The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-02-26

| meant W De dpOIOBcllc, dlu boOk all dU-
rupt leave.
The remainder of the meal was silent
and constrained
! Aunt Hannah s cheerful face was troub-
led; Mrs. Clegg wore a worried frowil, and
ate nothing; JAMIE her fair face filled with
sweet distress, replied in monosyllables to
| Dayton's observations.
The young man smoked cigar on the
porch that evening.
1t was not his usual custom; perhaps it
might have been accounted for by the fact
that blonde-haired person in blue cam
| brio sat beside him, and looked wonder
fully picturesque, too, i'll the white shawl
she had thrown about her.
Il have thought of costume" she said
with a pretty hesitation, as they parted in
the dim hall that is, if Aunt Hannah will
let me, she added, mysteriously, and van
ished up the stairs.
'What be they up to now - said Mrs.
Clcgg, fretfully pausing over the break
fast dishes, next morning, to listen to the
sound of voices proceeding from an upper
room.
''Its my doing" said Aunt Hannah, re-
grctfully. "You see, jamie leased SO hard
for 'em that didn't jest know how to say
no
''Eh?" said her sister, blankly.
''She wanted my old spinning wheel and
Grandma Phillips old yellow silk dress,
and that old black comb | used to wear"
Aunt Hannah explained. That feller's
going to make picture of her that way"
Mrs. Clegg sank into chair.
GLOW could you a done it ?" she quer-
led. '"rhe more she secs of him, and he
don't want nothing of her! do believe"
Mrs. Clegg concluded, beginning to cry in
corner of her apron, take it all together.
I'm the most unhappy critter that ever
was,''
Poor Aunt Hannah churncd away in con
science-strcken silence.
"You couldn't have hit upon anything
more perfect, Miss Clcgg," George Dayton
was saying at the same moment. up in the
big unfurnished upstairs room.
jamie was charming, indeed, as she sat
there smilingly-thc quaint, short sleeved,
high waistod yellow silk dress falling in
shimmcring folds about her; the flax on
the wheel at her side held tightly in both
small hands. one slippered foot pressing
| the treadle.
Pm glad you like it, she said demure-
| ly.
sHLike it, cried the young man, delight
edly. Pm entranccd3'
! And he rushed down stairs for his paint
ing materials.
''Where did you get it ?'' he inquired,
eagerly, with nod at the spinning wheel,
as, with easel before him and the inevita-
BILE paint rag across his knee, he began
studying the scene with narrowed eyes,
and blocking it in"
cts Aunt Hannah's,' jamie responded
with laugh-''and such time as had
getting it,
| There's corner in my studio at home,
said Dayton, musingly, (which spinning
wheel would fill exactly. A studio isn't
complete without you, anyhow. You don't
suppose-turn little to the right, please;
that's it-that Aunt Hannah could be in
duced to part with it -
81 don't know said jamie, obviously;
| ''But I'll ask her.
She would have undertaken a much
more arduous task, with the young mans
bright, dark eyes fixed upon her in that
tenderly persuasive way
Dayton worked hard, and jamie watch
ed him with interest, squeezing drop
from this and that small tin tube, and
mixing colors almost ferociously, adding
vigorous stroke, and stepping back few
PAGES to note the effect.
Altogether it was a delightful morning,
and it was an unwelcome interruption to
both when Mrs. Clegg put her head in at
the door, surveyed the scene with frown
and an audible sigh, and then told jamie
TO come down and set the dinner table.
Dayton sat in deep reflection when the
yellow silk had obedicntly swept itself
away.
lie had not meant TO be inquistive, and
certainly jamie had not been garrulous;
but he was in possession OF the facts con-
corning the little scene at the supper table
last night.
They were few and simple.
Janie's father had died three years ago,
leaving fiyc-hundrcd dollar mortgage on
his little home, in Oreutt's hands.
Three hundred and fifty of this, by dint
of chicken raising, butter making and an
occasional summer boarder they had paid;
the remainder, the girl said, with soft
sadness in her voice. had seemed hard in
coming, and their creditor was growing
excusably impatient.
Dayton cleared his palette, covered his
canvas and took his brushes down stairs
for rinsng, rather mechanically, wore an
absent smile at the dinner table, and was
still preoccupied when he started off on
tour of discovery, sketch book in hand.
lie had taken resolve.
The painting progressed rapidly.
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