The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-08-17
HULDA.
BY MARY A. DENISON.

| Heard lIlt IlcNS, MISE IIuluN ho Nohi"'
addressed looked up from under al big blu
sun-bonnet She had been shelling peas as sh'
sat on the front doorstep of her pretty dwell
ing. Her beautiful eyes glittered, her set bu
handsome features were alive with interes
for one brief moment. Her heart told her thai
something was coming that concerned hel
directly.
"No. haven't" she answered, the flash in
her eyes fading out and her fingers trembling
dispose it's Lishe Webster's marriage
heard he was engaged
"No, faint that-it-it's nearer home.'
1t was an honest, sunburned face, that OF
her neighbor, Farmer Harvey, who had come
a mile out of his way to tell the tale that had
been told to him. He flushed to his ears
though he was red enough before, as he went
on stutteringly.
"Miss Belar, Dams wife's had a fall. They
say her backs broke. Twas from Satan's
Ledge, where she was picking blackberries.
A stone rolled and she went over-twenty
feet down, guess. An theirs all them child
ren. / swear / feel bad for Dan"
Miss Hulda's handsome lips were set with
sterner curve as she bent over the pan of
gttering pea-pOds.
81 thought it would come. knew he'd be
punished for marrying that creature" she
murmured, her whole woman's nature in
arms. 81 told him no good'd come of it. and
there amt. / declared | wouldn't help, come
what might, and wont!'
All the color and grace of beauty died out
of her face.
The farmer wiped his forehead with heavy
red-and-yellow silk handkerchief. Then he
1,nf
sounded like an oath hurled from between his
teeth
saint you a leetle hard, Miss Hubby? Amt
you jest a leetle hard: She's ben good wife
and mother, fur as kin see. l know. she
was wild and foolish in her younger days,
right now. Poor Dan! The place down
there is hard farmn', as you'll low, all stone
an rock lodges. 'Taint like these acres up
here, cleared and planted fore you and
were born
''Roger Harvey, don't you say word and
now the woman's eyes were ablaze. "We've
ALWAYS been an honest family. Not much
money among us, but always proud name,
so far as | ever heard of the Bellairs. But
now it's dragged in the dust. Why, | never
was so thankful in my life that the old folks
were dead when Dan came home with the
news that he was going to marry Fan Tag
CART. The world seemed fallin' round me. If
The hills had melted and run down and COW
cred us, / would n been thankful. Fan Tag
CART big, brazen. handsome, vulgar girl,
whom nobody would speak to on account of
her character, and our Dan. such delicate,
man the only brother Fever
had, and that loyed-as-I-"
She broke down then, and turned to take
up the pan which she had set aside in her
wrath. tear actually rolled over her
smooth cheek.
'sRoger Harvey" she went on, as she rose
and stood against the dull lumber background
of the open door, a slight, symmetrical, grace
full figure, in spite of the ample apron and the
prim dimity gown: "perhaps you thought I'd
care, but don't. That's come to pass that l
told him would. IF you bring that girl here,'
/ said. Il 60 Mother told us Oh her dying
all he had. He was weakly and I'd a worked
my fingers to the bone for him and for his
wife, too, if he had married the right woman,
but to bring that-"oh!' she cried shriy,
don't let me talk any more about it. shall
go crazy
She walked few steps into the sombre
kitchen, then some impulse of hospitality ar
rested her steps, some fine instinct, also, of
having oyerstepped the bounds of delicacy.
"Come in, Roger, and don't mind my quick
temper" she said in an altered voice, ''there's
green-apple pies and new bread and caraway
cakes. I'm sure you must be hungry"
mot this morning, Miss Huldy," the farm
er said. 81 left my horse over at the black
smiths to be shod. He cast shoe, COMM
Good mOrnin'.''
He walked slowly down the path. stopped
a moment at the gate to look at the bright.
many-gabed house, and the thrifty, uphill
acres beyond.
..She's well fixed, anyway" he muttered;
''fine business woman, too: the rock on her
place is a help rather than hndrance. Well,
bless the Lord eff she amt got the grit of all
the Bellairs. boiled down. | suppose if Dan
had broke his back it would a been different.
Poor Dan! with all them little children!" and
he moved steadily down the road.
"BrOke her back. broke her back ~ NUT
tered Hulda, yet the words hardly conveyed
the terrible meaning they covered. She set
the pan of peas on the kitchen table and went
to the window that looked into the back yard. |
A pile of rocks that she had taken great !
pains to make ornamental struck into view,
as if to supplement her words. Wild straw |
berries grew in all the crevices, and graceful
vines ran from top to base, interlacing with
other delicate plants. till the whole thing was
one spicy bloom just now. Hulda's taste was |
critical. She possessed. by nature,
an insight into colors and their harmOnies.
The house itself was Il picture from the way
the trees framed it and the ivy overlapped its
brown sides. There had been no blight. no
hurtful frost in the early spring. so that the
money in bank was safe, and vely likely to
be doubled in another year.
Ii was this sense of eliminating prosperity
that gave an added horror to the bad news
her neighbor had brought. She had taken a
sort of ill-regulated interest in her brothers
loings. She knew that he taught school at
Dicksons corners and did little farming.
enough to keep the family in vegetables. She
knew that every year brought new response
Dlities. and that there were already seven
but to her knowledge she had never
seen one of them.
81 don't want to see YOU or your wife or
iour children, if you have any," she had said
N her wrath when she left her brothers
house. II seemed to her that her heart was
broken, that disgrace had set its seal upon
ier forehead, She would not visit the neigh
,ors. would not 90 TO church. and for time
'efused 10 meet the man to whom she had
,een engaged for two years.
All this had happened ten years before. She
vas now thirty-one. Her business transac-
ions had been prosperous. The farm she
fought for song had increased in value, and
he was now comparatively rich woman. .
During all this time she had never met her
'rother. who lived more than five miles away. .
Her lover. Lishe Webster, as the whole