News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-06-30

f. @it's AUNT RufamahI" erie1~ Kit
ty. "Why, how came she here? anC
all by herself''
ITS a good ways" repeated the
old woman, shifting her fiat travel.
ing basket, "and I'm sort o. turned
round. But | followed sister Sarah
all the way. She went before, and
she beckoned. | followed her here,
and she's gone out to the old well.
I'm sort O. feared to follow her into
the high, wet grass, but she keeps a
beckonin, and | guess I'll have to
gop'
She started for the door, passing
her hand in a confused fashion over
her forehead.
"What does she mean ?" asked
Harry Wait.
''She means mother" said Kitty
mother, that has been dead and
buried these fifteen years"
Don't you see her beckon' ?" pip
ed the little old woman, "iust there
by the old well?" We never could get
Eben to put a curb there, and sister
Sarah was always afeared something
would happen"
Il see the tall grass waving" said
Kitty, "and a cloud coming over the
surface of the rising moon, and that
is ALL"
"It's sister Sarah" said Aunt
Ruey, pushing resolutely ahead, "and
she wants me. Why, Kitty, do you
mean to tell me that you don't know
your own mother?"
Kitty sent for Harry Wait the next
day.
Harry" said she, "do you want
to do something for me?'
81 want to do everything for you,
Kitty"
"That's snonsenser' But she laughed
and colored nevertheless. II want
you to put a curb around that old
sunken well. Aunt Ruey keeps wan
dering out there. She declares that
mother stands beckoning her aud
leaning over to look in. And it's as
near to bring out water from there
as to go to Hemlock springs"
81 thought the old well was dried
up long ago." said young Wait.
"There's water there, | see it shine
and sparkle And Mr.. Tucker says
he will dig it out anew and stone itup
if you will build u curb. 1t will be
handy for the cattle, too.
every well, p" nodded Wait. "Any
time Gid fuckers ready, l am"
Mrs. Tucker came n few days later
to the first husking bee ofthe season,
full of excitement.
"Hev ye heard ?" said she.
And Mrs. Bradley, the buXOm mis-
tress made answer:
"IfI hadn't heerd it with my own
ears an seen it witch my own eyes,"
said Mrs. Tucker, 81 never should |
ha' believed it. But it is trueI"
"What's true?" breathlessly de-
Mrs. Bradley.
"Miss Ritchie has come into her
fortune" said Mrs. Tucker.
"What, cried all the company.
SIN gold" said Mrs Tucker 1.-THE
old captains prize money. | knowed |
it must be somewhere. And it was
all the timep'
"Where?" questioned thecompany |
with one accord.
"Wedged behind the big halfway |
stone in the old sunken well, where
they used to lower the cream pail TO
keep it COOL" eagerly spoke Mrs.
Tucker "In an old tin box rusted |
clean through, and tied up in the |
same identical shammy bag that
Mrs. Ritchie showed me years and
years ago. She must ha' put it
there herself, to keep it out of her
husbands hands that time he had
such notion of putting everything
into mining shares an lottery tick
cts, an died afore she had q chance
to tell anyone where it was. Gideon
he discovered it, fixing up the new
stun WALL" Mrs. Bradley gave a
start.
"Don't you know" said she, poor
old Aunt Ruey always stood to it
that her sister Sarah was standing
there by the well, beckOnin' to her?
She declared that her sister Sarah
was afore her all the way from Ohio. "
EYES," said Mrs. Tucker in low
voice. "And when Gideon got to
the house there was Aunt Ruhamah
settin' by the fire, with her knittin'
in her hands, Jest for all the world
like as if she was sleepin' but was
stone dead. And wasn't it lucky she
signed them title deeds O Gideon's
last week? And Kitty's cryin' fit to
break her heart. Kitty can be mar
ried now when she pleases. There
ain t nothing more to wait for. And |
who knows" she added looking tim
idly over her shoulder at the gray |
shadows of the cleaning, "but that |
Aunt Ruhamah saw clearer than we
do, and sister Sarah, Kitty's mother,
was really beckonin' on the edge of
the old well.
"Ahp' said Mrs. Bradley, ,'who
knows ?"-Helen Forrest Graves in
Sa turday Night.