Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-11-12
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDA y
NIGHT.

1t was an old-fashioned room. in an old
fashioned house. a high paneled wainscot,
to whose paint. originally pea green, time
had added beautifying pallor, ran round
the wall which was papered with a pattern
of palm trees and pagodas in sober browns.
In the chimney breast. and here and there
at unexpected corners and angles, appeared
cupboard doors, each with a little green
knob and a wooden button TO fasten it, A
high, clawfooted secretary in cherry wood,
dark with age. stood opposite a still taller
clock, ON whose face appeared ship at
full sail, beneath an enormous moon disc
| three-q quarters revealed.
The sofa and arm chairs were of that un-
compromising pattern, Just now enjoying a
| renewed popularity, which suggests erect
| spines and ultimate back ache On the mar
row mantel-shelf behind the Franklin stove
stood two bow pots of old Canton ware,
from whose depths exhaled the lavender
and roses of a by-gone summer, blended
with spice in those cunning proportions
which only our grandmothers knew.
| On low chair beside the dimity- curtain
ed window sat the only modern thing in the
room-a young girl. She was pretty crea-
ture. symmetrical and slender, with the
| transparent freshness of early youth about
her, and beautiful, shy, yet miscellaneous
dark gray eyes, whose long, curtaining
lashes of darkest brown were in contrast to
the warm tints of her yellow hair These
delightful eyes were peeping out at the
| street from between the quantity fringed
| curtains. and when the tall clock struck
the half hour after five she jumped prompt
| ~ up, and, saving aloud, 1T is quite time
to 20, snatched at "A hat and shawl laid
ready at hand on the sofa, and hastened
across the room and through narrow en-
try to the kitchen.
Il am going to grandmamma's for the
night, Lois" she said to an old serving
woman who sat beside the stove pairing APP
| pies. Please say | am there, if any one
calls, and that grandmamma keeps SVtur-
day night, and is very particular about not
| being disturbed
Shall say you're going to be there to-
morrow night too =
mo, indeed, Lois. am coming back
here in the morning. You can say so, if
any one inquiries But please say also that
IRE keep Sunday night, and papa is just as
particular about not being disturbed as
| grandmamma is
| With a wicked little laugh she vanished
through the back door
Il Just wonder what that child is up to =
| soliloquized Lois. But | can suspicion
what it is well enough 'Tisn't for nothing
that she goes flying off to the old madam
every Saturday, and has grown so dreadful
pertikeler about having the Sabbath kept,
and that young man from town ringing the
door-bell every other Saturday, and always
being told she can't be seen. | reckon she
wouldn't take such pains TO get away if she
didn't kinder mistrust that she liked him
Girls are Gurus creatures and no mistake
about it.
While Lois was thus shrewdly meditating
over her vagaries, Nita Bigelow, having
climbed a stone wall and let herself deftly
under pair of bars, was rapidly skirting
the edge of the little corpse which ran down
gradual meadow slope toward the lower
street Affair off in the valley the train from
Boston announced its approach by pro
longed whistle Nita paused moment tc
listen to it, A sudden tender look softened
the miscellaneous glee of her face. - PooI
Ned" she sighed to herself, her eyes fixed
ON the slow curl of smoke which marked the
arrival of the engine at the platform. Then
as if shaking herself free from some thought
she threw back her pretty head and resumed
her downward run
She had taken the same path more than
once of late, and always ON a Saturday
night, Just as the train was coming in. Was
| it from herself that she was running away
or from somebody else That question was
not easy to answer. She fled from an in
stinct of escape, the instinct TO avoid deci.
sion That she could not always fly, Nits
knew. That she might not always desire L
fly, she perhaps guessed; but meanwhile
as each weeks close brought the same sen
sation of possible danger, some spirit il
her feet seemed to carry her over the gar
den wall and down the hill-slope to the Sc
curity of grandmamma's who was $50 par
ticular about keeping Saturday night" Ii
was dull certainly, but it was absolutely
safe, and Nita was in mood to prefer safe
ty however dull, to any risk, however en-
tertaining
The sun was Just touching the horizons
edge as she opened the well-known door
A Sabbath stiffness seemed already to hav,
settled upon the Excepting room" where hel
aunt and grandmother sat one with hel
Bible opened before her, the other with
fat, leathern- bound volume of Scott's Com
mentaries, Every secular book and news
paper had already been put out of sight
The fire burned with hushed crackle. Ii
the next room stood the table already laiC
for supper, and in the buttery the coli
joint, the cranberry sauce and the pie wait
ed to-morrow's dinner-time Beyond tn,
necessary making of beds, washing of cup
and plates and the boiling of the kettle, NJ
household work would be done ON the prem
ises until the next setting of the sedulousl,
watched sun should end the still, solemn in
action, and restore the dwelling to its wont
ed routine of cheerful life.
Aunt Eunice looked up as Nita cam
noiselessly in and stopped to kiss her grand
mother.
That's right, dear, #" she said "We ar
glad to see you There are Fordyce's Ser
mons and Laws Serious Call on the table
laid them out, hoping you would come.
Nita helped herself to Laws Serious Call
and settled into obedient quiet on the othe
side of the fire, Her eyes were on he
book, but her thoughts were far away. Sh
was rejecting that just at that moment Me-
Baum was probably ringing the door bell a
home and hearing that she was inaccessibl