Middletown transcript., 1891-07-16

'em, when there's sech sight OF 'em
/: to be had for nothin' IN this world,
Ii too. An it beats me how you can
make 'em uplwhen nuthin' amt ever
$ happened to you."
e Lyddy caught her breath in lit
tie, quick sigh.
It "If you was Mary Rowlandson,
o now, that was captered by IDjins
Well, get the school. know folks
i will pay for schoolin'', though, some
times I don't know but that's heavin'
g money away. There amt anything
) else to be done, as I see."
There was nothing else to be done
$ that Lyddy could see, although it
seemed to her that st. La@rence's
gridiron would be but mild torture
compared to the asking ofsuch favor
of Brewster Bennett But of the
other members of the committee,
Ezekiel True had a troop of well.to-
do but thrifty nieces. who hovered
) over a school like flies over a honey
pot, and Enoch Mann said he " want
going to give anybody recommend,
sence they'd turned out his first WIFE
sister,"
Lyddy put ON her least becoming
dress and combed her hair back
plainly, for reasons. when she scarce
) ly pouchsafed TO explain to herself.
Looking in the glass she decided that
these efforts were quite unnecessary,
since deep line, like her fathers.
was coming between her eyebrows,
and, also, she had found several gray
hairs in her combings.
4, 1t was nine years since she came
home from the Pemberton Seminary,
and she was almost rineteen then !;
twenty-eight was unquestionably an
age at which one should have re-
nounced the follies of youth, even if
poverty and carking cares had not
roughly wrenched one away from
them.
The girls at the seminary thou ghs
she had great deal of sense; quite
too much, in fact, to be compatible
with peachy complexion and very
deep dimple. In the. procession |
which marched properly, by twos, for
each days constitutional, guarded by |
a weary dragon of a teacher, she had |
never cast coquettish glances in the
direction of the two elegant young
men who always waited upon the
hotel-steps to see them pass, nor had
she been one to cut holes in the win
dow.shades, securely fastened down
over the windows which gave upon
the garden of the college boarding
house, where wandered delightfully."-
dangerous young men. And she re-
fused to listen to Jennie Vickery,s
love-letters (smuggled in by, way of
the parlor-maid) which Jenny read
aloud to her friends, Or recited from
memory, thrillingly, after the lights
we're out.
And she declined to be called
Lydia, although the girls said that
was quite fine and aristocratic, if it
was old.fashioned. Lyddy was her
name, and she liked it. But in spite
of the sense, which the girls commits
Grated as deeply as they envied her
complexion, Lyddy did not like TO go
back to Cherry6eld and the farm.
Pemberton had enlarged her views.
She sat detected in the train on
that drizzly June morning of her re-
turn, after her father, whose uncouth-
ness Of grammar and of clothes Jared ]
alike upon her sensibilities, had left
her to tall with a grizzly and dilapi- ,
dated drover, who, he said. was an
old friend, when suddenly there was
Squire Hartman at her elbow, POM
pous but unwontedly gracious, intro
ducing t. her ga young fellow who
was studying with him." If
And Lyddy, from feeling bored and ,
shy, found herself growing light {
hearted, and talking with Brewster
Bennett as easily as if she had known /
him all her life. He was SO delicate e
ly reticent at first, and respectful of
her mood, and looked at her out of ,
such frank and sympathetic brown :
eyes. (There were people who had !
discovered that those eyes were green, :
and LyddY herself sometimes saw !,
them SO. but not this -morning.)
Cherryfeld and the farm, even be- I
fore the journeys end, appeared in 6
glorifed atmosphere. Then, and
afterward, all the ways of her life
seemed to have had no purpose or I
aim but to lead up to that dingy,
cindery car, humping along through f
the rainy June morning. It certain. :
ly was not his looks. He was short, .
and already inclining to an uninter-
esting stoutness, and his head was too
long, if its crop of curly hair was boy !
ish and winning. Neither was it his : :
manner Oyddy affirmed, IN her self !
communings,) } although it is certain
that since Eve forgot the serpent's un-
pleasant appearance in the suayity of
his manners, her sex has been more :.
easily beguiled by manner than by
looks. He was altogether different : !
from any one whom she had ever :
met. It was something" touch of :
hand or turn of head" With all her
sense, that was the only explanation :
that Lyddy could give, then or after. :
ward. Poor Lyddy! 6
He came very often to the farm, Q
where she received him alone in the .
parlor Gin which she had speedily in :
troduced decorative effects, in the
shape of embroidered storks and cat
tails, to supersede the funeral wreaths
and vegetables frames, and she went :
to drives and dances with him, falling |
easily into the primitive Cherryield :, :
fashions, although the Pemberton !. !.
Faculty had instilled other ideas of :.
etiquette. (Lyddy was pityingly con- y !
fident that the light that never shone =
on sea or land had failed to illumi- =
nate the respectable spinsters of the :.
Pemberton Faculty =
He called on other Young ladies. :