Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-02-07

over and see the place and what Is going
on? You might as well just take day
or the rest of it. I'm in no hurry, and
you look tuckered out"
Mrs. Black was kind in her way, and
felt a certain pity for Camiola. She had
heard that Camiola was once engaged to
Mr.. Barker. and might to-day have been
a rich and important widow, instead of
poor, lonely seamstress.
$50 along, Miss Camiola," she added.
II know you want to.
ssDid she want to?' Camiola asked
herself; and her heart answered: Eyes"
She would see the old home once more,
see the furniture; and when she could
get chance she would go up to the gar
ret and stand where she stood with Ben
that day. Her old elbows should lean
where her young ones had pressed; she
would look out over the mountains, and
fancy herself girl again, with Ben be-
side her, and his engagement ring on her
finger.
And Miss Camiola thanked Mrs.
Black, put on her show bonnet with the
washed ribbons, and the shawl that had
been so good once, but was faded, and
even mended now, and walked up the
road, and turned into the lane, and en-
tered the Barker garden.
The smell of the shrub came to her;
the lilac flowers were gone, but the will
low branches kissed her bonnet as she
passed under them.
The neighbors who saw her nodded or
spoke, but they were selling the tall
clock, and there was some excitement.
Camiola stood at the door awhile and
listened to the bidding. Deacon Hickory
got the clock; Mrs. Amos Mole the claw
foot sideboard. A lady from the village
bought The trunks of women's clothing,
sold unopened, for next to nothing. Ann
Barnaby, the washerwoman, got the tubs
and irons cheap in a lot, and so on and so
forth.
To Camiola it all seemed tragic. She
went up stairs where people were poking
the beds and pillows, and examining the
toilet sets and curtains, and she began to
mount the garnet stairs.
s'Nothin' up there" said well-mean-
ing person, who was descending. '"Tan't
worth while to lose breath climbin'."
Camiola did not answer.
Nothing up there! How little people
knew! There was the window at which
two lovers had plighted their VOWS.
There, perhaps, fingered some ghost of
her dead past and his who had died eld-
erly and a bachelor.
AS her head arose above the floor she
gazed eagerly about her. From the raf-
tiers hung some branches of withered
herbs and some ropes of onions. The
trunks had been carried down and an old
bureau. A coat hung upon a peg; over
it hat. Camiola went to the window.
She would not cry, for she must face
those people downstairs again; but she
uttered little means of anguish as she
stood there. She realized what life ac-
tually is at that moment, and it seemed
very cruel to her-once young, beloved,
pretty and hopeful; now old, unloved,
wrinkled, and with nothing to wish for.
No wonder that she suffered.
At last she turned her back o., the
eternal mountains - unchanged while
lives were lived, and while youth fed,
and love departed, and graves were dug
and saw the coat upon the wall; Ben's
coat-an old mans coat, worn long and
carelessiy; and a big, broad-brimmed,
soft hat. The woman went closer. She
nestled up against the coat, and talked
to it and caressed it, and she took the hat
in her hand and kissed it. It was worth
nothing. It had rain stains on it. It's
shape was odd. Nobody wanted it. But
what relic it would be to her of Ben!
only she could not ask for it.
She could take it, hide it under her
shawl-all folded fiat, as it would be
and keep it forever. Ben's hat-her
Ben's hat Why, she had right to it,
And Miss Camiola obeyed the impulse,
took the hat and hid it neatly away. It
seemed, almost, as though it were a
theft; still, it would not be wrong to
take it.
When she came home, Mrs. Black told
Miss Camiola the walk had done her
good; her cheeks were quite red; but
she went early to bed that evening. She
bolted her door, and undressed in a
hurry. She put out the light. Then she
felt for her shawl, in which the hat lay
folded, and took it in her arms A GER
tain perfume that was always connected
with Ben's hair was family noticeable
an odor of bergamot. 1t brought the
past back wildly. 1t almost seemed as
though Bens head rested on her heart.
She clasped the old hat close and kissed
it.
"Oh, Ben" she whispered, II was al
ways ready to make up; but you were
rich and l was poor; and 1 was proud.
o. Bon oh. Ben. Ben NV darlinOIn