The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-10-03
SELECTED STORY.
Miss Neryey's Fall.

way In the little hamlet of Brarvale
seemed to cause the very air itself to vi
brate in waves of glittcring heat.
1t was Sunday afternoon and the good
ohurchgoing people, who had rallied their
tagging energies to attend the weekly
service conducted by tho Rev. Jared Stark,
found the cool interior of the Baptist
church most welcome change from the
heat and glaro without. Tho bare walls,
guiltless of decoration, save here and there
. Scripture motto hung between the long,
marrow, square paned windows, never be-
fore had looked half so inviting, and tho
tightly closed green blinds seemed only to
add another element to that subtle air of
peace and quietness which pervaded the
semitwilight within the church.
What wonder that some of the very elect
after the hard six days work in the hay
Acids, should succumb to the soothing in
duence of the time and place, and not
withdrawing the vigorous pounding of
holy writ by the Rev. Jared should be
seen to nod gently at the heads of their
respective pewsl
Not so, however, Nervey Williams. One
hearer at least was alert and to all out
ward appearance attentive in every nerve
and fiber. Miss Nervey, though but a
maiden lady and no longer young, was yet
one of the main spokes in the Briarvale
Baptist wheel. Stiff and straight she sat
on the front row of singers seats at the
minister's right hand. Not even such a
day as this could cause Miss Nervey to
yield to the weakness of palm leaf fan.
Admirably as the shortened appellation
suited the tenscly strung and wiry little
woman, the name given at birth to the
chubby babe by her fond parents and aft
srward ratified by the high authority of
the church, on that solemn day when she
disappeared for n moment beneath the
waters of Mill creek, was slightly more
warlike in nature-that is, Minerva. But
for 80 odd years Ncrvey had been a famil-
lar name in Briarvale, and though today
every one, from the DOCTORS rosy heir of
4 years to old Squire Baker of 90, knew
and was on most friendly terms with Miss
Nervey had a stranger asked for Miss Mi
perva Williams doubt not u shake of the
head and blank look of inquiry would
have been his only response.
Diagonally opposite from Miss Nervey,
two pews from the front and right in the
Rev. Jared's direct line of vision, sat Dea-
con Buckly, quiet little man of some 80
years or more, whose white stock and
black muller looked slightly wilted I'M
der the scorching influence of the summer
day. How so timid and gentle little
man ever rose to the dignilicd height Of
senior deacon is one of those strange freaks
of justice that are occasionally met with on
certain rare occasions Surely no one was
more surprised than the good man him
self to find he had arrived at this exalted
state, his only regret being that Maria,
his rather more aspiring wife, had only
lived few short years to enjoy the social
prestige consequent upon her husbands
elevation in spiritual circles.
Deacon Buckly's farm adjoined that of
Miss Nervey, and for years the deacon had
worked Miss Nervey's moving on shares,
an arrangement at once agreeable and
profitable to both parties. Thus it had
come about that Miss Nervey, not needing
. horse for her farm, and living some two
miles from the center of the village, was
often given lift Sunday afternoons by
the kindly deacon and his wife. So it nat
urally followed, the deacon being emf
uently man of habit, that this same
kindliness continued after the departure
of Maria for fairer worlds beyond.
Nor was it strange that, being the recip-
lent of SO many little acts of friendship,
Miss Nervey should feel in the depths of
her hospitable soul that it was nothing
more than a noighborly part to offer to
sew on the stray buttons that would occa-
sionally disappear from the deacon's coat,
now he had no "wimin folks to look aft
or him. Thus it came about that the
deacon, in n quiet, unobstrusve way, had
begun to depend very great deal on
Miss Nervey's neighborliness, and Miss
Nervey, almost unconsciously to herself,
kept motherly watch over the deacon S
buttons, and when Saturdays baking was
over there were always to be seen ranged
on the pantry shelf an extra allowance of
tempting, faky pies, for to quote Miss
Nervey's own words, Sarah Kent does
serprisin well, but then you can't expect
she can make pies same rs Miss Buckly
used, " being naively unconscious of the
logical sequence of her remark.
Considering all things, then, and chiefly
the frailty of human nature, was it to be
wondered at that this sultry Sunday after
noon, as the two sat facing each other, the
thoughts of each sometimes wandered from
the theme of the discourse? AS for the
deacon, fear the dignity of his high office
would have been gravely endangered could
that young scapegrace of Dick Green,
who was openly making eyes at pretty
mary pWllOi HuNo lOOhcu DcHlHu Il0 QulcU
screen of the deacon's face and seen the vi
sions Of an Immediately scrubbed kitchen,
with it's shining tins, a cozy table, and
Miss Nervey's wholesome face opposite his
own, which mounted slowly to the old
mans brain.
Vainly the sonorous voice of the clergy
man fell upon their dull ears. The deacon,
no longer struggling against the tempter'
willy arts, boldly yielded, and what with
the Intoxicating newness of castle build
ing and the rhythmic cadence of the
honeybee's hum, floating in from the
buckwheat fields outside, he was soon
peacefully doing. But it was not Miss
&ervey's nature thus readily to yield, and
- she felt faint relaxing of the rigid
muscles she Strengthened herself abruptly
and tried to catch the meaning Of the
words that fell from the speakers lips.
Great beads of perspiration stood out upon
his brow, and Miss Nervey, seeing them,
felt an inward twinge of remorse and do
termined In future to hold her mind rigor
ously to the thread of the sermon.
To arouse the drowsy senses of his hear
srs the speaker abruptly changed his flow
ing rhetoric and from vast cycles ant
cons" descended to more oolloquial Ian
9uape Taking "A Dure white dav lilv from