Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-08-18

tina thrown over their dark hair; gentle
men In American cut frock coats and broad
sombreros; female beggars and flower
sellers, each with the inevitable baby fas-
tened to her back by gay hued robozo;
| policemen, workmen, dogs, horses, car
rlages and the great mass of idle popula-
| tlon crowded the main avenues and rem
dered locomotion necessarily deliberate
Edward Payson made his way to his
| room in quiet street, and for the TWEEN
tieth time read the letter he had received
the day before.
GREENFIELD, Va, juno - lSs-
| Ny DEAR-Why do you not come back2 WHY
! do you stay away so long from the old home?
/ 1t is ten years that you have been away, and
only found out last week where you were.
| w nat made you go away so suddenly without
saying goodhy TO anybody | ought not to
! forgive you, but do. You should have thought
| that perhaps the trouble which made you go
| might not have been so bad after all, and that
! people may not have meant all they said No
! one knows that am writing you this letter.
! and perhaps ought not to do il, but am long
ing to see my boy again and do no not care
what folks may say. DO not wait to write, but
| come. CHLOE PAYsoN
"A week later Edward Payson stood in
the grove of sycamores oaks and naples,
! looking Mt the stone mansion of which he
| had been thinking so sadly amid the heat,
! dust and noise of the Mexican amphithe-
alter. 1t was just such morning of which
| he had dreamed. The sun was shining
brightly, and the low hum of insects min
| gled with the shiver of the leaves over his
head, as if trying to soothe him and quiet
the fierce beating of his heart.
How natural the old house looks. What
a little change has been made here in ten
| years. 1t looks the same as it did yester-
! day, | wonder what my uncle will say to
me. | wish Chloe had said something
about him. We had a rather serious quar-
rel, | remember the day before left him
| Perhaps he will tell me to 90 back again
and resume the vagrant life that know
/ he thinks | have been leading. No, he
would hardly say that to the son of his
only brother, after his sacred promise to
! that brother to be as a father to me as long
as we both lived
Besides he was always hot headed, and
no doubt forgave me almost before was
out of the room. All, well, | shall soon
know, and what do | care, so that Chloe
| has welcome for me? 1t was near this
! spot that she spoke to me SO kindly, and
| yet, oh, 50 coldly, when she told me that
/ There she is surely"
| His breath came short as he caught sight
of white dress at one of the open win
! dows under the veranda roof He could
not see the face of the wearer because
! tangled mass of creeper hung in the way,
| but lac knew it could be no one else save
| the girl, as he loved still to think her
whom he had come thousands of miles to
| see. The white dress moved away, and he
walked slowly across the lawn, noting on
/ every hand familiar objects that brought
back his youth in a flood of fragrance.
How weak he felt as he assembled the
steps to the veranda. Where was Chloe?
! Would she come to the door?
He pulled the bell hand die and heard the
clang that he remembered so well resound-
ing through the house. He could see it in
bis minds eye swinging near the rear of
the long hall that ran straight through
from the front door to that opening on the
yard at the back where the old cooks cab
| bages and tomatoes were carefully tended,
and where it was as much as one of the
kitchen girls life would have been worth
to trespass lie remembered how the old
bell had to his youthful Imagination pos
sessed ghostly attributes, and how he used
to fancy it moved Of itself in the dusk of
/ the evening, shaking its head in mockery
and threatening to swallow him up into
its rusty throat
Listen! There is step in the hall
Somebody is coming. The door opened a
little way, and the futter of white dress
caught his eye. Impaticntly he pushed the
door wide open and put out his hand to
take that Of Chloe.
"Why, Mas'r Ed'ardl FL | didn't t'ink
you'd come back to 20 poo oil auntie,"
and two black hands, in white sleeves.
were placed on Edward Payson's shoulder,
as a pair of hornrimmed spectacles fell
with a crash to the floor
yes, auntie. | got letter, and | came
right back to the old place. How are you,
and how is my uncle and how is-is''--
His voice faltered, but the old woman
did not appear to notice it as she answered:
"Dey is all well, honey. Dere have been
few changes roun here. Come in and let
me give you something to eat I've got
some hot con cakes, like yer useter git
when 20 was boy. Come along Yo
uncle's done gone away for all day"
ooh, Aunte, | want you to- said a
child's voice, and a little girl with sunny
golden hair came running along the hall
just as Edward payson used to run some
thirty years before. She stopped when she
saw him and chung close to the hustered
old woman while she looked inquiringly
at him.
"Yo know, Ed'ard, did not know where
20 had gone, but colored man what
works for Mr.. Sherwood, the butcher, he
was here and he toll me he heard as yo
was in Mexica. And | thought yo'd had
little quarrel with 20 uncle, and p'raps
you'd be too proud TO come back if he wrote
to you, and so | got young Miss Mabel,
over to Raleigh's place, who is just as good
us angel to col'ed folks and who writes
splendid, to write to you, and"-
"And was the letter from your" gasped
Edward Payson, as he looked dc---n at the
golden haired little girl, while a terrible
thought ran through his brain.
Course it was honey Want it signed
Chloe Payson, and amt dat my nameW
"And-and-wh is this little child"
"That2 Why, Miss Chloe's, of couse.
She was married five years ago to young
Mr.. Willard, who, dey say, will be a jedge
next year. He is away today with yo'r un-
Chloe. What n fool ! is to keep yo here
with my chatterin, and you been away
from her for ten years"
But Edward Payson, with some excuse
he never knew what-managed to get away
from the house and into the sycamore and
maple grove, where, with the stones of the
old house just visible between the trees
and the fragrance of the syringa lowering
like a half forgotten melody around his
bowed head, he threw himself on the
! e,rounI anb parvab biugalf n baor such q