Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-06-25

more little weaker"
"Rilla, / am an firm as the ash hopper IT,
self You can't shake me any better than
you could our brick smoke house. l won't
help make any more soap-especlally on rose
day, j." added Infant to herself 81 don't see
any sense in it,"
"But you can see sense in spelling dozens
OF good roses to load yourself up with like
mad Ophelia. You feel above all the associa-
tions Of wash day, though the Princess
Nausicaa didn't"
"Oh, Rilla, don't feel above anything
merely feel under that soap kettle, and as II
it would crush my soul out, as the shields
crushed Tsrpeia, il didn't throw it off.
"Well, am going to make soap" said
Ria, whitening with intense disapproval Of
the liberty her twin proposed to grasp. You
are not minor and If you were, I'm not
your guardian. But if you propose to go to
yourself and leave me to myself we both
know what belongs to us, and il is easily
done
This time. worn hint, which in her grlhood
used TO startle and distress Infant so much,
made but the slightest impression on her
hearing now, as she leaned over the veranda
railing TO look at the roses. There were
such abundant stacks of them she might
cut and pile them into pyramid almost as
tall as herself. Such smooth, sweet tea
roses, such crimson velvet petaled Jacquemi-
nots, blush and white so fragrant you would
be willing to drown yourself in sea of their
scent; yellow roses piercingly delightful,
| Prairie Queens creeping all over the front of
the house, old hundred -leaved varieties, hav-
| ing always in their depths q reminder OF
grandmothers chests and long, long past
days. There we're eighteen distinct families
| OF roses, each family a mighty tribe, mar
shalled before Infant on lawn and dewy
stretch of garden. It was rose day. She
would not let herself think of anything else.
Rilla would not come to the emhowered
dinner table which Infant prepared 30 care
fully, and to which she called her sister ex-
actly as the clock struck twelve.
Rose day never interfered with Infants du
ties. Her conscience acquitted her of shirk
ing. Often in dead winter-time, when the
snow piled up and Enos Robb's family set
tied down TO the enjoyment of colds and
heumatism, she fed all the stock herself.
Rilla turned her back on Infants several
approaches, and dipped lye with a savagely
noisy gourd to quench Infants voice. Slugs
and ants in the roses, and even mildew, were
no drawback at all to rose day compared to
Rila. Habits of endurance become proof
armor to ones senkibilites in the course of
life, however; so Infant wandered off and
absorbed the beauty of that day almost as
completely as II she did so with Rillas ap-
proval. There was tremulous heat over the
|
garden was world by itself. Beyond that
stretched their orchard, having run of clear
water winding through it, all thickly tufted
along the margins with mint.
Infant stepped upon the spongy lichens OF
the fence and rested her arms on the top rail-
while she looked along the narrow country
thoroughfsre. The sweet green world was
dear enough to be pressed in her arms
| Mingled mint and rose sents we're satisfying
| of hair
pasturing in the stock meadow was beautiful
to the eye. Infant loved to bear the pound
ing of those tufted feet, and to note the brill
liant blackness or gray dapplng of the young
creatures coats glisteniug in the sun. She
did not expect anything more unusual to
happen on this rose day than her rebellion
against Rila and the splendor of the weather.
But who should come suddenly riding along
the road, as if he had an appointment with
Infant, and meant to keep it the moment she
set her foot on the rail, but the Honorable
Truman Condit, who many years before rode
as instantaneously out of her sight? She
knew him in fash, although his hair showed
gray around the ears, and much experience
had added unspeakably to his personality.
He was on Condit horse, evidently riding
around TO look at his old neighborhood.
There was great tribe of the Oondits, all
well to do, high headed people. The Honor.
able Truman had been the local smart young
man OF his generation. He was sent to the
State Legislature before his thirtieth year,
and afterward he went west, where, Infant
heard, he did tremendous things.
She was suddenly conscious that her rose
studded braid was not wound up in a decent
lump as she wore it before her class of young
ladies in Sunday school. She felt contempti-
BILE and out of place in the human procession,
although the Honorable Truman turned his
horse straight into the fence corner to shake
hands with her.
Pretty nearly the same Infant Baldwin" ,"
he remarked. but do see some lines on
your face"
81 suppose I've vegetated instead of lived
all the time you have been doing 80 much, "
said Infant.
"Oh haven't been doing so much"
"We heard you had"
1--WE means Rilla and you. Aud you didn't
marry?"
NO" said Infant, feeling it stinging in-
dignity that he should mention it, after that
courtship so long buried, He had married,
and raised a family out west. Rilla was
probably right when she said one woman was
, the same as another to a man.
"And how is Rilla2 Is she as hard on you
as she used to be2"
"Oh, Rilla was never hard on me. She is
, quite well, thank you. You're coming up to
the house to make us call and take tea
aren't your"
~ thought would"
Infant looked anxiously at the western sun.
She hoped Rilla would have the cold soap
. cut into cakes and boxed, and herself bathed,
, clothed, and in her right mind, before the
Honorable Truman Condit rode up to their
, door.
+ 81 want to have a talk with you first,
though" he added. "And my way is to go
r right to the point. Why did you never
marry?"
, "Come to that" retorted Infant, sparkle
a breaking through her face, ''why did yOu
| marry?"
''In the first place, because you wouldn't
2 have me, and in the second place, because
I found very good wife where 1 went. I've
Z been q widower now several years, and the
a boys are settled. I'm loose from business for
4 almost the first time in my life, and back here
/. to look at the old neighborhood before spend
4 ing some years abroad. Your never marry
} ing has revived certain things. Maybe you've
r forgotten"
l Among her other thoughts, Infant wai
Q conscious of recolleoting how often she had
! wished to go abroad IL only some happy
! friend could go along as a cushion betwix
n RilIa and her. She unfastened with furtivI
a hand the rose rope wound about her, but un
o willing to let so many precious roses 60
gathered it into loops on her arm.
n did you ever know, pursued the honor
a able Truman, "that Rilla told me you were
q going to marry one of the Pierson boysP"
Q "No!" Infant cried out so suddenly that the
}, horse started.
4 Weren't you engaged to one of themP"
d 81 never was engaged 20 anybody excep
d you, she retortsd, burning hotly in the face
n land did not admire that experience wher
a you dropped me and went of. Aud dom
/ yet, though you do lay the blame on poo
/. Rilla."
q Plenty of time had Rilla for all the domes
o tic oountermarching she wished to perform
il before that conference by the fence ended
q Unusually stirring we're her tactics too, fol-
b all the Robbs were hailed up from the tenant
/ house-Mrs. Robb to cook a supper, and tn
young Robbs not actually farming to run OF
a | errands.
If 1t was six o'clock when Euos came riding
his plough horses to the great barn He hat
g turned of early on purpose to intercept Mis-
a Infant and find out what changes were to b
Le made. Infant hastened up the orchard Will
!. the Honorable Truman FASTENED to the sam
destination by the road. She saw him lead
r ing his horse up the avenue and felt impa
d tient at Enos Robb's interruption.