Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-01-07
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TOM WINSTON'S VOW.


hangs over your house know that 1t is
nine" Tom Winston said to Theo
Thorpe the day the latter brought home
his young wife, Lucy Lane.
Theo only answered.,
"Iu be sorry to believe that, Tom, and
come day you'll be thankful to remem-
Der that the curse causeless shall not
come"
And then he went quickly into his
mill
The millers cottage stood In verdant
hollow beside the millpond, where ap-
pies, plums, peach and cherry trees ran
down the sunny slope in front and hon.
eysuckle clam bered up the walls to deck
them with russell perfume. while up on
the windy hill across the pond stood Tom
Winstons house, with never tree to
shelter it from the winter storms nor a
flower to drape its bare walls, nor a
woman's face to warm its cold hearth
stone and chase away the black shadows
from about Toms heart.
None but little baby Maysie, the two
year-old child of sister Bessie, whom
folks said he had loved with no common
love. His gloomy face softened to none
but Maysie, and perhaps he would have
forgiven Lucy easier had it not been that
Bessies baby wanted mother so badly
"Ill get the better of him yet" vowed
Tom, shaking his fist at the blue smoke
curling up from the hollow, on the even
ing Of that homecoming. "My curse,
bitter and everlasting, on bed and hearth,
and every stick and stone belonging to
Theo Thorpe!'
When the young wife heard that her
old lover was going about vowing VEN
geance, she laughed in gay defiance, and
declared that twenty Tom Winstons
would not brighten her.
At the same time she looked with
quite new interest from under her
lashes at Tom when sometimes she en-
countered him on the road, as if she
would have said:
SIS the hurt so very bad, Tom?"
But Tom seemed to be stone blind as
he passed on his side of the way. Lucy
was very pretty and foolhardy, and So
well, being woman, she set herself to
conquer him.
One day she came home with her bas-
ket full of wild berries, and her black
hair was full of corn flowers, and burst
ing open the old mill door, she stood in
the stream of sunshine, with her hazel
eyes full of triumph and her merry, care
less face full of laughing dimples.
"What do you think" cried she, dane
ing on her little feet. 81 met Tom VIM
ston and that baby up the wood, and
made Tom speak to me, and / just up
and told him what mean, envious fell
low he was, and how for all his ugly
threats / knew it wasn't in him to harm
a bone Of my body"
"You told him that?" exclaimed Theo.
eyes; and he looked hard at me, and
said that was true; and then we shook
hands on it, and took the baby"
''Now, | don't know anything that
could please me so much as that" said
Theo earnestly. ITO hear of Tom com
ing round, and by your means, dear!
But nobody could withstand you"
This was beginning of truce be-
tween the house on the hill and the
house in the hollow. Tom did not thaw
very perceptibly toward Theo, but he
did become quite cordial with Lucy.
Indeed, to Theos heartfelt satisfaction
he would sometimes hear from Lucy
that Tom and the child had been at the
house those evenings that he happened
to be in town with his loads of -four.
And soon Lucy used to go up to Toms
house and take Maysie down to spend
the day with her, and never did she look
more winsome in her young husbands
eyes than when sitting under the apple
trees with the child on her lap
The first year passed. a tiny, rame-
less grave was in the churchyard, and a
little face, never seen in life, was Cher
ished in Theo's loving heart.
''Ah, no, Toms curse couldn't hurt
u.s." Theo had answered in humb BILE faith,
while his Lucy in her illness and sorrow
had muttered with fevered reiteration:
''If it hadn't been for him-if it hadn't
been for him"
Lucy was in the cornfelds again pluck
ing the scarlet peoples and the blue corn
flowers, and she chung to little Maysie
more than ever.
What a comfort she is" Theo would
say, as he watched his wife's sad face
glow into brightness at the sound Of
Maysie's prattle, land how thank Tom
for lending her SO often to u.s."
Words like these often made poor
Lucy weep as she carried the child alone
still alone-to the house on the hill.
1t was the anniversary of their we'd
ding day, and Theo was Fastening home
from his days business in town earlier
than usual to honor the day by present.
ing his wife with pretty gift and then
take her over to spend the evening at his
fathers.
No Lucy standing in the rose girdled
porch to welcome him. So much the
better He could turn the horse into the
pasture and write her name in the pres.
ent before she would dream he had come
home and hasten back from her ramble
with Maysie
Going into the kitchen Theo I'M
wrapped his present-a pretty little
Bible, in scarlet Russian leather, with
mother of-pearl back-and wrote care.