The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1890-03-22

! ! !. !. 7: !. i. J. ]. ]. J. !.
I|aaeN
HiIs/EESfTP nEWNt where she lived.
TVI( A$fsf,SI pAhHlly She was extreme
UIP> |mL4P%SkZ@ ly pretty; her
D II ,bH9$sIhAS%/S. features delicate
Il II IBlSNAgkS&XI[~. and straight, her
tIi LYt6EE$SSY(> dark eyes sweet,
%'SSS-tI>%( her blue black
'/- hair glossy; and
n now little wild
rose bloom on her cheek and a deeper
crimson than usual on her lips made her
look like a flower with white hood on.
She was evidently much engrossed by
some new thought or plan, for she did
not stoop to pat the old yellow dog who
raised himself on his fore legs and slob-
bered a welcome as he lay in the sun
shine; nor did she notice the threat
ening scream of a hen hawk that circled
high in air above her tiny brood of
early chickens; or even look at the golden
crocus that had sprung from the black
mold of her posy bed, cup of sudden
sunlight since last night; but took her
way round to the back door, for nobody
in New England country villages uses
the front door, except for weddings and
funerals. Many a house have seen
whose entire front half, with its darkened
and musty parlors, and its "spare cham
bers" smelling of i'll dried feathers, fen
mel and green mold, might have been
sliced away and carried off, nowise to
the detriment, and perhaps even without
the knowledgeo of the inhabitants behind.
So Sally followed the worn foot track,
past scraggy lilacs and sprawling Gin
namon rose bushes, round the house,
and went In to the door of the back
kitchen, where at the sink her mother
stood chopping some cold potatoes. Sally
was an only child, but her mother was
so haunted by the one fear of spelling
her that she sometimes went too far the
other way. The poor little girl was
''tutored," as she said, till she was weary
and aching for little of the
deep, real love that lay hidden away in
her mothers heart, very much as the
best parlor and bedroom were shut up;
there, no doubt, but useless and unseen.
Today, as usual, the first words were re-
proof:
81 told you there was too many per-
taters billed yesterday, Sally, n now I've
got to chop 'em for dinner, and chopped
pertater amt real good long o salt beef;
you'd ought to be more considerin'. Sup
posin' you was to git married, and hev
to see to the work yourself, guess your
husband ID come to woeful want pretty
surprisin' quick"
Sally sighed little but said nothing.
She had learned how to hold her tongue
at least - perhaps better preparation
for marriage than the economizing OF
potatoes. Nor did she blush at her mo-
theirs illustration of her discourse, for in
Wingfeld there was nobody who could
be called a beau for her; all the we'll to
do farmers sons had emigrated from its
barren hillsides, and the hired men were
more often Irish than any other, or, il
Yankees, of the very lowest class.
She waited a minute till the noise OF
the chopping knife ceased and the pota-
toes were turned into the spider, and
then said, shyly:
'Mother, went to the postohlce after
I'd carried the eggs, and got a letter
from Cousin Jerushy."
"Do tellp said Mrs. Tyler, for q mo
ment holding the big iron spoon sus
pended from her hand. "Why, W.
haint heerd from Jerushy quite spell
How is all her folks2"
They're all well, she says; only
Grandmother Dyke has had a long spell
of rheumatic. They've got bigger tene
ment now, and Jerushy wants me t,
| or, 1p.a Co. L,
Mrs. Tyler stirred the potatoes SO Wig
orously that Sally hardly dared to ven
ture farther, but she did whisper, hal
audibly;
"Can go, mother?"
Mrs. Tyler was what the transcenden
talists call "antagonistic, " and her neigh
bors dreadful arbitrary;" her first i'm
pulse was to contradict every assertion
and refuse every request OF cours
convenience and policy, and variou
other motives, better or worse, Oblige
her to come round to assertions and n
quests full half the time, but it was
weary and delayed victory that the OF
posite side gained-one of those cor
quests almost as undesirable as a defeat
Her husband, with a shrewdness men d
not often arrive at in dealing with tn
most uncommon type Of women, alway
took care to say and ask nothing impol
tant if it could be helped, or otherwis
to offer her tho exact converse of h
wishes. True, like all maneuvers, tn
sometimes worked its own defeat, frol
her habit of giving in at last; and the
the squire shook his grizzled head an
muttered to himself, winding up with
whistled psalm tune, generally his be-
expression of doubt or CONSERVATION.
But today Mrs. Tyler was somewh;
- softened by Sally's shy look and ton
though of course she put out shaI
negative at first:
''No, you can't. don't see how yo
can think ont; jest layin' time, n a
them hens to look after, n set, n fee
p n two calves in the barn. Well / s'poi
l might see to them things myself (sl
always would); "but he won't hear to-
o know. don't know but what I'd III
II to have ye go to see Jerushyi she's
J, smart woman, and pretty a woman
ever l see" (Mrs. Jerusha Phelps hl
e about as much beauty as a chimpanze
d but "pretty' means only pleasant al
well hammered in our vernacular,)
= guess you might 60 ef you had two ne
gowns. You hain't got really nothiI
fit to stay a spell, and / expect he wOl
want 10 give you no money. Well, Il
nigh about dinner time, and you mig
step out to the barn and call hint
y save me a blowin' the horn-and you c