News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-02-27

and grandma VIII IKE ali OuI INC ~
ing; they will begin TO have hopes OF
us and think we are at last growing
2 sensible. and we can keep dark about
our real opinions of folks and things.
: | hope, though, they will not play
kissing games. Just think of having
e orandpa's hired man kiss us! OF
course, he is invited"
Betty Plunmer was quite overcome
bv the sudden cordially of Mabel
Tinkham and her adopted sister, Mary
Peck, and for the rest of the day was
in quite flutter of excitement over
the event.
Roland Holland and his friend, Jack
Staples, had CHANGED upon the Plum
mer farm for their hating place in
this neighborhood while sketching.
When they returned to a late dinner
the voluble, gay-hearted Betty chatter
ed of her morning callers, and with
country freedom soon had given the
young men a full history of neighbor
Tinkham's oldest son who had years
ago left the farm and gone to New
York as a clerk, and lately became
what the country people called stock
gambler; had been rolling in money Il
few years, and married city g ri;
later had lived in Europe a few years,
and then, just as all gamblers do sud-
denly he began to lose, and all at once
found himself at the bottom of the
heap and glad enough to send his two
girls to his old home, which had never
been good enough for them to visit
, when thev had lots O. money!"
She told the young man that the girls
were real nice, but couldn't do thing
to earn dollar, and seemed actual y
proud OF il
Then she talked of ervalentine party,
and the young men having identified
Mabel Tinkham and Mary Peck as the
two stylish Young ladies of the morn
ing epis~ssswentered ffTc feffvt''s plans,
and soon had given the quick-witted
country girl some hints about valentine
tricks. Betty was always ready for a
good-natured Joke and readily agreed
to their suggestions.
In response TO one of these she went
over TO grandpa Tinkham's on the
evening of the thirteenth and told the
girls of these tricks. One was for the
girls to take an early morning walk on
the fourteenth and the first man they
met would surely be their future hus-
| bandi Others were to be tried at the |
| house. One of these was 10 go out |
| into the dark, and standing on the |
| doorstep unwind ball of twlne for a |
| few wards and holding the end of the |
Irvine in one hand, with the other
throw the ball as far out into the dark
ness as possible, then begin to wind
ND the end in their hand, repeating
these lines:
.sI wind this long line so very fine,
Hoping to find at the other end,
The love would call my valentine,
The man I'd choose for lover and friend"
Then. unless one was a predestined
old maid, at the end of the line would
stand before the maiden her future
husband who would yield the line to
her, clasp her in his arms and take his
first kiss and disappear in the dark
ness, and when the gates were propi-
tious she would meet this very man,
perhaps be introduced to him in the
most prosaic and orthodox manner;
and surely some day he would come
to claim the hand of the maiden he had
kissed in the dark
81 shall 90, for a walk before to-
morrow morning, Mary; will you go
too?" cried Mabel, gleefully.
"Indeed / will not. You'll be sure
to meet somebody's hired man driving
the COWS to the spring for water" re-
piled Mary, scornfully.
Then she continued, IL will control
my Impotence to see my hero until
evening / shall throw the ball of
Irvine from our back doorstep, and let
it roll down the slope into the garden,
and then gently draw my hero up TO
give me that sweet betrothal kiss, and
as it is hardly proper TO accept any
thing from q stranger, | will return ii
at ONCE and Mary joined in the gen.
eraI laugh.
Betty went home and reported.
Early the next morning Mabel went
out for walk and for half mile met
no one, not even hired man driving
cows TO water, nor q milkman going
toward the village.
Suddenly, as she turned corner, she
came face to face with the dark, NOUS
tacled stranger she had seen few
mo nings ago posing so gracefully be-
side the stone wall as he lifted his hat
and passed around the corner.
Mabel was not more romantic than
the ordinary girl, yet her heart
throbbed more rapidly, and the rich
color swayed back and forth in her
shapely cheeks, as she wondered if I
there could be anything in such hap
penings, and quericd mentally over and !
over again, ''who could he be, where :
from, and with whom was he STAYING 5
In that Eeighborhood, and would she :
maybe sometime really meet and speak ,
with him."
But it was time 10 return for break !
fast, and, 10! he was returning, and +
politely lifted his hat once more from .
the close-cut, da:k, curling locks. !
Evening came, and Mabel and Mary :
were much entertained by the society
into which they were for the first time
introduced. Hitherto they had held
themselves aloof from the young
people about them. @
The remembrance of their New '
York circle, their winters at Washing /
ton, the years spent in London, Paris, l
Mentone and Nice had been too fresh 1
In their memories to admit of their ac- '
housekeeping that they could associate /
even temporarily with those so far re- {
moved from their set. !
But the innate love of some sort of q
sociality had conquered their exclu- s
siveness at last, or rather the hopeless /
ness of ever resuIning their old place, /
had forced them to yield. +
The hours ran on in more OF less /
stupid games until ten O'Clock, when
one by one the betrothed maidens {
slipped away from the party to try '
some trick. Unobserved they were I
not, and it was easy to guess who i
hoped to be the favored one, as, after {
each girl passed out, some admiring t
swain was sure soon to follow.
None of the country youth dared
follow stately Mary Peck, and the en-
vious tongues whispered, She'll not
meet anyone; she holds her head too
high"
On the back door step Mary stood, !
half shivering with the cold night air, |
half with superstitious thrill.
Slowly she wound the ball after /
throwing it, softly repeating the I
rhymes as told by Betty. For awhile
the line was slack as if lying along tie t
ground, then it became a bit more /
taut, and soon she was sure there was I
some unknown attachment at the other q