Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-07-12

"They amt all gone" said Minerva;
! 'there's child left
''Nathan's boy" exclaimed her father,
joyfully. ''But who's to look after him
now?'
- faint a boy; it's a girl; and there's
been some mismanagement of the prop
erty, an she's left without cent, an
she wants to come here to US. The doc
tor that tended her mother, free OF
charge, is going to pay her way ef we'll
take her."
"Of course We'll take her. an be glad, !"
said her father But she'll find it kline
! or roughish here. I wisht we could "a
made out to get carpet fore she come. "
II don't see how were goin' to take
care of her, anyway" said Minerva, sor-
rowfully. ''Theres times when it seems
like we'd starve ourselves, en- | cont
know how we're goin' to fill another
mouth. Even with the Christmas barl
comm every year from that church in the
East, we hev turrible squeeze gettin'
along with the 'lOwance from the Super
animated Minister'S Fund IF 'twarn't
fer Cindy's garden we'd die in our
tracks"
F'But we couldn't refuse to take the
child in-our own flesh an blood, - said
her father, pleadingly.
They could not indeed refuse, poor
though they were, the women agreed and
four weeks later Hetty Packard knocked
at her grandfather's door, after the long
journey which the novelty of travelling
had made very enjoyable.
Her welcome from the old man was
touchingly tender, but the aunts were
too greatly appalled, to be decently cordial
at first. They had half expected a child,
but here was a tall, beautiful young
woman, whose cheap but stylish dress
and hat seemed to their unframed eyes
like royal apparel, in contrast with the
indigo prints, coarse faded blanket
shawls, and dreary Stat sunbonnets that
composed their own Open-air costumes.
It was truly a rough home for Hetty,
used as she had been to the comfortable
civilization of New England country life,
but she took her lot heroically, and after
a day or two of very natural depression,
which she managed to keep to herself,
she fitted herself into her place as if she
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 worshi pful admiration of her,
that formed the excitement of their color
less lives. The old grandfather awoke
to a new interest in life, and the two
were soon as devoted friends as if a gulf
of three-score years had not stretched be-
tween them.
The enchantment of her presence ex-
tended even to the bleak old house.
! Wild vines were planted at its door, and
homemade brackets and shelves, shade
for the hideous lamp, and other simple
devices for tempering its dreariness crept
in and sOftened the asperities of the big,
barren ''livingroom." In Hetty's zeal
for Improvement she had broached 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.
E'You never should have let me come, -
she cried, s'to add to your burdens; but
now [ am here, [ must work for you, and
not let it cost you anything to keep me.
I can sew nicely, and ana sure can earn
good deal at that. Perhaps [ 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, [ 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 ne
the things in his mail bags"
She carried out her plan successfully,
and many small comforts found their way
into the straitened household rs a result
of her earnings.
But with all the brightness and cheer
she brought into other lives, Hetty had
her own secret sorrow, and one dav 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 III the good woman's troubled eyes
won her a confidence, and with her flushed
face turned resolutely away, she told hel
story. There had been a 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 sc
assiduously that Mrs. Bliss, the doctors