Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-10-29

| s'pose, but I'll bring a host. I've got
two whole sets of blue stonowarc, all
except the slop-bowls, besides the best
part of a gilt china set. You've seen
EN-, guess. The house wants paint
ing, too; never saw so brown a house
for a white one. Then we'll want an
extension table, so when Rctsy and her
children visit us they can sit down.
Don't be offended, dear Ebenezer; l
shouldn't have said all this, for the
world, but you know you asked me-"
Ehenezer didn't know whether he
ought to be offended or not. He was
fattered and yet mortified.
Polly put her hand in her pocket and
brought out her handkerchief, and with
it came her tatting shuttle and thread.
The sight of these brought her mind
back to the sober realities of life. 1t
was stitch, stitch, stitch, with pooc Polly
from morning to night, with no one to
love her or care for her as she merited.
So she sat down with her back to the
bushes, and when Ebenezer knew by the
! low sobs that reached him that she was
crying, he let go the bushes carefully,
so as not to disturb her, and walked off
home.
He lay awake until long after midnight
that night. His thumb panied him a
little, but his sleeplessness was not
caused wholly by that.
He was thinking of the time, many
years back, when Polly Virgins, then a
rosy girl of eighteen, was very dear to
him. He remembered how she had gone
to Dame Chadwick's ''apple-cut" one
right with Jim Winters, and that she
flirted with him all the evening. He re-
membered, too, how angry and jealous
he was about it, and that he treated her
coldly and never sought to WOO her after
that
He made a resolve at last, and then he
closed his eyes and went to sleep--to
dream of tables of all kinds, with sofas
and pictures, and blue dishes. and rolls
of carpeting, and poppy and marigold
seed by the bushel being piled pro-
miscuously in his front yard, and that
be was giving to the house coat of
white paint.
Then he was stretching and lacking
down carpet in the garnet, and
He awoke with groan. He must
have been hammering away at his sore
thumb, for it was throbbing and aching
terribly, Sleep was out of the question
now, so Ebenezer got up and lighted
candle and walked the bare floor till
daylight, wondering why he had never
felt so lonely before, and thinking, as
he had never thought before, that a
| bachelors life was a wretched one.
A few days after her walk on the
beach Polly sat knitting in her sisters
best room, when that lady came in from
the store, whittier she had gone for roll
/ of butter.
Sakes alive, Polly, you will never
believe it. Ebenezer Stickney is turning
everything inside out aud upside down
at his house. They're painting the house
outside, and papering and whitewashing
inside, and he's got Jim Black there
clearing out the yard. l didn't think
much about all that, for the Lord knows
the place needed it; but just as left
the store what should stop in front of
the millers gate but two loads of brand
new furniture. Then said l to myself,
that means something. spoke to Sally
Brown about it, aud we both say there's
a wedding ahead"
Mrs. Betsy Carver was so excited over
this piece OF news that she did not notice
how pale Polly had grown, nor her hand
tremble so that she dropped half the
stitches off her knitting needle. She
ratified away:
az reckon [ know who he'll marry
That brazen faced Murray girl that sits.
right in front of him every time he goes
to Vittoria to church. She's had her
cap set for him these two years, Sally
says, and at last she's trapped him."
Polly's face was flushed to crimson
now. She made no reply, but bent over
her work, nervously taking up the
stitches she had dropped.
If she loved Ebenezer Stickney, her
sister did not suspect it. Just then Katy
Rice, Ebenezer's little niece, came in.
"Please, Miss Polly, Uncle Eben sent
me down after the seeds you said he
could have"
"Let ne see, said Polly, musingly
son, yes. He wanted US to save him
some cucumber seed"
"It's flower seed he wants, ever so
many kinds, interposed Katy.
81 never promised him any that
know of; didn't suppose he cared for any
such things, said Polly, little spite
fully, as she thought of Lucy Murray in
connection with Eoeuezer's flower gar
den. Then she added, meekly:
Your uncle is welcome to what have
left. " -.
The little girl received the seeds and
bounded away, saying:
"The beds are all ready, and I'm to
show Uncle Eben how to sow them
Then back she came again
81 forgot was to ask you which are
the morning glory seeds. He says you
told him they must go by the window"
Il never told bin any such thing; but
there they are. "
"Don't be in hurry, Katy" said Mrs.
Carver, persuasively. $50 your Uncle
Eben is going to get married, is he?'
"Yes, ma'am.'
"Who is he going to marry' now,
there's "a good girl. "
Don't know, but l guess mother
does. Sc told him she wouldn't make
the carpets uHless he told her ever so
much. How funny it will seem to have
Uncle Eben married."
There's your mother coming now
with her bonnet to be trimmed, and she
don't leave this house till she tells me-"
said Mrs. Carver.
Just as though you didn't know
already" said Mrs. Rice, in answer to
the all-important question. "Hasn't the
bride-elect told youl"
"of course not, or shouldn't have to
ask YOU"
"ob, well, tn en-, l mustn't tell, but I
will say, Polly, and Mrs. Rice spoke
mischiev0usly, you're very exacting.