The Wilmingtonian., 1886-08-28
The Hired Girl.

black in the intense light 1t is like
dream of Italy -
Eyes" said Mrs. Let dis, ''she is very pret-
ty, but that don't signify so much. She's
good smart girl, and don't lose any time
looking at herself in the glass, likesome I've
had"
"Where did you pick her up?" asked the
young clergyman, carelessly drawing the
newspaper from his pocket as he sat down
on the carpet of pine-needles under the big
evergreen tree.
"Didn't pick her up anywhere" said Mrs.
Leeds, ,tartly (for this was a part of the trans
action that had never been quite satisfactory
to her business-like soul). ':She came
along"
"Came along ?" (with slight accent of
surprise.)
"Yes-looking for work."
MIR. Villars lifted his eyebrows.
''Then how do you know who she is ?" he
asked.
~ don't know p retorted Mrs. Leeds, IN
consciously betraying her weak point by this
irritability of manner but know what she
is and that's more to the purpose. She's
the best washer that ever crossed my thres-
hold AZ docile as kitten, and as smart as
cricket does twice the work of any one
she don't say So"
Mrs. Leeds hustled off to interview Far
mer Parks for more Alderney cream for the
summer boarders, now that the house was
beginning to fill up.
Mr.. Villars improvised pillow out OF his
coat, folding it cylinderwise and placed un-
der his head, and closed his eyes in sort of
summer dream among the pine boughs and
butterflies.
And Eliza, spreading out blackberries to
dry on the board platform that had been
erected along the garden fence, began to
sing softly to herself. She was very silent
ordinarily, but somehow it seemed as if the
sunshine had thawed out her very heart to-
day.
Mr.. Villars had been right. There was
something of tho atmosphere of Italy about
Eliza-her eyes were 80 deey and dark, her
hair so glossily black, her cheek stained with
such a rich olive.
Morever, she did not move like the girls
of rock-bound New England. There was
subtle, gliding motion-a languor of grace
fulness in her gait-which was foreign to all
her surroundings.
The girls of the vicinage did not fraternize
with Eliza when, at rare intervals, she ac-
companied Mrs. Leeds to church, sewing
circle or village gathering for in Stapleville
the employer and employee occupied one all
comprehensive social platform.
They said she was todd = they looked at
her askance; and Eliza, always very quiet in
her ways, made no effort to insinuate herself
ilto their good g. a,es.
Why should she2 What did it signify,
one way or the other, whether Deborah
Smart and Keziah Hayes and Abbey Jane
Clark liked her or not, as long az Mrs. Leeds
was pleased with her
But the village girls made one error in
their calculations. They had not intended
as the time crept on, to emphasize their an
tipathy to Mrs. Leeds Eliza so strongly as
to awake partisan feeling in Mr.. Vilars'
breast but they did so, unconsciously to
themselves.
w ny uu biloJ ucBitob bAdt III
young clergyman asked himself 'Can they
not see how infinitely superior she is to
themP It's shame p
And so Abby Jane Clark and Deborah
Smart and Keziah Hayes sealed their own
doom, SO far as Mr.. Villars was concerned.
There was not one of them but would have
been delighted to win smile, glance, a
pleasant word from the young man who was
summering at the Leeds farmhouse.
But, alas like the priest and the Levite,
he passed by on the other side: and when
the village girls, in their afternoon muslins
and ribbons, sat at their windows and won
dered why she came not, " he was, in nine
cases out of ten, helping Eliza to gather
peaches for tea standing beside the brook,
while she spread out towels and pocket
handkerchiefs to bleach, or even explaining
to her the difference between the notes of the
thrush and the woodlark, the specked eggs
of the robin and the pearl-gray treasure Of
the whip-poor-will.
"He seems to be taking notion to her, y
said Mrs. Leeds 10 herself, as she eyed the
pair shrewdly from her mikroom window,
"Well, why shnodn' the? It's true he's a
minister, and my own nephew ; but in my
mind Eliza is good enough for any man. My
sakes won't Abby Jane Clark be msd2 II
ever girl wanted to be parsons wife, Alb.
by Jane does !"
Thus things were progressing, when one
day smart young tradesman from an adj
Joining town came to board out his TT
nights vacation at Deacon Clark's.
The Clarks were we'll to-do family but
the deacon was a little close in his financial
administration, and Mrs. Clark and Abby
Jane were not averse to earning a new dres;
n w and then out of the rent of their big
spare room. Aud Mr.. Trudkins brought {
letter of recommendation from a friend IL
Packerton, and he dressed in the latest fash
ion, and had big black moustache tina
overshadowed his upper lip like a pent
house.
''Oh, ma how very genteel be is p sait
Abbe Jane, all in flutter of admiration.
"a very nice young man indeed, respond
ell the deacon's wife.
And the very next week, Abby Jane cam
,wn to the Leeds farm house.
Have you heald this news ofyour Eliza?'
she asked of the farmers wife, in a myster