The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-02-04

reached the farm at evening.
After the telephone was put in at John
| Kings, Miss Sophronia found it a great
solace to her loneliness, nightly enjoying
the few moments Of daily gossip with her
friends in the village who happened to be
| possessed of an instrument. In fact ii
was to her like a new toy to q solitary
| child, and when tho line was extended to
Millers' Mills, and she learned their call,
she used her listener for the unworthy
purpose Of listening to her neighoors' al
fairs.
own that this was neither an honest
nor an honorable proceeding on Sophro-
MAS part. l do not mean to apologize for
1t, but, as the papers say, there were TEX
tenuating circumstances" She had never
been taught honor. II was not recog-
uized virtue in the farmhouse where she
was brought up. People who wrest their
daily living from the barrenness of our
gaunt Now England hill-sides do not study
The lofter trait of manhood when they
have done their days work; and as for
honorable instinct, every man will allow
that Is not inherent in woman.
Then she was very lonely; and now that
Johns gray horses were hItched every day
in front Of Mrs. Carter's house she saw less
than ever not only Of John, but of the hired
man, Hiram, VINO had double duty to do in
the masters absence, and went from his
supper TO his bed quite too tired to talk.
There was a certain social consolation
on Mondays when black Dinah came 10
wash; but even Dinah had little TO tell,
since her old shanty was nestled down in a
warm hollow on he south side Of Huckle.
berry Hill, quite of the high road. Yet
she was some one to speak to; an item not
to be disregarded in SUCH solitude.
1t is not, after all, very strange that Miss
SophroniR, limited to five minutes CONVEX
saCion with the few friends in Stanton who
had telephones, should amuse herself by
hearing he conversations OF the two Md
lers, the growls of Aaron, the snarls Of Jo-
seph, and now and then the shrill interro-
cations of Lyddy Ann Granger, the objec-
uonablc hOusekceper.
Shocked reader did you ever live in the
deep country on an isolated farm!
If not, you do not know what silence and
solitude are. Imagine clean, sparsely
furnished house, where the ticking of the
Old clock rasps your ear like a continuous
knell, where not one fly is allowed to buzz
his assiduous life out on the sunny panes;
where the very cocks and hens are abroad
all day in the far fields, and the dog lies
asleep Just inside the barn door; where the
air is still as a MINDLESS lake, and the
Chirr of suddenly reused cricket makes
you jump or the swift, ambiguous scurry
of mouse somewhere in wall or wainscot
seems like the rush of troop Of horse to
the strained and apprehensive sense; and
the rustic Of your own garments sounds
like the trailing Of ghostly robes to the
tense ear; the shadow OF a waving bough
startles the alert eye. and the roll of pass
ing wagon, the rush of iuttering swallows
in the chimney, sound like peals of thunder
and constringe the heart with that elemen-
tai dread
Yes; this telephone was real social Cos
pei to Sophronia, shivering and trembling
in her nervous loneliness; il she had been
reared in such a place, use and want per-
haps, would have strengthened her against
It's terrors, but until Johns mother died
she had always lived in her brothers. fam
lily, and i'll his great house where ten chill
dren and busting wife made noise enough
through the round year to brighten the
very ghosts out of the garnet, or the mice
out of the wall, and where the ncighbors
were abundant and much given to visiting,
Sophronia had never been conscious of
nerves; nor did she know these terrors
now as the result Of nerves; she only con-
fided to Hiram as she dealt out 10 him the
boiled dinner which he shoveled down in
grim silence after the fashion of his kind:
81 do set q sight by that telephone thing;
it's real company. hey been gettin' real
perniciity along back, it is so dreadful
lonesome here; but now 1 do sense that
the is people pretty nigh, seein' l can call
to 'em; it's folksy to hear that little bell
20, 'pingr every now and then as though
somebody was there. Dinah, she is almost
scared to death with it; she says it is like
hearin' of sperit talk; Same as Job says
in Scrip,er, when the hair of his head
stood up and he heard voice. But then
he see the sperit first, and that is more
iearsome. Dinah won't bark to it noway.
l can tell who tits every time My! | can
hear Aaron Miller snap, just as plainl and
Lydly Granger baWl!'
BON a-talkin' TO lem, hev yc?' CURLY
asked Hiram.
mo, l havcn'tl and l amt agoin' to-"
responded Sophronia, sharply; but they
spond the hull O. their time a-gabbIn TO and
fro l shouldn't think there'd be no grist
ground, never, to that mill. l can't take
the horn down to speak to nobody but what
they've got hold o. the wire first, and l
can't help a-hearin' of 'em holler."
Hiram shot a keen glance at her from
under his busy, grizzled eyebrows: he had
long ago taken her measure, and he knew
very well now how she had been amusing
herself but as he always said OF himself
that he twas one who made fortin' mind
in his own business" he offered no re-
marks.
Shortly after this conversation John
King went away from home to attend a
sale OF cattle IN New Jersey; he expected
to be gone a week, as he meant to drive
home what animals he bought himself,
rather than send them by boat or railway,
which he considered was too great a risk.
The day he left severe northeast storm
set in, and Hiram set himself to do some
work in the further barn, which he had
kept to do in ''spell Of weather." so that
Miss Sophronia had not even the relief Of
his occasional appearance in kitchen or
shed to beguile her solitude, her knitting
had stopped for want of yarn, and she had
'pieced up" the last bit of calico she could
find.
As she sat in the dull light of the kitchen
window, listening to the heavy rush OF
rain against the house and the wild moan
of the wind shrieking in the spout she
heard the telephone ring; it was joyful
sound to her tired and lonely soul; she
hurried to the instrument, took down the
listener and heard Joseph Mills say
hn n ny nj