Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-10-23

silk kerchiefs to tie over their heads
instead of red cotton, and the little
cabin new red-washed, and soup in
the pot, and garlic sausage, and
bottle of good, costly liniment for
Anne Marie's legs; and still pile of
gold to go under the hearth briek-a
pile Of gold that would have made the
eyes of the defunct husband giisten.
She pushed open the picket gate,
and came into the room where her
sister lay in bed.
"Eh, Anne Marie, my girl" she
called in her thick, pebbly voice, ap-
parently made purpose to suit her
rough Gascon accent; "this time we
have caught itl''
"Whose ticket?n asked Anne Marie,
instantly.
In flash all Anne Marie's i'll luck
ran through Jeanne Marie's mind;
how her promised husband proved un-
faithful, and Jeanne Marie's faithful;
and how, ever since, even to the COM
ing out of her lottery numbers, even
to the selling of vegetables, even to
the catching Of the rheumatism, she
had been the loser. But above all, as
she looked at Anne Marie in the bed,
all the misery came over Jeanne Marie
of her sisters not being able, in all
her poor old seventy five years Of life,
to remember the pressure of hus-
bands arms about her waist, nor the
,~oo,,Ll, 81 n child ~, how laToo Of
AS soon as Anne Marie had asked
Ter question, Jeanne Marie answered
it.
''But your ticket, Cotton Mai!'*
"Where? Give it here! Give it
here!' The old woman, who had not
been able to move her back for weeks,
sat bolt upright in bed, and stretched
out her great bony fingers, with the
long nails as hard and black as rake
prongs from groveling in the earth.
Jeanne Marie poured the money out
of her cotton handkerchief into them
Anne Marie counted it, looked at it;
looked at it, counted it: and if she had
not been SO old, SO infirm, SO tooth
less, the smile that passed over her
face would have made it beautiful.
Jeanne Marie had to leave her to
draw water from the we'll to water the
plants, and to get her vegetables ready
for the next morning. She felt even
happier now than if she had just had
child, happier even than if her hus-
band had just returned to her.
'sIll luck! Cotton Maj! Ill luck!
There's way to turn i'll luck!" And
her smile also should have beautifed
her face, wrinkled and ugly though it
was.
She did not think any more of the
spending of the money, only of the
pleasure Anne Marie would take in
spending it.
The water was low in the we'll, and
there had been long drought. There
are not many old women Of seventy
| five who could have watered SO much
ground as abundantly as she did; but
whenever she thought Of the forty
dollars and Anne Marie's smile, she
would give the thirsting plant an ex-
ira bucketful.
The twilight was gaining. She paus-
ed. 'sCoton Mail" she exclaimed
aloud. stBut I must sec the old wo-
man smile again over her good luck"
Although it was "my grip face to
face, if was always "the old woman"
behind each others back.
There was knot-hole in the plank
walls Of the house. In spite of Anne
Marie's rheum tism they would never
stop it up, needing it, they said, for
light and air. Jeanne Marie slipped
her feet out Of her sabots and crept
easily toward it, smiling, and saying
''Coton Mdi!'' to herself all the way.
She put her eye to the hole. Anne
Marie was not in the bed, she who had
not left her bed for two monthsi Jean
ne Marie looked through the dim light
of the room until she found her.
Anne Marie, in her short petticoat
and night sack, with bare legs and
feet, was on her knees in the corner,
pulling up plank, hiding
know hiding when they see it-hiding
her money aWay-aWay-aWa from
whom? = muttering to herself and
shaking her old gray haired head.
Hiding her money away from Jeanne
Marie!
And this was why Jeanne Marie
leaned her head against the side of
the house and wept. It seemed to her
that she had never known her twin
sister at all.
*Coton MAJ is an innocent oath invented by
the good pious priest substitute for one