Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1886-02-18
APR0LONGED VISIT.
"Oh, pshawl" said Paul Romer.

meadows never looked so lovely, and
Crystal Falls never rushed over the
rocks in such a sheet of foam before,
and Kate Bonney never has been in
the country"
"Let her come!" said grandma, BEAM
ingly. "Poor creaturel can't fancy
what folks feel like who have never
been in the country"
"And only think of her being obliged
to spend her vocation in that hor-
cid, stuffy, onion-and-cabbage-smelling
boarding house." added Helen.
"Please, Paul, mayn't / write for her
to come? Mayn't ! have old sorrel
and the wagon to meet her at the sta
tion?"
"Of course you may" said tNegood-
humored young farmer, putting up
both his hands With gesture OF de-
spair. Don't | know that you two
women are bound to have your own
way in any event? But mind you
no city airs and graces for me. If
find ! can't stand your elegant young
'saleslady.' 1 shall take my rod and
gun, and 20 up into the mountains
until the coast is clear"
mo one can help liking Kate Bon
ney," said Helen, with decision.
II never saw girl yet, except you
and Polly" said Paul Romer, THAT /
didn't consider first-class bore"
But Polly sympathized warmly with
the unknown presence; and grandma
herself went up stairs to make sure
that the west ed-room was well-aired,
and that the linen sheets were clean
and perfumed with dried sweet clover,
while Helen sat down and wrote a
warm and enthusiastic letter to Kate
Bonney, who stood at the same
counter with her at Sell &Makechange's
dry goods store in New York.
Kate Bonney hesitated little be-
fore she dared to accord to herself so
great happiness as this. She had
always lived a lonely life since her par
ents had died on the passage over
from England, and left her solitary
orphan. What right had she to intrude
into the warm social glow ofother peo-
pies homes? And yet-and yet it was
such a temptation!
Such q temptationl Kate Bonney
could not resist it. She wrote:
II will comel''
1t was mid-haying time, and all the
meadows and hillsides smelt sweetwhen
the train stopped at the quiet little Con-
necticut station among the balsamic
woods. There was Helen, in a cozy little
wagon, holdingthe reins of sleepy old
sorrel horse; there were wild roses all
in bloom; there were acres and acres
of daisies stretching out towards the
sunset.
Involuntarily Kate gave a cry of de-
light
"Oh, Helen" she cried, chow could
you ever leave this lovely place to
come to the city?"
Helen gave grimace.
CAL very well for few weeks in
midsummer, said she, but it is so
dismally, terribly, forlornly dreary all
the year roundl But jump in. We're
waiting tea for you at home!"
And such a tea! Raspberries, with
real cream; crisp, green lettuce-heads,
just out of the garden; trout which
half an hour ago were leaping in the
brook; and broiled chicken, which
Kate Bonney scarcely dared to eat,
so entirely had she associated it with
high prices in the restaurant bills of
fare, while grandma looked smilingly
on, and a delicious atmosphere of
home seemed to pervade everything.
And Paul, too-how handsome
he was, with that broad, sunburned
brow, and the roguish sparkle in
the clear blue eyes, that were so much
like Helen's.
And at night the air was so cool
and refreshing, they all sat out upon
the porch, and night bird came and
sang 20 them from the big oak tree on
the edge of the woods; and when Kate
Bonney went to bed, she dreamed the
sweet est. brightest dreams thai ever
haunted amaiden's pillow.
How C'l;c..y those two weeks fled
away. 70 Kateit was as II the hours
were actually winged. Woodland re-
cesses, impromtu pichics, walks be-
side singing rivulets, and on the solemn
edge of mountain cliffs; learning to
milk COWS, to feed chickens; to put to-
gether the puZzling blocks of grand
mas "Irish chain, bed-quilt; to make
corn Jonny cakes, and gather the
great juicy berries, which were begin
ming to ripen along the blackberry
vines; to dress her hat with pop
pies and ferns, to distinguish the whis-
tie OF the cat-bird from the "chirrup,
chirrup, chee-ee" of the robin. 1t was
as if some new page of the volume OF
existence were opened to the New York
shop-girf.
While Helen and Polly were overjoy-
ed to see how much interest Paul took
in promoting all these useful studies
Paul. the ostentatiously protested old
bachelor-Paul, the scorner of city
damaels.
And grandma was so innocently
pleased at seeing 1.-The children happy"
that it did one good even to look at
her.
"Only three more days." said Kate
Bonney. "Oh, Helen, we must be
very happy indeed for these three last
days."
ooh, OF course" said Helen. "But
I'm not sure, Kate, that shall not be
glad to be backs.within the sound of
the elevated roads again"
GLOW can you talk so?" said Kate,
eagerly. "How can you compare
this free, wild, satisfying life with that
stuffy little store in the city, with the
brick walls around it?"
And glancing up, Helen intercepted
the sudden light OF Pauls eyes, as he
looked across at the enthusiastic