Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-09-12

sounds seemed to belong to spring ne uau Le,I
room which opened out Of the kitchen. long be
fore John left, though this SOBER young MS "a
never kept his love up late n4s III ssisa M
when the front door closed. he wonoea.o
dreamily why John went 90 soon-an nour e ~.
iier than usual Then he heard D s iee 90 the
trout stairs TO her room, ana toen no '0Ao" WAC
door and went to bed himself .
Next morning he looked curiousiy ~ LG pa,,t
esn9 ssi o wh hem in Ss early
her II she did not feel well, and she said yes s
was just putting on his hat to 60 to his work
Father; aid she. II s'poss you ought n1;s t.
h kn9 tSs IT. a John and amt going 70 get mA'e0
.Iou don't mean you've broke Il or" ,o..
some time It'll be ali Hight and that's all can
tell you ' shi. ,1ar 1 think You ought
II was not % easy to stop her nervous, dis-
tressed father in his wonderment and con)ect,
uring, however. He fingered and talked AND
she had said, and he went Of to work in an
anxious oewilderment
Ae had been very confidential about MS us
the new house, and how likely the young man
hs as ssa anS he
Lois saw it, with an awful sinking at her
neaft, but she never faltered in her purpose. A
70 have fallen upon her gentle, humble little
daughter. She never would marry John Elliot
until she could go to him well enough provided
At the outset. There was no anger In her de-
termination, and no pride deserving the name.
She had got 1t fixed in her mind that she
could not marry the young man now without
injury to him, and she loved him too well TO do
this that was all.
She had asked him the night before to defer
their MARRIAGE a She ora va him n reason.
she thought she could not, without perhaps
having his mothers remarks traced back and
would not consent to the plan.
Inc result was inevitable with young man
Oh John Elliot's turn OF mind. He broke the
gay the carpenters stopped working on the new
house. The silence Of the hammers smote Lois
hes S nn Of all day Her
work on the house."
ran upstairs, threw herself Oh her bed and cried
bitterly. She could not help 1t. Still, strangely
enough, she was very far from giving up all
her life that the new house would be finished
ana she and John live in 1t some day. She was
going to work and earn some pretty dresses and
some furniture; then John would come back,
ana IL would be all right. In spite of her yield.
Ing nature. there was in her capability of fine
use an Oh % which she might not not
which would work wonders then Whether it
woulo work wonders with q practical, unimagi-
manned to be seen. some might have cues
tloned II her subtle fneness of strength was in
near enough plane to admit Of any struggle.
ana by-and-by, when she had earned enough
money, and had her clothes and her furniture,
they would be married, and the carpenters
would finish the new house.
ner greatest present distress was her fathers
detection and her not seeing John Sunday
nights, and she made the best of that It was
odd that she did not worry much over poor
Johns possible unhappiness; but she was so en-
gaged In acting against her own heart for his
SideratiOn.
So she got the district school to teach, and
passed the summer that way, instead of making
edging and listening to the carpenters ham,
mers. The school was half a mile from her
home, and she had to keep the house tidy and
get meals for her father, besides teaching SO
she had to work hard Back and forth She
went, passing nrst the wild roses and then the
golden-rod on the country road morning, noon
strained, earnest look on it, but never a hope
less one. If John had only known! but he
worked on in the shop over in Pawlet village,
and never came near Lois. If she was in his
thoughts he kept her there secretly that no
body knew. He went to work on weekdays
and to meeting on Sundays steadily and just
as usual. He never alluded to Lois, or his
broken engagement, or his unfinished house, to
anybody, and silenced his mother with, 81 don't
may as well understand it first as last"
She never mentioned the matter to him af.
terward, though she got good deal of comfort
She was not sorry, on the whole, she said, that
the match was broken off, She had nothing
against Lois Arms; she was a real pretty little
she always thought John might do q little bet
ter.
Then she was to have been left alone in her
neat cottage house, which her husband had be-
queathed her, on Johns marriage; and although
she had not wanted to live with the young
not alt fl,or
wish to be left alone. If she had told the whole
truth, she would have said that she was jealous
OF her son. and did not really want him to get
Lois used to meet Johns mother sometimes.
and would return her stiff bow wistfully. She
she never met. She used to glance timidIv
across the church of a Sunday sometimes, and
see him upright and grave in his pew; but he
seemed to see her.
Lois taught all that year till the next spring:
then she had two hundred dollars in money
She had not spent one cent of her salary but
had saved it jealously. She had not given any
to her father; that troubled her most. To see
wood-cutting and hauling through the Winter
his shoulders bent, his thin, nervous face with
Its white beard growing thinner and more anx-
But she kept thinking it would be all right soon.
She knew his disappointment was wearing on
him: but soon it would be over, and this pre-
cious money would bring 1t about.
Lois had 1t all planned just what she should
do with her money. Seventy-five dollars would
buy her dresses, she thought, and one hundred
and twenty-five her furniture. She anticipated
q sumptuous housekeeping outfit from that
She was as innocent as child about the cost of
things. Then John would come back to her
and the taps of the hammers ON the new house
would chime in with the songs Of the robins
again.
Lois was thinking what day she should 90
over to the village to buy her dresses, and how
she should send a little note to John when one
day, shortly after her school closed, her father
was brought home with broken arm That
settled the matter. The dresses were not
bought, the note was not written, and the car.
penters' hammers remained silent when the
robins began to sing. Lois school money paid
the rent and the doctors bill, and bought food
for herself and father. She nursed her father
till he was about again, and then she took up
her school work and began anew. She went
without everything. She wore her poor little
shoes out at the toes; In the winter she wrapped
her shawl round her little red fingers and went
without gloves. She went past the wild roses
again, then the golden-rod and asters then the
red maple bOughs, then the snOw-drifts back
and forth between her home and the school,
house. with her pretty, enduring, eager face
till spring came again.
A few weeks after her school closed, John FL
liot, coming home from the shop at dusk one
rainy Saturday night, met o girl on the covered
bridge just before he got TO his home. She had
been standing mOtionless at the farther en-
trance till she had seen him enter at the other;
rapidly. She extended her hand, with some
thing white in it, when she reached him.
INF. Elliot" said she, trembling, "here's a
note for you, youth please read it when you
Then he saw 1t was Lois.
"HOw do you d." said he, stiffly and took
the note and went on.
When be got home he opened IL and read r.