The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-11-18

market the next inOrnlng when lstoppeo
to deliver the milk.
So time went by until the little maid
had grown into slipof a girl and would
have been pretty one too, If she had not
been 80 thin and white as to the cheeks
and staring as 10 the eyes. She had
beautiful eyes, but they in company with
her other features had grown SO starved
that ii made anybody hungry only TO
look at them.
About the time that began to notice
these little things about her eyes and
features generally, thought she began
to be a little shy. The milk can always
stood in its place on the stoop, and had
nothing to do but pour in the milk and
drive of, which you might say was Q
much more convenient way.
But as day after day and week after
week passed and did not see her 1t did
not seem so very comfortable after all.
wondered il she were i'll or had gone
away. remembered how she used to
look as she stood in the faint light OF
the morning, holding the big can in her
arms. wondered if her eyes were still
30 big and wan and hungry and half
| frightened looking. l wondered If her
face was so palld and pinched, and II
she still shivered so in the morning wind
that came up chill from the sea.
BY that time quite large pile OF good
things had gathered in my wagon, for
| could not bear TO throw them away and
thought every morning that maybe tho
L N nol,
once OF p;1ing them up around the miik
can and leaving them for her to find.
but was afraid some ono else might
come and find them first.
| So il went on till one morning just as
had filled tho can and was going down
the path the kitchen door was thrown
open with q bang, and the little maid
rushed ont, Mrs. Barwell hard after her
with some heavy thing in her hand,
lifted mp high to throw at the girl.
Quick as flash caught the little maid
in my arms, and put her into my cart,
and Jumped in after her. and drove of
faster than | ever drove before in my
life, Mrs. Barwcll running after US
down the street. But she soon gave up
the chase
Down the lane we dashed, under the
low hanging branches of the pepper
trees, that touched me softly in the face
as we passed. The breeze blew softly
over us, laden with the fragrance that
drifted from the rose trees that bloom
perennially in the dooryards along the
way.
Presently the little maid looked up at
me with face so rosy that should not
have known her had met her anywhere
else. There was a look, half frightened,
half confiding. in her eyes, and as met
that look | knew all of sudden why it
was that had missed her SO, and why
had wondered so much about her eyes
and her face.
I bent over her and shouted: "Will
you marry meT' for the horse was gal
Looping, and the wheels were crunching
and the cans were rafting, and If l had
whispered the question as men in stories
and poetry do she would never have
heard me. And when she slipped hel
hand into mine and looked at mo with
the fear gone out of her wide eyes and
only the confidence left l thought it JUS
as well as il | had done 1t according tC
all the rules Of propriety.
There was a chum of mine lived along
the way that had just been made jus
tice Of tho peace. and l whipped mp tc
the gate and lifted the little maid cu
and almost carried her into the house.
"How long will it take you to marry
us, if you go at top speedT' asked my
me, but went to work in his ivelies
style, and by the time Mrs Barwell rat
tied up in her old chaise the little mait
had passed away from her care forever
M. Z. Torrence in Pittsburg Leader.