The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-07-04
II was truly a rough home for Hetty,

but she took her lot heroieally, and after
a day or two of very natural depression,
which she managed to keep to herself,
she fitted herself into her place as II sh,
had always lived there. She had the
charming faculty of drawing out the best
OF every one, and soon the shy aunts were
won to worshipful admiration of her,
that formed the excitement of their color
less lives The old grandfather awoke
to n new interest in life, and tho two
were soon as devoted friends as II gull
of thrce-score years had not stretched be-
tween them.
The onchantment of her presence ex-
tended even to the bleak old house.
Wild vines were planted at its door, and
homemade brackets and shelves, a shade
for the hideous lamp, and other simple
devices for tempering its dreariness crept
in and softened the asperities of the big,
barren "living-room. In Hetty's zeal
for improvement she had preached the
question of papering the upholstered
walls, but her proposal was met by a
statement of their meagre resources from
her aunts, which filled her with dismay.
"You never should have let me come, "
she cried, "to add to your burdens; but
now am here, l must work for you, and
not let it cost you anything to keep me,
l can sew nicely, and / am sure can earn
a good deal at that, Perhaps I can even
earn enough to make you more COM
Portable than before ! came"
1t was hard to make her realize that
their far-apart neighbors were either too
poor or too indifferent to appearance to
hire sewing done.
"But, at any rate, somebody shall give
me work." said the pretty, determined
creature, not cast down by this dis
couraging statement of facts. eff can
not get it here, I will write to the
Women's Exchange in some great city,
and ask them to send me some embroidery
to do. If no express comes SO far into
the wilderness, Uncle Sam will bring me
the things in his mail bags"
She carried out her plan successfully,
and many small comforts found their way
into the straitened household as result
of her earnings.
But with all the brightness and cheer
she brought into other lives, Hetty had
her own secret sorrow, and one day Aunt
Gin surprised her hiding away in the
loft, with her lovely little face all down
cast and tear-stained. The woe and sym
pathy in the good woman's troubled eyes
won her confidence, and with her flushed
face turned resolutely away, she told her
story. There had been fair and lawn
party at their church in Vermont last
September, where she was one of the
attendants at the flower temple. A party
of summer boarder had driven over from
the Springs, twenty miles away, and one
of them had devoted himself to Hetty so
assiduously that Mrs. Bliss, the doctors
wife, and first directress of the sewing
society and the possessor of certain pre-
JUDGES against city young men, was very
angry. But it was not the devotion of a
day only, for Allen Dunscombe took daily
rides over to Hetty's home as long as his
his vacation lasted.
1t was only to "break a country heart
for pastime ere he went to town." Mrs.
Bliss said, still unbelieving in his good
intentions, and the injustice to her lover
wounded Hetty so deeply that when on
Aliens last day he won her promise to
be his wife, she proudly kept their en-
gagement a secret.
No word or sign had come from him
during the long sad winter that followed
that bright, glad autumn, and poor Hetty
lived through the bitter miseries of her
mothers sickness and death, and the
loneliness and poverty which followed,
with the heavy underlying burden at her
heart that Aliens silence gave.
"Now," she said, her eyes dry, and
bright as stars, "you must stop crying,
Aunt Gin. ] can't keep up if you don't
stop"
"But how could any man be false to a
dear, trusting baby like yous" sobbed
Aunt Gin.
"Allen has not been false" said Hetty,
impressively. ~ think he must be dead,
and some day shall hear all about it.
should die if I could not believe in him.
Now tell Aunt Min, if you like, but never,
never speak to me about in again"
Nearly all of Hetty's embroidering was
done by the side of her grandfather, and
as he grew daily more childish, he pratt
tied to her constantly of his old home,
where he walked on carpeted floors.
"The lord knows, child" he would
say, that I don't grudge Him the work
I've done fur the cause, nor the hardship
me an your gran'ma went through with
when we was houseless an homeless,
chased hither an yon by roughs an raid
ers; but jes wisht could be quit er
hearin' folks stompin' on bare boards, en-
set my old feet onto carpet wonst
more"
Hetty sympathized with him, and saved
to the utmost, small sums from her scant
earnings toward the purchase of carpet;
but every time the savings reached a
slightly encouraging figure, some stringent
need arose in the family, and she could
not Withhold her store.
Then winter came, and the old man,
rapidly growing feeble, was quite shut in,
and deprived of even the soft carpet of
grass which his shutting feet preferred to
the Objectionable planks. nevery other
way he was marvel of patience, but his
lamentations over the want of carpet
nearly drove the women mad with pity
~ was a-dreamin' of my own funeral,
child" he said to Hetty, as be reused
himself from long nap. 81 don't feel
to hev much dread of it in general, but I
seemed to hear the trompin' of the mems
feet on the boards as they kerried me out,
an it hurt my very heart, Hetty, rely It
did"
Hetty was desperate. "He shall have
carpet" she said, imperatively; and
writing an account of the old mans fancy,
that was touching, from its simple truth,
she begged for an advance sufficient to
buy cheap carpet, pledging herself to
pay for it in work.
Then the women, not telling what had
been attempted, for fear of disappoint-
ment, watched for letter long before
there was possibility of getting an an
swer. At last the teamster, whose week.
| ly trip to the far-away railroad station