Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-04-19
HOW EPH GOT EVEN.

"Where are you going, Ella" asked
Judge Lawton, and then, without
waiting for an answer, he went on in
a grumbling tone: II suppose you're
going to take something to that lazy
vagabond Eph's wife. Well, go if you
want to, but mark me, Ella, you'll be
agreeing with me before long, that
the moro you do for people like that,
the more they will impose upon your
good nature"
The Judge, having made his little
speech with all the pomposity of man
ner which was a part of himself,
turned on his heel with much delib-
Grafton, and rubbing his fat white
hands together, as though to wash
his daughter Elias deed of charity,
marched into his study and closed
the door with bang.
Mr.. Lawton, who was generally
called judge by his neighbors, because
he was not only the richest but the
most dignified man in the little Long
Island village of Shoreport, was a
widower, with but one child, Ella,
whose birth had cost her mother her
life, and who was a fair haired, blue
eyed child OF about 10.
Until she was 10 years old she was
known as one of the most thorough
tomboys the neighborhood possessed.
There was not a horse on the place
on whose back she had not tasted the
forbidden pleasure of bare back ride,
and there was scarcely a tree in the
woods at the rear of the house she had
not climbed, to the destruction of
frocks and the terror of her old nurse.
Nothing, therefore, could well have
been more distressing to girl of her
disposition than to be debarred entire
ly from exercise And yet that is
what befell her some five years before
the time of which | write.
Swinging one day on lower limb
of the old gnarled pear tree which
overshadowed the orchard fence, the
branch, already decayed, gave way
under the vibrations, and Ella fell
heavily to the ground.
At first she thought nothing of it,
but day by day the aching in her back
continued, and grew worse, until at
length her father, noticing the pain
she evidently suffered sent for old
Dr. Hart
The doctor made a careful eXamina-
ton, softly whistling to himself as he
did SO, according to his habit.
"Lassie," he said you must lie
down and not move for long, long
while if you want to get we'll" And
the long while proved to be months
and months,
At first the girl rebelled at the con-
finement, and many We're the peevish
EXPLANATIONS which escaped her Then
change crept over her. and the irri-
liability by degrees departed to be sue
ceeded by a sweetness and gentleness
which caused her to be still more be-
loved by the household.
When at length she could sit up,
and the good old doctor, holding her
wasted little hand in his old wrinkled
paw, which still had touch as ten
der as a woman's, told her the bitter
truth, she received it without a tear or
murmur.
Ella" said the doctor, you'll be
able to use your arms, and you'll soon
feel as strong and well as you evel
were, but / fear me, lassie, that you'll
never walk again"
And SO it was. A cleverly con
structed chair was procured for hel
benefit, and in this she was wheeled
about the village by faithful old Isaac
who had been in the judges employ
since he was lad
a year or two later her fathe
bought her a little phaeton, with ;
pair of well matched dainty ponies
and in this she was able to drive her
self about without assistance, til
there was not road for miles arounC
that had not echoed under the beat o
the ponies hoofs.
But her pleasures were not all self
ish. She delighted in looking afte
the needs of her poorer neighbors, ant
had brought sunshine and hope int
many a dark and cherries cottage il
Shoreport.
1t was fine spring day when he
father impaired to her the valuabl
portion of his stock of worldly wisdom
have quoted, and Ella was sitting il
her wheeled chair in the great squar
hall of the old fashioned house whicl
for generations had belonged to tn
Lawton family. On her lap lay a lii
tie covered basket, from beneath tn
lid of which peeped out the white fold
of spotless napkin. AS her fathe
spoke, She merely smiled, and turning
to old Isaac said:
Don't believe papa when he talk
like that, Isaac. He doesn't mean
word of it. Now, take me down t
Ephs cottage, for I'm afraid that poe
wife of his Is laid up again, and need
what have here for her"
There was no doubt but that Ep
was sad rascal, and though, as Ell
remarked, her father did not mean a
he said, for, with all his pomposity
the judge was generous, there was ne
little truth in it SO far as Eph VIZ
concerned
Some five or six years before CO