The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-03-03

| "
presentable maid Of-all.work, VINO was, as
she thought, almost an idiot. yet who must
| be considered "as good as the rest and eat
| with the family at the table; and Hiram, the
hired man, coming in from his work in his
shirt-sleeyes, and dripping with perspir-
| ation7 He must have seat at the table,
too Oh no. she could not; she would not;
| she should die with modification.
In this dilemma she thought of Mrs. Silva,
| the mother of one of her young friends,
| woman OF rare graciousness, in whom the
maternal instinct was SO strong that she
! seemed like everybody's mother and
resolved to c0nfide in her. She could
not bring herself to confess to her own
| mother that she was ashamed of her and her
own home
| To this kind and wise friend she went,
| disclosing her affection, and begged that
she might call herself a boarder for the
time in her house, and receive the visit
/ there.
Your house is so sweet and nice and cool,
and you and the girls know how to do ey-
erthing and make everyth so pretty IL
/ my home was like this, and my mother just
| like you, l would never feel bit ashamed
| of it."
| But this proposal was kindly but firmly
negatived. Mrs. Silva's upright soul could
not stoop to assimilation.
| mo, my dear, can not allow you to do
that. If your young friend does not care
enough for you to bear seeing you in your
| real home, and with your own family, his
is not the friendship which you wish to re-
! TAIN"
| Here Matte burst into Sobs Of uncontroll-
| able emotion, and the sad refrain
| what shall do?" burst ever and anon
from her quivering lips. ''0h dear, wish l
had never gone to Cambridge L wish L had
! never seen anybody outside of this town! L
wish had never been born here or anywhere
| elseI'
| A. Loot fba br;II;an+ ;1ao s4,.,,cI- bar tI,o4
she might forestall the visit by going over to
| Waverley, and meet him there quite by acct
| dent, and pretend to be very much surprised,
and never to have received his letter. Yes,
that would do nicely; but she had nobody to
take her over. Father was using the horse,
| and he never would spare Hiram to drive
| and-and-here her, sobs and tears began
| afreSh.
Her distress, which was real, and by this
| time communicated to the whole family, so
wrought upon the sympathies of a young
/ lawyer, a prospective son-in-law of Mrs.
| Silva's, that he finally offered, at great in
convenience to himself, to drive her oyer to
waverly early in the morning. She dried
her eyes, went home and slept.
The next morning she started for Waverly
| at an early hour, taking crOsS-cut over the
| hills in order tn reaSh their destination in
| season to prevent their friends from starting;
and after their departure, as it seemed to be
| a broken day at the farmhouse, the family
| bought 1t good time to go of on black
| berry excursion, leaving only the obnoxious
| Sally at home, to clear up after the Satur-
| days baking, Fright up" the house, get din
uer for the hired man. feed the chickens and
| look out for tramps.
But alas for Mattie's schemes.
Tom Sherwood and Maria Smith took an
early start too, sin the cool of the day." but
| not being in any special haste she went by
the usual rouie e, arriving at Mr.. Reads soon
| after the family had departed, and before
Sallv's rightilig up the house had fairly be-
gun. Sally saw the horse turning up toward
the house AMI was delighted with the pros
pect of having her loneliness cheered by
company. Size rushed to the door to meet
them before they alighted from the chaise,
and greeted them with great cordially. She
was barefooted, and had on a very dirty and
ragged dress, and her red hair was scratched
up under head-covering known in those
days as a log-cabin sunbonnet. In this
plight she was even less than usually pre-
possessingl
Els Miss Matte at homer
"Oh dear, no! Pm awful sorry but she
heard there were some dreadful grand folks
over to Waverly, and they was coming here
to see her; and she said she wouldn't have
em come here for all the world, cause the
house looks SO bad and she made Square
Converse take her over across Pomfret hills
to head 'em. l don't see why she didn't
want 'em 10 come, but she said she wouldn't
have 'em nohow. But she'll be awful sorry
to miss of seein' you.
But Sally was hospitable, il she was not
clean, and insisted that thew should 'come
right in"
80 Toni" said Maria, "don't let us stop;
we will drive right dewn to the village. |
want to see Mrs. Silva, and L know she will
be glad to see US.
But this was too funny an episode for Tom
to give up. He would go in, and sit down
Iz<@ly Call
sat down too, and did her best to entertain
| the company, but when by way of making
| herself agreeable, she addressed him with the
| inquiry
"Tom, are you going to the sarcus?" he
nearly went into fits over It, and almost gave
her an invitation to next weeks circus the
| spot.
At last Maria, who was too kind to enjoy
| this dreadful modification to her friend. sue
ceeded in getting him started for the village,
and was glad to Introduce him to the family
| of her dear Mrs. Silva, where they were so
cordially and kindly received that It was not
| difficult to persuade them to have the horse
| put up, and to stay until after tea.
Maria glad to have this city cousin see
| this charming specimen OF farmers home
In Vermont. Everything was so clean and
| appropriate and well-cared-fOr within and
| without. The garden, with its rows of veg
| etables and ripenIng fruit, the BARR, the bee
hives, the cows coming up from the pasture,
the sheep crowding eagerly about the farmer
| for their salt, the hens and chickens, and
even the pigs were interesting to the city
boy, and he asked so many intelligent ques-
| tions, and expressed so much admiration of
| the horses and colts and evinced such hearty
appreciation of the bread and butter and
everything else, that the family were
delighted with him, and gave him a
| cordial invitation to come and see them
again Sin sugaring time"
Just before tea, the other party of the ex-
| cursionists drove up to the door, Matte had
fingered In Waverly until she was sure that
Tom and Maria must have started for home,
and then came back after a wearisome and
| unsuccessful day. Her embarrassment was
extreme at meeting these friends, but luck
lily for her peace of mind, she did not know
what had happened at the farmhouse, or the
extent of her misfortunes. She did feel, how
ever. that she had made an utter failure Of
her well-laid scheme, and could not help see
ing that her friends regarded her with kind
of contemptuous pity, rather than with adj
miration. However, she tried to forget her
troubles, and join in the general converse
ton at the tea-table, but she thought that
tom had not improved since she saw him,