Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-06-07
AUNT ABBY'S QUILT.
BY EVA RICHMOND.

sour folks amt littery, I s'pose,
said Miss Abby, "an' that's the reason
have so much trouble"
Miss Abby was right. The Hopkinses
were not a literary family. There was
q quarto edition of Shakspere, a family
Bible, Complete Physician" and a
carefully preserved file of the weekly
newspaper, kept on the table in the best
room, but as a general thing, the Hop
kinses neither read nor wrote. They
had not been brought up to it. There
was the farmer, a rOtund, rubicund
parsonage, who was much given to 60
ing about in his shirt sleeves, and to
smoking comfortable pipes; there was
Mrs. Hopkins, who was great on pick
ling and preserving, and had on her
tongues end certain cure for all the
neighborhood ills; there was Lefty,
whose pink cheeks and bronze brown
hair awoke the admiration of every
young man in circuit for ten miles
around; and there was Sam, a sturdy,
black-browed young man, who was
already beginning to disturb his fathers
conservative mind by hints as to steam
ploughs, patent reapers, and progress
i've farm machinery of every sort.
What's good enough for your grand
fathers good enough for me" said the
Squire.
But the world moves, father" said
Sam.
THAT amt no reason that I should
move, too" said Farmer Hopkins, set
ting back on the hind legs of his chair
and looking around for a light for his
pipe.
And Miss Abby Hopkins, the maiden
aunt of the family, had devoted all her
LIES energies to the manufacture of
a silk bed-quilt in pieces of velvet, satin,
brocade, rich stuffs of every imaginable
hue and pattern, cut into tiny octagons,
each one stretched over a piece of stiff
writing paper, and fastened with almost
invisible stitches to its neighbor. And
it was of the extreme difficulty of find
ing foundations for the same that Miss
Abby made her little plant.
Betsy Meachan made hers entirely
out of the parsons old sermon-papers,"
said she. I've often thought what
sight of theology there must hev been
sewn up in that there quilt. And Ms
Parsons, she cut up all her daughters
school compositions. But our Lefty,
she was never much on compositions,
and it's all can do to find an old en-
velope or q piece O. paper with Sans
figuring on the back on t"
And Miss Abby, whose sight was fail
ing fast, peered here and there like
iackal in search of food; for it was the
highest ambition of her heart to finish
the silk bed-quilt in time to exhibit to
some friends who were coming in Sep
TENDER.
Consequently when she came across
an unsesled letter on the drawers in
Letty's room, she pounced upon it with
delight.
~It's been read, or it would be sealed
up" she said to herself; "and it amt
worth while for me to wait till Lefty
comes home from the picnic to ask
about it. fIdon't get this quilt done,
it'll be September before know it.
And straightway Aunt Abby's big
steel shears sealed the doom of the let
ter, and without loss of time it formed
q background for velvet and silken oc-
tagons.
Scarcely week afterwards, however,
she was stitching diligently at her win
dow, when the voice of Howard Perth,
the young doctor, fell upon her ear, as
he talked to Sam Hopkins.
sits no use" said he. IL told you so.
Hopkins. She don't care for me. She
never will.
"How can you tell whether she does
or not unless you ask her?" said Sam.
~Now, Perth, don't be fool"
81 have asked her. wrote her
letter, only few days ago, in which I
told her all. And she hasn't seen fit
to take any notice whatsoever of 1t.
Sam whistled low whistle.
Perhaps" said he, 'she never got
IT,
sShe did, for it was placed on her
table. Aud it was taken away, and it
must have been readi"
SIN sure, Perth" said Sam, %there
must be some mistake"
There isl" said Perth, modify.
There was q great mistake when l
supposed your sister could ever care
for o struggling young physician ike
meP
viii you let me speak to her about
it:'
Not for the worldl' cried Perth.
Promise me, Sam, that my unlucky
secret shall be buried In your own
heart. Promise me, upon you word OF
honorl"
And then the voices receded further
down the graveled path, while Aunt
Abby sat aghast.
oh, lori" groaned the unhappy
sPmster. What be I goin' to do?
what viii Lefty say? And I've cut it
AZ up and stitched it under the velvet
nzfas because it was such good stiff pa