The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-04-09
EAST AND WEST;
A TALE OF NEW BORN uH!u.
WRITTEN FOR THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER, BY
EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
Copyright by the Author)
CHAPTER I.
EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
Copyright by the Author.)
CHAPTER I.

"Good-bye,' said Sarah, as she stood IN
the hall. "Shall 1 see you tomorrow"
"Why, yes" said Jane, II shall see you
at Ipswich, if not before.
"Ipswich?" said Sarah, "whatis Fps
wich?"
81 mean the sleigh-ride, you goose. You
do not mean that you are so Interested in
your, Cowper and your Adam Smith md
your other stuff, that you have forgotten
the sleigh-ride? Be sure you wear your
best bib and tucker. Goodbye
"Good-bye," said Sarah, and Jane
closed the door and went on her ways.
Sarah returned into the house.
No, she had not forgotten the sleigh
ride, for the simple reason that she had
never heard of it. And now it seemed
that all the girls in Salem knew that there
was to be a sleigh-ride, and she did not
know. That was not very satisfactory to
a girl who had a right to consider herself
one of the best beloved and most esteemed
of the Salem girls-the general favorite,
who had no enemy. At the very bottom
why she had not heard of the sleigh-ride.
She knew perfectly well, at the very bot
tom of her heart, that the young men had
had a talk after the party at the Norrises',
and had agreed that, if sleighing lasted
there should be a ride to Ipswich and a
dance there. This she knew "of native
impulse, elemental force;" she constructed
it from the law of the instrument, the
moment she knew that there was to be a
sleigh-ride. In the same way she also
knew, at the very bottom of her heart,
that Harry Curwen had said to the other
young men, III his of-hand, dictatorial
way, "I shall ask Sarah Paris, and you
can ask whom you like" Then she knew
that Harry Curwen had gone up to Bos-
ton the next morning with his father, and
that he had taken it for granted that she
would go with him, and so had not
so much as taken the pains to write her a
note to tell her to hold herself engaged to
him. And so it was, that she had the
modification of being the only girl in
Salem who was worth asking, who had
not Deer asked to the sleighing party.
All this, I say, she knew from native
impulse; but it was not very satisfactory
to have to construct for herself the pic
ture of what was going on in the town.
Least of all was it satisfactory that the
news should have been given her by Jane
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what way she would have liked to have
the news come, but she did know that it
could not have come to her in a more dis
agreeable way.
And at the very bottom of the bottom
of her heart, she had a provoked feeling
that it was not the first time that Harry
Curwen had treated her in this off-hand
and take-for-granted way.
Here was nice, sweet, pretty Sarah
Paris left in the lurch, and yet not left
in the lurch. She must have all her
things ready for a long-sleigh-ride and
yet she must pretend that she did not
know that there was any sleigh-ride. She
must meet her aunt and her cousins, and
talk of the party, or not talk of the party,
as she thought best, while she knew, at
the bottom of her heart, that, as surely as
three o'clock came around the next day,
Harry Curwen would arrive, with his
elegant horses and beautiful sleigh, and
would take it for granted that she would
be capped and coated, and ready to go
with him.
Now it. is perfectly true that, in a reg
ulation story, Sarah Paris would have
administered to the young man a proper
rebuke. She would not have made ready
to go, she would not have been ready to
go, and when he came with his span of
horses and his sleigh, he would have been
told to go about his business, and would
have lost the party to Ipswich. But that
was not what Sarah Paris determined,
and this was not what Sarah Paris did.
When, on the afternoon of Thursday, he
did come around, just before three, Sarah
| ran 6nWn tho cfanc m 1900 LIZ -
as if he had written the note to her. She
had her hands in her muf, she had her
pretty fur hood upon her head, she had
her heavy shawls and the rest of her
wraps, and her pretty little feet were in
the carpet moccasins, which were also
even pretty because everything she had
was pretty. And Harry Curwen lifted
her into the sleigh with the expression, to
which she was not unaccustomed, of per-
feet satisfaction with her appearance.
They babe goodbye to the party on the
steps, and drove away. They were among
the first at the place of rendezvous, but
the last were not two minutes behind
them, and then with great shouting,
cheering and calling back and forth, the
long procession took up the line of march,
if march it may be called, and swept out
over the Danvers road towards Ipswich.
So soon as the long line was well under
way, Harry Curwen, having made sure
for the tenth time that the bearskin was
well tucked in on the weather side of the
lady, said to her with real feeling, "Sarah,
you are good not to scold me; if ever a
fellow deserved to be scolded, it is I; but
really, my dear Sarah, it was not till I
gave Brewer the order for tho borcoo 70
day, that I remembered that I had not
told you about the party. And I drove
up to the house mortified-well mortified
Is no word-ashamed and frightened. You
know very well that there are twenty
other men in this party who would have
oeen glad enough to knock me out, and
now should [ know that you had not en-
gagged yourself to one of them ?'
Sarah would not laugh, as perhaps he
had hoped she would; she said to him
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