The gold leaf., 1891-12-31

would stop with their hands full of let
ters from sisters and nephews and
nieces, to hand her a letter from-Pris-
ella.
Sometimes a tear would drop on
Toms sleek coat, but that was not
often; only when she was silly, she told
herself.
Now there was, about three-quarters
of a mile to the right of the widows
shanty modest little shock, half COW
cred with luXuriant vines; over the
front door was a roughly made lattice,
and this, too, was covered with the
vines, and the whole cottage was a
picturesque little affair and the envy of
the schoolma' ANS, who loved flowers,
but whose vines always died and whose
ornamental gardening was confined to
a bed of sickly-looking four o'clocks
which grew by their door.
The owner of the vine -draped shanty
was a bachelor of middle age who
spoke with a queer foreign accent. He
was an extremely bashful man and he
scarcely dared look at the ladies as
they passed him, with the good-natured
"Howdy" that was the customary
greeting of the country.
The widow had watched him often
from the window as he plowed upon
his claim, and she admired his fine
manly bearing, and she did wish in
her heart that he'd be a bit neighborly,
and she told Tom so; but Tom only
purred and stretched himself in the
sun.
Now, as l said, the schoolma' ans
were passionately fond of flowers and
were discouraged and chagrined that
nothing would grow in their door yard
So one day when they saw the owner
of Vine cottage, as they called it, set
ting out for town, they equipped them
selves with a basket and trowel and,
stopping for the widow, they went on a
tour of pillage.
They all entered into the fun Of the
thing and in an hour or more a droop-
ing, dejected-looking vine was clinging
to string beside the door Of each cot
tage.
And the odd thing was, that while
the vine of the schoolma' ans faded
and died, that of the widow grew
and throve marvelously. So wonderful
was it's growth that soon it began to
spread over the walls and roof until her
shanty rivaled the vine cottage in the
way of verdure. And the two old
maids ioked the widow and caused her
to blush furiously at the undignifed
prank she had played in getting the
vine.
In time, the shy man grew little
neighborly and sometimes a brace OF
prairie chickens would be hung. with
out a word, on the widows door. Or
again it would be a lot of rare pebbles,
quartz and agate, or a trout or pickerel
from the lake near by. And at each
offering the widow would nod her pref
ty head wisely and smile to herself.
Nature was kind to the pioneers that
year There had been no severe storms,
no terrible heat or drought, and in No
vember it was still mild and warm,
without a sign of frost. Everyone said
that it was remarkable season, just
as though the remark were quite new
and original.
The widow was saying to herself one
afternoon that after all it had been very
pleasant t. Hc pioneer woman. There
had been.no great discoEforts and de-
privations, and now that there were but
two months more to stay, she was half
sorry.
She had been putting away some OF
her summer clothes, and a white Mother
Hubbard wrapper, favorite garment
of the widows. hung upon clothesline
beside the house. 1t was a dainty
thing, white cambria. with lace-edged
rufhes and with a pink ribbon bow with
long ends at the neck. Indeed, to have
seen the widow in it would have recon
ciled the most prejudiced person to the
much maliGned Mother Hubbard.
There had been little ftful gusts ot
wind all day and late in the afternoon il
became quite gale. The tumble weeds
hurried from spot to spot as the vino
veered about, and the dainty Mother
Hubbard tapped furiously in the breeze
but the widow was reading very in
teresting book and never looked up unit
crash came flying board against the
side of the house and the shanty begaI
to sway and rock like a cradle.
Itwas a short-lived storm and theri