Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-12-06

Father let me take one O. the teams
not long after to go to Freleighsburg
that's across the line, you know.
I told him l was goln' after weddin'
fxin's. Four hours from the time /
left home / was married to Alberto
Baker.
There's an old sayin'-I s'pose i
you've heard it-sMarry in haste an
repent at laysure; we'll, that's what
done. In less n six weeks from
the time / first set eyes on him [ was
his wife. I was twenty years old
then; now I'm sixty, an I've been
repentin' nearly forty years"
She laughed again her discordant
laugh, and stared vacantly past me.
s'Father was dretful set man, and
when he went home the next day and
told him that we was married, he
told Albert that he supposed he was
able to support wife or he wouldn't
"a taken one. Albert told him he
hadn't but hundred dollars in the
world. Father said he presumed a
smart feller, who had been eddicated
in college, knowed how to invest
that to good advantage; and he ad-
vised him to move right along and
find comfortable place to put up
at for the night, for Lois don't dark
en- my doors again, mind that
Mother cried and begged, but it
didn't m axe no difference. We had
to 60 that night. l soon found aout
that my man had married me because
/ was the richest heiress in that part
of the state. For year or more we
lived round, from hand to mouth, in
different places, and I found out
what 1t was to 60 cold and hungry.
At last we fetched up here. He be-
gun, on a small scale, to buy and
sell horses and cattle, ,and had room
fitted up upstairs where he KEEP his
papers an things, an he never for
got to lock the door. He spent a
good deal of time there fggerin', an
used to cheer me up, sayin' he was
maxim pile O. money, an soon's he
was rich enough we would go to New
York, an then he would show me
what life was. So l KEEP hopin' on
for better times, an cooked and
scrubbed, and sometimes had plenty
to eat, an sometimes went hungry.
One night, when 1 was goin' to
watch with sick neighbor, man
rid up to the door. My man told me
to go straight along jest the same
if the stranger wanted any supper,
he could get him bite. / noticed
that the stranger had a black pointed
beard an light-colored eyes, with a
big scar over the left one, n was very
broad and strong acrost the shoul.
ders. When | came back the next
day, the man had gone.
His horse was in the shed. AL
bert said the man had sold it to him
il dropped dead durin' the forenoon
an my man swore good deal at his
bad luck. He seemed anxious to ge
it out of the way, an dragged it of
to the pasture n buried it. The mex
day compile of men came along, an
inquired for the first man. Alber
told them that such man as they
described had been there and put NJ
J for the night; searched the haous'
from garrut to suller for queer, anC
had gone off in the mornin' on the st
, Albans road. He took 'em off MP
stars, an after a spell they went
In less than a year from that tim'
my man went over the line one da,
: with couple of horses, n I've nev
er laid eyes on him from that day t.
, this. But she said, and her ex
: preston changed suddenly to one O
terror, and her voice sank to a whis
| per II told ye lived here alone
. but l don't; there's two of us, onl,
; the other one hides somewhere fo
{ the most part"
; began to feel the influence of thu
old woman's uneanny eyes. 1 beg
, ged her to explain herself, but sh
only shook her head, saying she ha,
talked enough for one night, an,
, would do up her dishes and 60 l.
! bed.
| While she was clearing away tn
E supper looked out of the window
, 1t was very dark. Fido came an
, rubbed his shaggy black head agains
my dress. / don't believe I woul
d have dared to have stayed in tina
! awful house another hour if it ha
E not been for the sense of protectio
e / felt from that little fact. / pate
his head affectionately, and promis
r ed myself that would get away a
t the earliest dawn and never get int
/ any such horrid scrape again.
seemed as if weeks had passed sine
t 1 left the hotel at Underhil, an
: mamma and Frank were as remote a
if on another continent. A sensa
t tion that was blending of homesick
i ness, isolation and fear came owe
$ me as made few SIMPLE prepare
/. tions for the night. The old woma
t invited me to share her bed, the onl
: one in the house, but / declined, an
+ lay down, without undressing, on a
4 old settee in the kitchen. Fldo cur
t ed down contentedly on the floor Q
. my side. | never was more wakefr