Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-01-17

that have been thinking and dreaming
of you and wishing for news of you are
over, and now have at last found the
idol of my boyish admiration.
"But you must have changed as well
as in all this time l should like very
much to have likeness of you as you
are now, to compare with that which is
indelibly stamped on my memory. Won't
you send me one?
sit surprises me that in recalling those
experiences of ours you should have
omitted the one that is most vivid and
most delightful to me. Can it be that
you have forgotten the little house we
built under the old chestnut tree, where
you prepared the supper on your best
dolls china for the weary hunter who
used to return laden with green apples,
currants, Strawberries and other wild
beasts, the spoils Of his chaser How
generous and self sacrificing you used
to be with the slender provisions, and
anxious lest the foot-sore huntsman
should not get enough to sustain his
toilsome existence! What an example
you were of domesticityl and | cannot
believe that you are anything else today
but the same good pattern for woman
hood.
"Do let me hear from you soon
again. Although have existed SO long
in ignorance even as to whether you
were still alive, the knowledge now that
you are so, and that you have still cor
ner in your memory, if not in your heart,
for me, has revived all my old feelings
and keeps me in constant hope of further
news of you.
"As ever, your affectionate playmate,
MORT"
Notwithstanding all the hopes and fears
of the past few days, there was the reply,
after all, and Mabel, after reading it
through three times, concluded that
Mort" must be Splendid, and that this
sort of sport was far ahead of anything
she had yet attempted. 1t combined, 30
she argued, all the spice of heavy fir
tation with the advantage of a strict in
cognito, and with judicious manage
ment, she thought that it might be car
ried on in perfect safety for some time
to come.
Mr.. Moreley was worse than usual that
evening; dinner, without the articles
which Mabel should have brought from
the village, was not a success, and such
a catastrophe always aggravated his dis
ease. Having learned who was to blame
for it, it was many days before he could
forgive or forget his daughters inhuman
treatment Of her much suffering papa,
so that she was left even more than usual
to her own devices, and spent deal Of
her time either with novels OF her writ
ing case in the romantic corners of the
pine wood or on the rocks and along the
beach by the sea.
Dudley's letter had been answered one
afternoon, when the late sun was throw
ing long shadows and touching the dis
tant sails upon the ocean with shade of
delicate pink, when gentle breeze was
only ripping the surface Of the water
and the waves were only murmuring
soft music upon the sand: and if but half
of the tender emotion which these SUR
roundings gave birth to were transferred
to her paper, Dudley, if his heart were
at all as he had represented it, must
have found in her reply an ample reward
for his strange constancy. Circumstan-
ces, at any rate, went to show that it had
been very welcome and pleasing to its re-
cipient, for it was scarcely three DAYS
later that a second misSive for Miss Jane
Jennings reached the Stillton office, and
was duly claimed by Mabel before any
possible accident could throw it into
other hands. She had perused it with
marked pleasure; it had contained many
fresh illusions to "childhood's happy
hour" many additional and very origi-
nal accounts of doings in their fancied
youth, several frank compliments, and a
reiterated and very urgent request for a
photograph. She had allowed several
days to pass in considering what notice
to take of this somewhat impudont de-
mand. At one time she almost conclud-
ed to let Mr. Dudley drop altogether.
What right had he to call upon her for
her likeness? At another she was quite
as firmly resolved to send him one. The
whispered vanity which told her that he
would not be disappointed in it was
not easily resisted. At last, however, a
of the difficulty suggested itself, and, AS
it promised, too, to throw another puz-
cling veil of mystery over her identity,
she seized it eagerly. and that very after
noon put it into execution. Seated on
the rocks that overlooked the sea. gath
ering thoughts in long gazes toward the
distant horizon, and allowing magma
ton TO roam as freely as could her eyes
over the unbounded ocean, she wrote her
answer. After touching upon the cpl
sodes of their earlier days which his last
letter had brought to light, and adding
the details of few more experiences
which her fertile mind suggested, she
turned to the subject of the photograph
Il wish it were better" she wrote. 1T
is a shockingly poor likeness, know,
but may serve as reminder of your
little playmate, if not as a perfect repre-
sentation of her." She sealed the envel-
ope inclosing the picture, and, seeing
Galusha krinklebottom drive by Just at
the moment, hailed him, and sent pho
tOpranh letter and all in his cara IN the