jsmes2' said Mary,
archly.
A laugh went around the board as the
bronze forehead Of the young farmer took on
q mulberry blush.
That's as you girls say" he answered,
handing his cup up to the head Of the table
in such haste that ihs spoon fell out "a lit
tie less sugar this time. mother"
"He won't need much to-day, you see !"
commented Sam.
Tilly's merry eyes, following the cup,
struck on the mothers face. The change
there atartled her. 1t was grave and drawn
| the visage OF an old woman. Tilly had new.
or thought OF her mother as aged until that
instant. The hand that grasped the handle
Of the coffee pot shook violently the milk
splsshed over the side of the cup. Tily
| Jumped up, aghast.
"You aren't well, mother won't go IL
you are going to be sick -
'sit down, child, and fuish your break
fast I'm not sick" She laughed to make
all right but in dry, mirthlees way. Il
wouldn't let you stop at home on my account.
| To tell the truth, Was thinking, maybe, I'd
| go myself"
Those Puritan forefathers Of ours, with
whom repression Of natural emotion stood for
modification of carual instinct, who con-
founded softness with sin, austerity with
righteousness, sowed a crop of dragons teeth,
the harvest Of which confronts their descend
ants in vengeful hosts. The absolute inabili.
| ty to speak when free utterance would b. sal
vRtion Of temporal, II not eternal, happiness !;
the shame facedness that deprecates the
cracking OF the crust hiding from the nearest
Of n and dearest Of soul the pulsinR Of heart
tides-these are but few forms Of the heri.
tage We deplore, yet do not put away.
This woman desired, with longing that was
agony, to break prison bounds for one day.
she had dreamed day and night Of the joy
Gus convocation of friends and neighbors on
the mountain top, the free day in the open
air most OF all, OF the music. She had reach.
cd that verge of endurance when overwrought
nature cried, II toM have this thing !" The
picnic and the band represented to her what
the coveted tour does to weary intellectual
| drudge, or nerve-worn woman Of society. Yet,
deadly athirst as she was for change and REQ.
restion, she could have perished more easily
than she could have put one-hundredth part
| of what she felt into words.
A stunned silence followed her remark.
James broke 1t.
81 wish you had spoke of it before !" he
said, regretfully.
Mary was more explicit. "Why, mother,
1t never came into my mind that you cared
for such things And now the arrangement
is made with Sally, don't see how we can FIX
It different, without one of US stays at home"
Mrs. Burney caught the meaning of the
amazed pause and her daughters tartness.
ut makes no difference" she said, hastily.
mot the least in the world T.
| Before Luke finished his corroborative
| speech she was on her feet, gathering up cups
aud plates for the dish-pan.
do you think she really had Q notion of
going? ?" Tilly questioned, as the wagons roll
ed from the door. 'She acted sort of queer
after father said what he did"
| "Pshsvl I" Mary was her own sire's daugh-
ter. "She would wish herself home Atty
times before We got up the mountain"
The day was warm, and Mrs. Burney was
possessed by frenzy Of work.
''In for q reg'lar bout G. cleanin', be you p
observed her lord when he came in to din
ner.
Beds were on roof and gras the smell OF
soap-suds doated, visibIy Vaporous, in the
| passages The wife waited on him during
the meal, eating nothing herself, but drink
ing three cups of bitter herb tea, stewed on
the stove. That she was indispOsed to talk
did not seem strange TO her companion. He
fed mutely and in abundance, smoked the
I -. - N..II k.I Il ~
forty winks" in the cool, dark, best room,
all the others being in disorder.
The house was shining clean by supper
time, and the mistress arTayed in a new pur-
pie calico, fresh collar at her neck, linen
cuffs about her bony wrists For the evening
repAst she had set forth short t-cake, apple
sauce, hot gingerbread, pot-chsese, and lord
ly dish Of pork and beans. Her husband hk-
ed "somsihing hearty" with his tea. "IRint
hankerin' after no picknicky victuals," be
grunted when the edge was taken of his ap-
petite. mo place like home for me-"
No reply. He had hardly heard his wife's
voice since breakfast. Eyeing her somewhat
closely, he noticed how baggard she was. She
used to be real jolly" about her work, sing
ing, chatting, laughing-the life of the house.
Hereditary custom not withholding the utter
Ance Of disagreeable truths, he spoke out his
thought:
II say, old lady, do you know you're agn
fast The day of your good looks is about
gone by. Seems to me never saw you look
more peekin' nor you do tonight"
Sill no answer. But that the sunken eyeI
flashed out a red spark, and the thin jaws
we're more closely clinched, he might have
thought she had not heard him. Perhaps she
was tired and in need of his sympathy. Mar
was q master. hand to work. and hsd ought &c
have an encouragn' word now n then. HI
rendered It
''Olean tuckered out, b'aint your That
the vay with you vomen-always on the
strain. 'Taint worth while to kill yourself"
Opinions difer!"
She snapped il at him angrily her eyeI
glowed with lurid fire, her complexion was o
9 liyid sallowness. Luke widened his round
blue eyes, but asked no explanations. Some
thing had upset mother. She would come
around sooner for being let alone. Having
eaten heartily he inclined to physical, no
mental, rumination. The evening closing il
still and sultry, he smoked his pipe under tn,
cherry tree, ten steps or 80 from the house
The katydids we're extending testy contradio
tions in the boughs bullfrogs beloved in thi
creek beyond the lowlands; overhead winkeC
the stars, languid with the breathless heat o
the night. On & olump of lilaos, within cas-!
eye range of the placid smoker, lay the irreg
ular reflection of the lighted kitchen window
His habit was to 60 in when that went out
this being the token that household ''chores'
were done for that day. AS the kitcken clocl
struck eight, the bushes we're black; he knock
the ashes from his pipe and stretched his arm
in q comfortable yawn;
II guess I'll turn in"
The farmstead was all gloom but for spin
ters Of light falling between the stats of tn
parlor blinds.
dispose Mari is still potterin' round wit
her cleanin'," he thought "How she doc
love work |"
Had he opened the restroom door, instea
of going directly upstairs, even his bovine in
. Agination would have been excited. An iron
. ing table stood in the middle of the hooI
spread with dark cover. On this Mrs. Bul
ney was arranging long white gown, ,smoOt
and straight. She drew the skirt TO its III
most length, and folded the sleeves across th
bosom In awful likeness to the sheeted dead
, Last Of all she laid on the bosom of the shrou
the great family Bible, open. These passage
we're bracketed heavily with ink
when lie down say, when shall arise and Il
night begone aud am full OF tossinga to and II
unto the dAwninR Of the day.
o, remember that my life IL wind, mine eye shall 4
1 | more see goodi
SO that my soul chooseth stranslIns and death rat