Connecticut western news., 1886-08-04
THE HIRED GIRL.

sShe makes perfect picture, out there in that tropical sunshine," said MT. Will lars. Look at her, with that scarlet ribEon at her ne k and those coils of hair waving blue-black in tho intense hghtl It is like a dream of Italy"
 ssYes," said Mrs. Leeds, ''she is very pretty, but that don't signify so much. She's good, smart girl, and don't lose any time looking at herself in the glass, like some I've had."
 ''Where did you pick her up9" asked the young clergyman, carelessly drawing the newspaper from his pocket as he sat down on the carpet of pine needles under the big evergreen tree.
 ''Didn't pick her up anywhere" said Mrs. Leeds. tartly Gor this was a part of the transaction that had never been quite satisfactory to her business-hke souD. ''She came along"
 sCame alongf" (with slight accent of surprise.)
 "Yes-looking for work"
 Mr. Villars lifted his eyebrows.
 s'Thcn how do you know who she is9" he asked.
 '1 don't know" retorted Mrs. Leeds, unconsciously betraying her weak point by this irritability of manner; 'but l know what she is, and that's more to the purpose. She's the best washer that ever crossed my threshold; as docile as a kit ten, and as smart as cricket; does twice the work of any one else that ever had, and if she's ever tired she don't say SO. /" Mrs. Leeds hustled off to interview Farmer Parks for more Alderney cream for the summer boarders, now that the house was beginning to fill up.
 Mir. Villars improvised a pillow out of his coat, folding it cylinderwise and placed under his head, and closed his eyes in sort of summer dream among the pine boughs and butterflies.
 And Eliza, spreading out blackberries to dry on the board platform that had been erected along the garden fence, be- gan to sing softly to herself. She was very silent ordinarily, but somehow ii seemed as if the sunshine had thawed out her very heart to-day.
 MT. Villars had been right. There was something of the atmosphere o Italy about Eliza-her eyes were so deel and dark, her hair so glossily black, hel cheek stained with such rich olive.
 Moreover, she did not move like the girls of rockbound New England. There was a subtle, gliding motion-a languol of gracefulness in her gait-which wal foreign to all her surroundings.
 The girls of the vicinage did not fra ternize with Eliza when, at rare intervals she accompanied Mrs. Leeds to church sewing-circle or village gathering; for i, staplevillc the employer and employe occupied one all-comprehensive socia platform
 They said she was ''odd;" they looked at her askance; and Eliza, always yer quiet in her ways, made no eEort to in sinuate herself into tn ir good graces.
 Why should shea What did it signify one way or the other, whether Debora Smart and Keziah Hayes and Abby Jan Clark liked her or not, as long as NIT Leeds was pleased with hera
 But the village girls made one error i their calculations. They had not inter ded, as the time crept on, to emphasiz their antipathy to Mrs. Leeds Eliza S strongly as to awake partisan feeling i Mr. Villars' breast; but they did so, UT consciously to themselves.
 "Why do they neglect that girl sos the young clergyman asked himself ''Can they not see how infinitely superic she is to them2 It's shamer'
 And SO Abby Jane Clark and Debora Smart and Keziah Hayes sealed their ow doom, so far as MT. Villars was COT cerned.
 There was not one of them but woul have been delighted to win a smile, glance, a pleasant word from the your man who was summering at the Leet farm house.
 But, alasl like the priest and the L vite, he passed by on the other side; ar when the village girls, in their afternoc muslins and ribbons, sat at their windoy and wondered why ''he came not" uas in nine cases out of ten heluiI Eliza to gather peaches for tea; standir beside the brook, while she spread o towels and pocket ha 1dkerchiefs bleach, or even explaining to her tl difference between the notes of the thru and the woodlark, the speckled eggs the robin and the pearl-gray treasure the whip-poor-will.
 '.He seems to be taking notion her,n said Mrs. Leeds to herself, as S eyed the pair shrewdly from her mil room window. "Well, why shouldl hel It's true he's minister, and own nephew; but in my mind Eliza good enough for any man. My sake won't Abby Jane Clark be mad2 If eN a girl wanted to be parsons wife, Alb Jane doesp
 Thus things were progressing, wh one day 8 smart young tradesman fr' d an adjoining town came to board out 2 fortnight's vacation at Deacon Clark's.