The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-04-03
AN EASTER
BY ANNA

ing Ouslly, n at the same time build
ing air castles, the innocent air castles
OF a girl OF eighteen. who is just waken
Ing to the consciousness of a heart to
De won and given. She would have
o ushed with Indignation and wounded
feeling, had any one told her she was
actually In love, and there would have
been no falsehood in her denial Yet.
since Rav. James Castleton had come
TO ROsedale, and taken the church
under his care, life had seemed brighter
to Susie.
The Rev. James CastIeton was a
quiet, rather reserved man of thirty
I'VE, not handsome, not especially
gifted with eloquence. But in his soft
gray eyes, in the curves of his gravely
set mouth lay an expression of good
ness, OF unOstentatious true piety, thai
made hIs simple language more eff
tive than the most elaborate oratOrv.
Old women brought their scrro VS. to
Mr.. CastletOn, and went away com
torted, blessing b m for an unaffected
sympathy that doubled the value of
counsels Children clustered about
him wherever he called and looked
eagerly for his coming into the Sun
day school, The young people liked
him and trusted him, wondering a lit
tie sometimes that one so grave and
quiet could so thoroughly understand
the troubles and temptations of youth.
He had shown an interest in Susie
Barclay for many reasOns She was
an orphan and had lost both parents
and a sister within a fortnight, victims
of a malignant fever raging in Rose
dale, four years before. She was poor,
having taken a position as household
teacherin a seminary, and being house
hold drudge as we'll, to earn an educ4-
ton. At the time Mr.. Castleton came
TO Rosedale, Susie was teaching music,
was Organist at st. Marks, and in
leisure time at home earned many an
odd dollar by Embroidery.
And it was upon embroidery she was
busy on the week preceding Easter
Mr.. Castleton's first E tster in ROsedale
AS Organist, Susie was compelled to
take part in all the services at St
Marks, but beside this regular attend
ance, she was a devOut, sincere mem
Der of the church, and gave her time,
little as she could spare it, to the work
in the missionary society, sewing
circles and festivals of the year.
And the work upon which she was
sewing so steadily Susie called, in her
heart, her Easter Offering Mrs. Stacey,
the richest woman In RDsedale, often
employed Susie's busy fingers, and it
only made the gentle girl smile
fully when she heard Bessie Stacey
praised for the exquisite embroidery
her own active fingers wrought.
Mrs. Stacey intended to make an
E 4ster Offering, at St. Marks, of a new
set of church linen, and she had en-
gagged Susie to hemstltch and embroider
IL, promising her ten dollars for work
che we'll knew would COST her three
times that sun in any city store.
And Susie had already appropriated
that sum, in her-mind. She would buy
a large cross of white dDwers, such as
she had seer in her visits to the city,
end present it to st. Marks. Not One
penny of those ten dollars would she
use for her own expenses; and IT Bessie
Stacey let it be understood that she
had embroidered the linen her mother
presented, why, Susie could give her
cross, and so balance matters.
For, somewhere In the depths of her
heart, so far down she had never called
il to the surface, Susie knew that there
was rivalry bet ween Bessie Stacey and
herself. She knew that Mr.. CastletOn
vas frequently at Mrs. SCacey's, to
luncheon, to dinner, to arrange various
church matters in which Mrs. Stacey
suddenly wakened to an interest she
had never felt when good old Mr.. Muir
ray presided in the pulpit.
And Bessie wore the most becoming
dresses right under the minister's eyes,
while Susie's modest dresses we're hid
den behind the curtains of the organ
loft.
AS she worked in the passion flowers
e~ucircling her cross, Susie thought of
the order she would send to her Aunt
Mary in the city for the across she meant
to buy. She had steadily put away
the temptation to buy a new spring hat
or one new dress, resolving to make
over her gray poplin once more and
have her old hat cleaned and pressed.
And, really, one must be eighteen, with