The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1890-11-27

y twenty blackbirds bak
in in pie"
The racing pcll-mcll overhead might
Lave sounded Ike colts let loose but for
girlish shouts and laughter.
Goodness, what noise!" Olive said,
as Lolly handed her the box of summer
savory. dan will he torn to pieces
unless he turns upon them"
"lIe said the letter / brought him
was from his best girl and they're tryin
70 get il away from him. explained
Lolv.
Olive was preparing her stuffing with
keen houscwiicly irctinct rs to relative
quantities Of seasons required. The
creature to he stuffed stood on all fours
on table. Not commonplace turkey
but a pick nosed little pig was to grace
the occasion of her nephew Dams uncx-
pCciCd return home after sailing the seas
over seven years without a word to his
relatives.
Won't piggy roast lovely brown,h
Loliy said, as she watched the stufiinG
disappear
Yes, Dan will have Thanksgiving
feast this year, asscntcd Olive.
The racket overhead increased. "lf
they could always keep art.whole,"
Olive thought with little sigh. "But
we get our growth through suffering,
suppose
A concealed regret, which had a fashion
of working to the surface on festive
occasions, was uppermost just now. But
sic was a blithe, cneery little woman
with n talent for battling off dull
thoughts, and so she laughed aud said
lightly: Those girls make me think |
am young again, Lolly."
As she spoke her eye wandered across
.hc brown meadow 10 the Fleetwood
homestead and then beyond it TO the
white house on the hill among the
laIches, where Squire Ashton lived, whom
her friends wondered she did not marry.
What was she waiting forl She was
rhlrty-siX now, fair and comely in COM
psyison with some of the faded married
women around her who had been
her sChoolmates, but it would not always
NC so tine TO live alone on the old home
stead as she had done since her fathers
lcath. Offers of marriage would not
come to her door always. Her own view
, pt the matter had begun to coincide with
9ba, OF her friends. Squire Ashton was
"A wdowcr of fifty, Of kindly, noble
nature, whom she liked cordially. He
had wooed her two years, until now she
was losing patience with her own in
decision. Why was she hesitating' To
be sure his presence never quickencd her
even pulses, but why should she expect
the tumultuous expression of an earlier
love-
She had been on the border of saying
eyes TO his pleading at the very mo.
ment Dams vigorous summons with the
old.iashioncd knocler on the front door
had brought her out from the parlor in
q hurry, to bc caught in the arms of her
rowing nephew in regular sailor ''hug."
Wait until Thanksgiving, she had
said 10 Squire Ashton, removing her de"
cision q week ahead.
Meantime, the six girls were chasing
Dan round under the brown cobweb-
hung rafters, he holding the letters
aloft.
Catch him. Head him of there =
they shouted.
Presently Dan, big, brown and full o.
true sailor jollity, changed from de
fcnsiyo TO aggressive tactics. He Sc
Bcss on top of the spider-legged bureau
in a bed Of dust, tied Clara by the wais
10 a tall, four. posted bedstead with hi
handkerchief and seized pair of ole
quilting frames to defend himself agains
Sac and Kate. His free motions wltl
the "bclaying pins brought u swinging
shelf Of books to the floor, and "Robin
son Crusoe,n "Gulliver's Travels,
paradise Lost" and other classic
sprawled amid heap of dog
schoolbooks in the dust.
Il see letter slipping out from Robin
son Crusoe!" Bess cried from her perch
sue picked it up and turned it over.
why, it's addressed to Miss Oliv
Blossom aud it's never been openedm sh
exclaimed. alt looks awful old aud yel
low
Dan examined it, then compared tn
handwriting with that on his own LEI
ter.
THE same, or I'm landlubbcr," h
muttered.
Likely it's an old love letter." Clal
suggested from her bedpost.
And she never got il, just as happcr
10 story books" added Kate. "Let |
put it under her dinner plate"