Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-06-05
THE QUILTING BEE.


''Too tired even to walk down Buttercup
Hill and hear the night.ngales sing"
Harry Lynde looked disappointed
''lt's only a step, Patience, said he.
"Only step! Yes, but every step tells
when one has fairly reached the limit of
ones endurance!"
''Then, suppose" said Harry, with
an air of resignation, 81 shall have to sit
down here beside you, and the nightin-
gales must sing to an audience of no
body"
"You and the nightingales must do as
laughing.
The old Osmund house looked weirder
than its natural wont-which was not at
all necessary-in the pallid moonshine;
the Lombardy pop!ars stirred in the even
ing wind, and the stars were coming out
III the sky SO fast that one could scarcely
! count them.
Patience and Harry were sitting on the
back porch-the front door was scarcely
ever opened except on high festival days
\ and Sundays old Mrs. Osmund was nod
ding over her knitting work by the light
OF a shaded lamp in the mouldy back
parlor.
"What have you found to occupy your
tine so severely9" said Lyndc.
Patience smiled
'Don't you know" said she. eve
are to have a quilting bee here to morrow.
At least, Mrs. Osmund is. And l have
boiled dozen spring chickens for salad,
baked six loaveS of cake, made raspberry
tarts after Franciolis recipe, and pre-
pared tongue, ham, and four quarts
of jelly. And the best silver has been
cleaned, and the decorated China washed ;
the parlor curtains ironei, and every
floor in the house swept"
Lynde whistled an insufficient ex-
preston of his thoughts.
II don't wonder that you're tired, !"
said he. "What is the old lady think
ing-that you are made of cast-iron?"
Mrs. Osmund is determined to have
the finest quilting bee of the season"
said Patience, land think she will sue
ceed"
with your assistance2"
with my assistance. But when one
looks at the lovely branching coral under
the ocean, one never thinks of the pa
tlent little ms ct that has toiled to form
its beauties. So, don't you see, Mrs. Os-
mund will get all the credit, as she ought
to do: am only her humble instru-
mort"
I should like to come to this quilting
bee, gravely observed Mr.. Lynde
You cam t!'' returned Patience.
with nod of her p city jet aired head
'No gentlemen allowed"
"A ell, at al events, shall be think
ing OF you the whole time"
pafipncn Maa6o warn no
evening. She had come to Mrs Os-
mond's on the recommendation of a
mutual friend as sort of ''genteel help
And she had done, wha. la never been
done before in the Knowledge of MAJ or
woman either, SUI ted the fastido Is, i'll
tempered old woman. Nobody couhl
quarrel with Patience Mcade-she was so
quie-, so gentle, so anxious to pleas.
on | at the molth's end, when Mrs. Os-
--m)nd had given her her har Learned
wages-six dollars in silver-and she
had venturel to hope that she hid given
salts action, the cd lady RUBBED her
nose with the end of her spectacle-casc,
and said, unwillingly:
II spose you've done as we'll as YOU
could. don't know why you won't suit
me-"
Which, from her, was extravagent
praise had poor. discouraged Patience
only known it.
The grand occasion of the quilting bee
arrived at last, and, to Mrs. Osmunds in
finite satisfaction, it did not rain. The
salad was made, in great shallow platters
OF the orthodox blowing blue pattern.
the jelly was turned into gllstening
molds, the coffee was b.ewed clear and
st ong and fragrant, the blackberry
short-cake was baked, the watilcs wei
all ready to turn into the pans at five
minutes notice The reighbors arrived
in best caps and gowns, each with a
working of a different pattern, and the
\ Osmnnd parlors were full of humming
voices, as the quit was tackled on the
frame, and each old Idly began on her
own pat cular portion, while Patience
few lightly to and fro finding the scis-
sors for one, tn! eading a ref actory needle
for another, hunting the thimble of Il
third from some unheard of hiding-p
.nder the sofa, and keeping the while a
general oversight on the supper table in
the back loom.
Like your gal, Mrs. Osmund2" asked
old Mi Farrar, during one of Patience's
temporary absences.
''S.,e amt so bad" was the old lady's
non-comm:ttal answer
''She has got pleasant face" said
Mrs. Johnes.
"Looks amt everything" observed
Miss Pellets, whom the village lads had
mischievously christened 'Medusa.n
1--WE all know as beauty is only skin
deep" said Betbiah Willis. whose eyes