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

parting, ! cannot believe that | am mis-
taken in trusting in their sincerity and
truth
"By mere accident heard the other
day of your whereabouts, and, as l for
one still feel the same interest in my
playmate that l used to, l resolved,
think l may say courageously, to dis
cover whether he still gave promise of
fulfilling all the hopes then entertained
for him.
81 wonder if some of our early ex-
periences are still as fresh in your mind
as they are in mine! Do you remember
that day you made me stand guard while
you blew old Jones eggs in retaliation
for his having turned informer against
you? l think it was the time he told
about your having promoted fight be-
tween two dogs. And do you remember
the day on the skating pond when you
broke through the ice and frightened me
into fits by disappearing three times be-
low the surface, while all the time you
were standing, as you afterward confess
ed, on solid bottom? 1 thought then l
should never forgive you for causing me
feelings. And then the telegraph scheme
by which we communicated that time
had the measles. 1t all seems to have
occurred in some other world, looking
back at it now; and yet what happy
times those were! | believe l could go
on forever with these "reminiscences; but
perhaps they are not as sweet to you as
they are to me; perhaps am only boring
you with them. 1t would be great dis
appointment to me, though, to know that
you never looked back with sigh to
those days and never gave thought to
your once so devoted playmate.
81 am going to place called Stillton
this summer. dare say you never
heard of it; it is in Maine, and l must
confess I anticipate a very stupid time
there. Perhaps shall have nothing else
to do but reflect upon the days of my
early youth. Am quite forgotten?
"Your playmate of old,
JANE JENNINGS.
"BoSToN, June 10, 1884,"
The nom de plume was borrowed from
Mabels faithful servant-nurse in ear
lier days, description Of maid now
and was safe one, as old Jane proper
was never known to receive letters, and,
moreover, could not have deciphered her
own name on the envelope had one arriv-
ed for her.
The conflict on the following morning
as to whether it should be sent or de-
stroyed, the tremble of the little hand
that finally dropped it irrevocably into
the iron post box, the vain reproaches
and unanswered longings for its return,
the subsequent prayers that it might by
some providential interference be inter-
cepted or miscarry, all followed in due
course, as well as later a revulsion of
feeling and an anxious watching for the
mails, hope deferred, and sickness of
heart.
Friday came. The journey, miserable
as was its object, was accomplished, and
Stillton, in all its tomb like silence and
drowsy do-nothingness, with its few
glazing white houses and its one dusty
road, offering no apology or explanation
whatever for its purposeless existence,
at last was reached. and Farmer Galusha
in accordance with DIR.
Nevercure's arrangements, met the faded
travellers at the station in his rickety
shay, prepared to take them over TO the
cottage.
""Tain't more'n three mile" he said
consolingly. THE roads amt none too
good this season, an Kittie-that's her"
pointing to his mare)-"don't feel over
skittish; she's nigh onter fourteen year,
an right smart, too, fur her age, but
sorter broken winded latterly: but |
guess we'll make it afore dark. Go long,
Kittier
The ancient mare started off. Her
fore legs were stiff and jointless, her
hip bones painfully prominent, her ribs
sadly bare, and her nose hung dejectedly
toward the ground but she still pos
sessed some mechanical power of loco
motion, and the 'shay" began to squeak
and rattle in her wake. Galusha was
proud of his native hamlet. THAT
there's our meetin' house." he said, but
its whitewash and green blinds did not
seem to excite the travellers admiration.
AN that longish house yonder's Pin
GUS"
L llCuS dShcu hdDtl, Win ydWn.
"Pincus Sass, mum. IT'S the hotel,
mum. That's him in the door. Hulloa,
Pincus" he shouted, shooting a line of
tobacco juice over the dashboard.
"Haow, GalushaW came in nasal ac-
cents from the door way. "Who We go
in the phayton?"
1.-The folks as took the cottage yonder"
called back Galusha.
"Humph! I'll be dummed." was
Pincus audible comment as the shay
ratified on.
"Yonder's the store" presently added
Galusha, pointing with his two feet of
whip stock to place placarded with
patent medicine advertisements, and ap-
parently the rendezvous for all the to-
bacco chewers of the neighborhood.
And the postoliiceY' asked Mabel
timidly.
"ln the store, mum. Barton Bumps
our postmaster. Some'at of a man, Bar
ton is. He was 'pinted by the Pres
dent 'imself. Barton fit in the war, yer