News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-19
The Jewels.


Its TyE, very lonesome here r
sighed Isabel Darling.
And to one who had been brought up
in the very heart of busy, bustling New
York, it might well have seemed clone.
some" in that solitary ravine of the hills,
with only the sound of moaning pines
overhead and the rustic of a mountain
stream, as it fed foaming over rock and
bowlder, to people the weird silence
Grandmother Kesley had lived there
all her life, To her there was compau.
ionship in every stately tree and shud-
dering clump of BUSHES. The sound Of
wind shrieking down the huge stone
chimney was swceter, in her ears, than
Missions clearest notes.-the creaking of
The shutters at night was the voice oi
some gossiping companion How could
Grandmother Kesley, at seventy, and
Isabel Darling. at seventeen, be expect
ed to view life from the same platform ?
Lonesome p echoed old Mrs. Kesley.
"Oh, fddlestick Get your knitting,
and then you won't be lonesome.
And, reluctantly enough, Isabel
obeyed.
Nightfall had long descended upon
the solitary homestead among the hills.
Here and there a star shone momenta-
riiy through the ragged rock of clouds
that were scudding from the northwest,
and the wind was holding high carniva
among the tree-tops in the glen below.
Mrs. Kesley sat before the fire, with
such generous heap of blazing logs as
that no auxiliary candles were needed,
and her queer, brown, wrinkled face
looked likethat of Fairy Godmother in
the ruddy shine. Isabel sat opposite,
her soft brown eyes mirroring the blaze
as it flashed and fickered, her dark hair
shining like bands of satin.
Isabel Darling was very pretty-so
pretty, in sooth, that her thrifty parents,
who had five other feminine ''darIings"
to dispose of, considered that her rose
bud face ought to buy her fortune, and
Indignantly bundled her off to Grand
mother Kesley's, among the Adirondack
hills, when the first sOuz1cOn leaked out
of lover who had no more money than
he himself could earn at his artist craft
of wood engraving.
Oar Isabel to throw herself away on
Fred. Hensleyl' cried Mr.. Darling. |
AK with her face and the education |
we 'Yf ..-a,, I,,,. -
cot,-se, it's quite out of the -qres-
tony said Mrs. Daring, who had Just
such keen eyes and wrinkled brows as
her mother might have had twenty-five
years before-a worthy descendant of
the line of Kesleys. "We must send her
to Grandmother Kesley's at once"
Grandmother Kesley had written back
a favorable response to the letter of in
quiry that was at once dispatched upon
the subject.
"Let her come" said Grandmother
Kesley, with very sputtcring quill pen
on paper that was fashionable half
century ago. "You needn't worry your
selves about her lover. Lovers
aren't in my line, and this Hensley chap
may have her, if once he finds his way
inside my doors, and welcome p
And it was in answer to this trumpet
of defiance that poor Isabel Darling was
now wearing her heart ont, in the soil
tude of these wild, northern hills
Grandmother Kesley was kind-hearted,
too, in her way. She had done her best
to enliven the pining prisoner-had
brought down a packet of musty old
novels, "Clarissa Harlow" Charlotte
Temple" "Alonzo and Melissa" and
the hke-furnished Isabel with materials
to work sampler exactly like that
which hung framed above the "best
room" mantel, a memorial of her own
school-days, and even undertaken to
show her how to spin Could any NOR
tai, however unreasonable, ask more ?
Yet, with all this, Isabel Darling still
dropped
Tonight Grandmother KesIey had
new entertainment provided. She had
seen Isabel covertly crying once or twice
in the course of the day, and her heart
grew soft within her.
"Isabel," said she, as they sat tete-a-
tete in the twilight, 81 never showed
you my box of jewels ?"
''No, grandmother" said Isabel, list
iessly.
'Would you like to see 'em ?'
eyes, grandmother, still without
anything of interest in the tones.
Grandmother Kesley went to a curl
ously clamped old hair trunk that always
stood under the head of her bed, hidden
by the voluminous fall of the patchwork
quilt and with a great rattling of rusty
keys, drew forth small square box, of
some aromatic smelling wood.
Isabefs eyes opened in spite of herself,
as the old lady held up glittering string
of ancient gold beads.
''I had them when was gal O. four
teen," said she, nodding her be-capped
head. 'fFather-that'sy your great-grand-
father Kesley, child-give 'em to me
when finished my first set o. shirts for
him. And here is a lot O. amethysts
my Uncle Poundridge brought from sea
there was Spanish ship wrecked on
the shores where he chanced to be coast
in and them was among the things cast
up"
The purple stones, set in strange, old
fashioned filagree of finely wrought gold,
winked aud glimmered oddly in the fire.
light, as Grandmother Kelsey elevated
them in her skinny fingers.
Sand this ere is gold watch and
chain Squire Seth Duplex left your
Grandfather Kesley when he died. Your
grandfather and he were great friends,
Isabel, and the squire was always great
hand to do things liberal. But John
Kesley never carried the watch-he al
ways said it was too fine for him and he
stuck to his old silver one. And here's