Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-04-24
The LOng-Exuected Letter.
BY HELEN FORREST GRAVES.

BY HELEN FORREST GRAVES.
The yellow narcissus was all in bios
som in the little yard that fronted the
village postofice; the maple trees had
dropped their red stars long ago, and
here and there one found pink clus-
tiers of honey-sweet trailing arbutus in
the woods.
Isabel Islay had a bunch in the front
of her jacket as she sauntered up to see
if there were any letters; but they were
no pinker than her cheeks.
A little group of men and women had
assembled there for the same purpose.
The women eyed Isabella, and wondered
how it was that her dresses always "set
so stylishly;' the men looked admir-
ipgly at her big blue eyes and rosy com
plexion.
Two or three other mill girls joined
her; they laughed and talked gaily as
the spectacled old postmaster sorted the
mails.
At last the unpainted pine partition
slid back, the spectacles appeared in
the aperture and the postmaster cried,
briskly:
ssNaow thenl Who wants their
maill'
Isabella stepped briskly forward.
"Anything for me, Mr.. Riderl' said
size.
"Islay, Miss I. Isabel Islay. Miss
Isabel Islayv" read out the old man.
"Threc for you. Who next'"
"Isabel gets all the letters" gigglel
the mill girls, as Isabella received her
treasures. "She might divide with us
Hear comes Miss Seaman. Now for
some fun"
A .pallid, pinched, old-young lady
here advanced with smirk on her coun-
tenance, and faded shawl, whose folds
scarcely covered the fat basket that she
carried.
"Anything for me, Mr.. Postmasterf'
she demanded, with ill-simulated indif-
ference.
''No, mum" carelessly answered the
official.
care you surel"
"Yes'mw
"Oh!' A blank expression crept
across her face. "But it really don t
signify. just thought I'd inquire, as
chanced to be passing"
And she withdrew. amid the very
audible titters of the mill girls.
"There amt mali comes in, said the
postmaster, oracularly, "but Miss Genny
seaman's here a-watchin' for it. And
she never gifts letter-not so much as
postal card. I should think she'd git
tired o runnin'."
"Miss Genevieve Seaman" said the
caroworn woman of the house where the
mill girls boarded. "Oh, that all hap
pened years ago! She had beau, OIL
snthin', and lie went away-nobOdy jest
knew whar Reckon she didn't know
herself. And it sort Of upset her brain,
and she haini fairly been herself sence.
She's a very good dressmaker, and she
trims a bonnet quite scrumptiously, and
50 she earns decent livin'. But she S
been expectiu' letter this twenty odd
yea,, an it's never come"
"Girls. said Isabel Islay, as they sat
at the round table that evening, laughing
and talking, 'it's near the first ol
April Let's write letter to that poor
old thing from her lover in the East"
"Was he her loverl" said Lucy
FELTON,.
"Well, from the man she imagined
to be her lover. Let's make it fervent
rs fire and sweet as sugar. Let's lay il
on thick"
''Jn short, let's make az April Fool of
Miss Genuy Seaman" said Mary Crane,
who was rctrimiDg an old hat with lilac
ribbons and bunch OF violets.
"Just that, +" said Isabel.
"But you don't even know the fellows s
name"
sI can find that ont MIS-. Webb
knows, aud / can easily coax it out OF
her. 1t will be such fuul'
1t was the morning Of the first Of April
"a blue-slsied, breezy day, with the air
full Of growing scents and bluebird
whistles-and soon after the cumbrous
old four-horse stage had crashed through