Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1895-06-15
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Lumberton people felt a certain
pity for Mr.. and Mrs. Ephriam
Dodd when the two orphan daugh.
tiers Of Mr.. Dodd's younger brother
came from a Western home and took
up their abode with the old couple !;
but Ephraim and Susan Dodd were
honestly delighted with this sudden
addition of their neices to the family
circle.
Mrs. Dodd soon began to talk to
her neighbors with complacency
about the responsibility of bringing
up girls, end when her back was
turned her friends shook their heads
saying:
otis shsmel In their old age,
too, when the were just beginning to
take little comfort ?"
The girls were tall, pretty, strong
and vivacious. Their names we're
Martha and Evelins. Each had
brown hair, a delicately tinted face
and large gray eyes that looked at
people in friendly, unabashed way.
Martha was thirteen years old when
she arrived-two years older than
her sister-and before she had pass
ed her sixteenth birthday Ephraim
decided that she must go away to a
better school than Lumberton af-
forded. 1t was sad day for the
Dodd's when a small leathern tcunk
bumped to the railway station be-
hind one Of Uncle Ephraim's OK
teams.
Ephraim, Evelina and her Aunt
Susan chung with frantic earnest.
ness in saying good-by and then
stared at one another tearfully when
the train whirled weeping Martha
and her belongings away from Lum.
berton.
On the way back to the farm Mrs.
Dodd and Evelina sat on a board
placed across the cart.railings, and
Ephraim walked beside then, direct
ing his oxen. After while he spoke
solemnly:
=" 'Tain't that I amt got conf
dence in Marthy," said he. 81 think
she'll turn out fust rate; but if there
is any meanness in her nature, or
any hidden dust in the corners of it,
we'll know it before long. She's
started out on the testin' times of
her lite."
"Mercy," Mrs. Dodd exclaimed,
dashing a tear from her eye, show
you talk, Ephraim You make
cold shivers run over me !"
81 think she'll turn out fust.rate,"
the old man repeated but she amt
been tested yet, and now she's a-goin'
to be. The city amt the country,
and their ways amt our ways"
Evelina sat rigidly erect and gaz.
ed at the oxen through a screen of
tears, while the three, moving along
autumn-tinted country roadsides,
went slowly home. There was great
vacancy in the farm house. They
felt it every day.
Longing for Martha, they eagerly
read and re-read the letters which
she sent regularly once a week, writ
ten in an uncertain girlish hand
Astounding in little curves. She
told all about her studies and her
teachers and her friends, sometimes
even specifying the days bill of fare
or the color Of a classmates eyes.
Ephraim red all the letters aloud on
Saturday evenings, piecing them to-
gether like continued story, and
Mrs. Dodd and Evelina listened. 1t
brought the writer very near them.
They always felt breathlessly inter-
ested.
After Martha had returned home
for two visits, she was allowed to
spend long vacation with one OF
the schoolgirls in her city home.
Then the letters, arriving oftener
than before, took on brighter tints.
and gave glimpses of a luxurious
town-house-vastly different from
the Dodd homestead, with its
wooden wings" and air of humble
thrift.
| Ephraim Dodd read these letters
in a serious faltering voice while
Evelina and her aunt listened rather
anxiously, knowing his troubled
thoughts.
| The faded comfort oftheir old sit.
ting room somehow touched them
! with q wistful fogeboding. Would il