Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-08-12
The Mystery i'm the Best
Bedroom.
well. / am surprised .


Aunt Hester came down from he
upstairs sweeping with face which
showed that what she said wai
strictly true.
"What is it, Hester?" asked grand
ma.
"The looking-glass in the bes
room is broken"
''You don't say sol" Grandma:
face heightened itself to keep com
pany with Aust Hester's.
eyes, indeed! And no telling
how it came either. Susy, have YOU
been in that rOom?''
''Not since Sunday, Aunt Hester,
just before went to Sunday-school.'
Sand l went in just before ! went
to church, and it wasn't done then.
Are you sure you haven't been there
since, Susy?'
eyes, Aunt Hester"
Aunt Hester went to the kitchen
and soon came back saying:
''I've been asking Jane Ann, and
she says she doesn't know anything
about it. And everybody knows
that Jane Ann never tells anything
but the whole, clean truth
What was there in these words of
her aunt's that caused poor little
Susy to flush up to the very roots of
her pretty, curly hair, and to bring
the tears to her eyes? 1t could not
be because Jane Ann was known
to be truthful girl. All me, it was
the sad cold story of a sin which left
not only an ugly blot on Susy's heart,
but its memory on the minds of
others. On one dreadful day away
last Summer, Susy had told lie.
1t had been done all in a minute as
so many wrong things may be, but
the poor child had often wondered
with a very sore heart how many
days and weeks and months it takes
for people to be done thinking of it.
For ever since, when Susy was
asked about anything, Aunt Hester
would look sharply and grandma half
sorrowfully at her, as if doubtful
whether she were really telling the
truth. And if the matter was very
preplexing, indeed, Aunt Hester
would say:
eff you had never been known to
everyone would believe your first
word"
Nothing, though, had ever looked
so much against Susy as this break
ing of the looking-glass in the best
bedroom.
''How do you swing the glass so
you can look into it when you 60 in
there?" asked Aunt Hester.
Sometimes I take the hair-brush
and tip-toe up and push 1t back"
said Susy.
''The break is higher up than she
could make with the brush,'' said
grandma, who had been to look.
'Sometimes I take the long dus-
ter that hangs in the corner and
push it back with that" said Susy.
s'That wouldn't do it," said Aunt |
Hester.
''But I didn't do it, Aunt Hester"
repeated Susy, with fresh burst of |
tears, 81 didn't didn't. haven't |
been there since Sunday morning"
81 believe the child is telling the |
TRUTH said grandma. go DEAR"
she said, putting loving arm around
Susy, ''if only she had never told a
lie ~
EThat's just it, said Aunt Hester,
shaking her head and setting her
lips together. ''The looking glass
couldn't have broken itself, you
know, mother. 1t couldn't have been
broken without hands,"
Nobody could dispute this. If |
tears could wash away a wrong-do
ing or a remembrance, surely Susy's |
lie would never have been thought of |
again. But how many of us have
sadly found that all the tears in the
world cannot do that.
Susy went up to see the dreadful,
queer-looking round hole. There it |
was, just above the reflection of her |
tear stained face as she looked in. |
She had never seen her face look so |
before. She scarcely ever saw it in
that glass except when she went in
on Sunday morning. Her face then
looked very different with her Sun
day clothes.
She had worn a straw hat with
wreath of daises and blue ribbon,
a white dress with a full waist lit |
tie short and three tucks in the skirt.
AIOuuu Tile WdlSG WAS Il Ulue SdSu |
tied in bow behind, which Aunt |
Hester always made with very short
loops and very long ends. This
glass in the best bedroom was the
only one in which she could see down
to the ends of the sash and to the
button boots which Uncle George had |
brought her from the city, the first
she had ever had, her pride and joy.
Now, if she should ever stand up
to the glass so as to see them, it
would bring her face just where the
dreadful hole was. But Susy felt
sure she should never look into it
again. There seemed no prospect
of finding out how it had been brok-
en- and no one would ever believe
she was telling the truth about it.