The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1893-12-13

Ephralm nd
Susan Dodd were honestly delighted
with this sudden addition of their
nieces to the family circle,
Mrs. Dodd soon began TO talk to her
neighbors with complacency about the
responsibility of bringing up girls,
and when her back was turned her
friends shook their heads, saying:
its shame In their old age,
too, when they were just beginning to
take little comfortP'
The girls were tall, pretty, strong
and vivacious. Their names were
Martha and Evelina. Each had brown
hair, a delicately tinted face and large
gray eyes that looked at people in a
friendly, unabashed way. Martha
was thirteen years old when she ar
rived-two years older than her sister
and before she had passed her six
teenth birthday Ephraim decided that
she must so away to better school
than Lumberton afforded. 1t was a
sad day for the Dodds when small
leathern trunk bumped to the railway
station behind one of Uncle Ephraim's
OK teams.
Ephraim, Evelina and her Aunt
Susan chung to Martha with a frantic
earnestness in saying good-by and
then stared at one another tearfully
when the train whirled weeping Martha
and her belongings away from Lum
berton.
On the way back to the farm Mrs.
nAI1 II
placed across the cart .railings, and
Ephraim walked beside thom, directing
his oxen. After a while he spoke sol
emnly.
"'Taint that amt got confidence
in MarIhy," said he. 81 think she'll
turn out fust-rate; but if there is any
meanness in her nature, or any hidden
dust in the corners of it, we'll know it
before long. She's started out on the
testin' times of her life. p"
Mercy" Mrs. Dodd exclaimed,
dashing a tear from her eye, chow you
talk, Ephraim You make cold shiv-
ers run all over me"
al think she'll turn out fust-rate,"
the old man repeated; "but she aint
been tested yet, an now she's G-goin
TO he. The city aint the country, an
their ways aint our ways"
Evelina sat rigidly erect and gazed
at the oxen through n screen of tears,
while the three, moving along autumn
tinted country roadsides, went slowly
home. There was great vacancy in
the farmhouse. They felt 1t every day.
Longing for Martha, they eagerly
read and re-read the letters which she
sent regularly once week, written in
an uncertain girlish hand abounding
in little curves. She told ali about her
studies and her teachers and her
friends, sometimes even specifying the
days bill of fare, or the color of
classmates eyes.
Ephraim read all the letters aloud
on Saturday evenings, piecingthem to-
gether like continued story, and
Mrs. Dodd and Evelina listened. 1t
brought the writer very near to them.
They always felt breathlessly inter
ested.
After Martha had returned homo for
two visits, she was allowed TO spend a
long vacation with one of the school
girls in her city home, Then the let
ters, arriving oftener than before, took
on brighter tints, and gave glimpses
of n luxurious town-house-vastly diff
ferent from the Dodd homestead, with
its wooden "wings" and air of humble
thrift.
Ephraim Dodd read these letters in
a serious, faltering voice while Evelina
and her aunt listened rather anxious
ly, knowing his troubled thoughts,
The faded comfort of their old sitting
room somehow touched them with n
wistful foFsboding. Would it seem
dingy to Martha Might not her new
surroundings teach her to despise the
simple homelife of Iumberton village? {?
At last came a letter describing her
friends bedroom:
81 wish you could see what cherm-
ing boudoir Do-othy has The bed
stead is brass and II gli:ters like gold
Overhead hasss a canopy o. pale blue
and white, fringed with ribbons. l
feel like princess sleeping on n royal
couch, TAe floor is covered with soi.