Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-09
THE SLEIGH RIDE.

The afternoon is as bright as glowing
sun shining upon the fresh snow Of the night
previous can make it. The air is mild, and
yet the snow has not melted enough to spoil
the sleighing, and Tom Prince and Kittie
Maynard are enjoying what is known in
FELTON, as the ten mile driver
The ''ten mile drive" is long stretch of
winding country roads, following which one
circles three lakes, now frozen over; passes
through the corners of three townships, and
after all varieties of hill and dale, of woodland
and of open, comes back to the village from
which he started, pretty little FELTON,, nestled
down among the hills like a wood pigeon
upon her nest.
Tom and Kittie had known each other from
childhood and in the days of boy and girl
hood, before they had gone away for what
the farmers around about called their "edica-
tion," they had played at being lovers in the
regulation country fashion. Since Tom had
graduated from college, however, and Kittie
had returned from boarding school, there had
been manifest difference of relations be-
tween them. 1t was perhaps that they did
not wholly recognize each other in the ma
tured and changed person each met, and that
it was harder to become acquainted with this
stranger who bore the name of an old friend
and showed SO many Of the old traits than it
would have been to begin O. fresh friendship
with one who was really a total stranger.
They had grown shy of each other from
the very strangeness of the new sensation
which they felt in the presence of the other,
and two or three times already had Mistress
+1
take this very ''ten mile drive" upon which
they had now embarked. Today, however,
the delightful softness of the weather, the
brilliancy with which the sun shone the sight
of the span of trotters in which Tola took a
very justifiable pride, and perhaps some
secret inclination to try touch of the old
time Irritation, had made Kittie say yes when
she had fully intended to say no, and once
the word had been spoken there was no draw
ing back.
It could not be denied that Tom handled
the reins well, and it is probable that the
young man himself was not ignorant of that
fact, it rot being strongly marked charac-
teristic of enamored SWANS to be wholly I'M
aware of the situations in which they are
most likely to be pleasing to the eye Of the
fair whose smiles they would win.
At least, whether he did or did not know
it, Tom undeniably did drive well, and he
also looked his best in the fur cap and fur
trimmed coat in which upon this especial day
he was arrayed. Kittie, of course, pretended
not to look at him at all, while as a matter
of fact she could not have kept her eyes off
him if her life had depended upon it.
She was well enough worth looking at her.
self, it might be added, with her seal skins
and the clear color in her cheeks Tom
thought she had never looked so pretty in
her life, and it is not impossible that he was
quite right in the matter. AS the pair went
skirnming along to the jingling of the sleigh
bells which has so many time been be-
praised and be-rhymed, and which cannot
become hackneyed or dull despite of it all,
they were very attractive and charming
young couple, and that one could safely
maintain in the face of whatever contra
diction.
They had not much to say at first. Tom
was good deal occupied with his horses,
which had not been out for some days and
were fresh accordingly, and as for Kittie,
she had enough to do in watching Tom and
pretending that she was utterly Indifferent
whether she were here in the sleigh with
Tom Prince, OF seated at home droning over
the most stupid book in her Aunt Priscilla's
shelf of memoirs Of dead and gone mission
aries. She was, besides, too bIissfully con-
tent to care whether she said anything or
not, and it was not until they got to Ackley'
Hill that they began to talk at all. Ackley s
Hill was long steep stretch of nearly mile,
one of those tedious hills which make driving
in certain parts of New England SO like doing
penance in the steepest portions Of the paths
of virtue The span capered along for little
at the foot of the long grade, but they were
acquainted with the place of old, and it
hardly needed the rein to remind them that
they had deal of uphill pulling to do before
they came to the top of the slope
''It is strange how these old places bring
up things,'' Tom said suddenly, as the sleigh
glided more slowly. "Just then, when
looked up, the sight of the old hill, and the
feeling of going up Ackley's as I've gone SO
often, brought up that time when Tim Law
ton and May Manley were thrown out here
Don't you remember?"
sRemember?" answered Kittie. sI shouldn't
forget if I should live to be a thousand years
old. was never SO frightened in my life"
SIT was just such day as this" Tom went
on. land you know that"-
''Don't,' Kittie broke in.
'sDon't what?"
ssDon't talk of it till we get off this hill"
"Why not?"
SIT is silly, of course" she answered, 'but
it makes me nervous"
''Then l will not say a word more about it,
not even to remind you that the stone they
struck on is the one we passed five minutes
ago."
.sWasn't it horrible?' Kittie went on, in
consistently ignoring her own words. ITO
think of his being killed when he was having
such good time"
81 don't know Tom replied soberly. "lt
has always seemed to me that it is much bet
ter to get out of life when one is happy than
when one is sad"
Eyes; in one way, of course it is, she as
sented; but to leave pleasant things must
be harder than to leave things that are not
pleasant"
eve don't look at things so much from the
standpoint of the person as from our own,"
was his answer snow you take it in Tins
case. Everybody said how hard it was for
him to be cut off just when he was happy and
when he thought May would marry him; but
that is not the way in which to look at it, it
seems to me.
SIT is only fair to consider that if he had
lived he would have found out that May was
playing fast and loose with him all the tins,
end he would have had to suffer not only
from her deceit, but from the beastly mean
ness of his own brother, who had really taken
her away from him. DON'T you think that it
was far happier for him to go while he was
ignorant of all this, and while be was still
happy in believing that things were ali es be
wished them?"
"Oh, of course; but it seemed a pity that
he could not know"
''You think that he would fail to under
stand all this, and would be unhappy in
another life because Of the happiness he would
have supposed himself to have lost in thisp'
sit sounds little immoral to put it in that
way"
''But isn't that about what you mean?"
''Why, yes, suppose it is. There seems
certain injustice in his not knowing that
really his death was the best thing that could
happen to him.n
"And if the universe was managed in a
feminine way" Tom said, smiling, II sup
pose Tim would have been forced to have all
this explained to him upon his entrance to