Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-10-23

one Rnelt beside him, aud began to I'M
tic the strings. She had forgotten that
she felt -"slck aud tired and most worn
out" Her black eyes were laughing
still, as she stopped over and kissed her
pet.
But when she kissed him, the laugh
ter died out OF her eyes, and there came
an anxious look instead She put her
little, hard brown hand on his forehead,
and then on his check, and then on his
chubby wrist; and as she listened to
the irregular breathing, John Wynn
drove past, aud wrigglod with delight
to think that he had cheated the toll for
the second time.
The drivers were not kept waiting the
next day. Dan Toomey's fast mare was
obliged to pause an instant. john Wynn
tried it again, was trapped; but Pegs pot
did not sit on the doorstep that sunny
Tuesday anil swing his Sabbath -shod
feet as If there were nothing in the world
so fine.
"Has Walsh's children stopped a-goin'
to school altogether7' inquired Mrs.
Coon, rs Mary and Belle came bouncing
in with their satchels.
''Some ms sick, sposc," said Belle;
"I aeen the doctors horse tied to the
tree PAWN like he'd been there long
time"
'Huml Now wonder if Gus tards and
gelatines wouldn't come into accounti"
said the rival blacksnith's wife, with
shrug of her shoulders.
"rhey's sick Mt the toll-gatc" The
news spread swiftly. "Down with the
mcasels or somcthin'." Very soon tho
word came, "They's down with the scar
let fevcr"
Then Mrs. Coon forgot and forgavc,
and sent Mary over with dish of jelly,
covered with her finest napkin; but the
napkin and the dish both returned with
Mary, and the jelly, too.
A little white coffin was carried out
from the dollhouse one day, and old Mrs.
Lisle fell to crying and sobbing as the
burden was carried past the store. San
neyerso much rs a cracker" she moaned,
''an' no milk nor nothin'l"
"Thc proudest woman in these parts"
cried Josh Bernct, thrusting his hands
deep into his trousers pockets, and We
hcmently pacing the floor.
"By Georgcw exclaimed Colonel
Green, putting and blowing. "Bill
Walsh is down himself; taken in the
night, and raving like loon. I say
something must be done"
There was light in the dollhouse
now; it seemed ~ If it had been there a
long timc-a steady, mellow light, that
fell across the road and lost itself in the
grassy field.
But the door flew open as usual when
Will Smiths wagon drove up, and Peg
came out for the toll.
Thinking of the unhappincss and pow
erty within, Will timidly held out sill
yer quarter.
"Thrcc cents" said Peg, sharply, and
handed him back the change
The hunming-b birds whizzed away sud-
denly from the great clustering honey
sucklc Mt the end of Col. Green's front
porch. They had dipped their bills I'M
disturbed into the sweetness of its honey,
though the Colonel's voice came big and
clustering out through the open sitting
room window.
But this disturbance was more than n
voice; 1t was n girl who came rushing to
the bench under the vine and throw her
arms on the railing, with her head in her
arms, and began to weep.
First she sobbcd vehemently, as if she
had been keeping back the tears and
could do so no longer. Then she wept
more softly, and at last stopped alto
gether, aud fell to wondering a little in
dignantly why her grandfather and the
rest of the people did not stop talking and
set to work to do something instead.
eff I were only man," said Hetty
Green, hopclessly, az should think of
some way"
She pressed her face deeper among the
fresh leaves and sighed, thinking. Then
she began to wonder what she would
think of if she really were man.
As she puzzled her brain she stood SO
silently that the birds came whizzine
about again, only to be started off on
another tour as she jumped up and ran
back into the house.
If they had remained and peeped in at
the window, they might have seen Hetty
performing an ccstatc dance across the
sitting-room floor to where the WORKOUT
Colonel rested i'll his leather chair. They
might have seen her fling herself upon
the arm, and whisper in the Colonel's ear
exactly what he and all the other people
must go and do.
But the birds must have been sorely
puzzled, for why should a whisper from
a girl who was always whispering make
such an impression upon gray-haired,
sensible man like the Colonel2
He did not wait until she was done
whispering before he was tapping his
feet on the floor and nodding his head,
aud exclaiming, "By Georgel" in APP
proval. Whether or not she va, really
done they could not have known, for the
Colonel suddenly put on his hat and left
the room.
All around the country for miles and
miles drove Hetty's grandfather. the
Colonel, pausing for an instant mt every
house on the way, rushing in and out Of
billions livery stable, and exclaiming
and gesticulating to every man he met.
When Colonel Green reached home