The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-02-11

December, the 10th i believe-perhaps
the 9th--it was Tuesday, anyway.
Her father gave up and died ten years
ago-didn't amount to much, with his
readin' in the haymow, and sermon
lin at the woodpile. Her mother has
been gone, too, goin' on five years.
Smart gal. Takes boarders, and her
folks didn't even leave her the house
she lives in. She taught school once,
in the seminary at Mayfeld, but gave
it up to nurse her father. Reads po-
etry--not that / can see the good of it,
but 'spect she does, or she wouldn't do
it. She always says what she means,
does her own work like the rest of
us, and makes her own bonnets.
Heard she had a chance to marry
jabbering Dutchman, one of them pro-
fessors over at Mayfeld, but don't be-
lieve it. 'Twould take Drawer man
than a little Dutchman with long
name to make love to her. She had a
beau once, when she was seventeen or
eighteen, but he died fore anything
was said, and Janet kept kinder quiet
for few years. No, she'll live and
die an old maid. I've always said that.
But see herel What did that dodgin'
fellow in the speckled suit mean by
tellin' my Bill that he comes from the
Land of Nod? My man says there
amt no such place in these diggings,
and my old man has travelled"
Janet had indeed answered his
question with honesty, but she was too
much of the woman to confess, when
the argument began to take shape be-
tween them some. weeks ago, her posi-
ton had been assumed for that argu-
ment's sake. But by dint of much
repetition, and the searching of all the
hooks and corners of her heart for pleas
in support of her theory, she had un-
consciously become her own first and
most steadfast convert, and burned with
all the zeal of the martyrs of old.
Had she shown-had she dreamed
for moment-of the love that had
sprung up in the heart of the stranger
who had halted for rest at her gate,
and he was only hiding it until such a
time as confession should be most GER
tain to win success, not all the elo-
quence and all the challenges that his
lips could utter would have led her to
promulgate or defend the faith to which
she had given her discipleship.
She knew it all week later. For
the first time in his life he called her
by the name her mother had given her.
And as she looked up with flush, in
which there was no touch of anger, he
took her hand, and, turning toward the
western sky, said gently: Janet, there
may be glory and there may be storm
behind that bank of clouds. God sends
his burdens and his gifts as he chooses
and we must take them as they come.
l have had my share of each in the
years behind me. l had thought the
way was plain ahead-that / was APP
preaching the summit of the hill, and
in few years would begin to go down
the other side. A new, a sudden, a
blessed light has shown into my heart
and / bless the road that led me here
1 love you, Janet. Will you be my
wife?"
1t came with the lightning stroke OF
an absolute, binding surprise.
Though, in looking once, she might
have seen it in his eyes, she might have
heard it in his voice and felt it in his
presence, she had been blind, and deaf
and had understood.
/ will not chronicle the answer she
gave him. There are some things SC
simple in their honesty, and yet SC
sacred, that they cannot be written
She opened her heart to him and laid il
bare in his presence; and as he heard
the tale of a sweet and lonely life, he
felt as though the white Mary of an
altar-shrine had made confession tc
him; and the tears stood in his eyes
and he was better man and noblel
man in that hour than he had been in
all his life before.
She made one condition. 1t was sim.
Pile, but from it no eloquence and nc
entreaty could move her.
"You must leave me for three
months In that time do not see me
do not write to me. If you find that
you have misread your heart, shall
know it and hold you in no blame, and
you will not come back to me. If l see
you here when the day of Punishment
has ended, you will have my answer
When the clerk, the schoolmaster and
the superintendent of tanners came to
breakfast on the following moring one
chair was vacant, and all the answer
Miss Denny could give had no consola.
ton in it, for they had come to like the
fellow and to defend him stoutly against
the insinuations of baffled curiosity.
" He babe me goodbye last night"
she said, "and left on the up coach al
dawn. He did not tell me where he
was going, and he may never come
back" and then wave of speculation
swept over the village for nine days,
and was still.
There never was scalpel sharp
enough for the dissection of true
woman's soul. This blunt pen dare
not, then, attempt. 1t is sufficient to
know that there was not day, and not
an hour, in which some vision or some
question that touched upon him was
not in her mind. At times she looked
at the circumstances that by chance had
thrown them together, and said to her
self: I" 1t was the passing fancy of a
moment. He will not return!" But
again she saw the light that shone in
| his eyes when he turned that night to-
ward the western sky, and heard the
tremor in his voice, and her soul as
serted itself as it never had in the old
days of loveless peace, and she whis-
pered so that even the air could not
hear it: He loves me, and he will re-
| turn" But not for moment did she
question the Judgment that put him to
the test.
The shOck-headed bow was at the