Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-01-04


could sleep. 81 shall sleep on the lounge" |
she added, as she opened the door of the /
little sleeping-roOm, and Marcia went i'm
and took off her bonnet.
1t was the next morning. MATTHIAS /
homework was all done; so she took her
rocking-chai out on the piazza, where her
bogrder was trying the new hammock. and
as she rocked, she knit, and presently be-
gan to talk.
81 want to tell you all about it," she
said.
"You see, this was fathers house, ard,
when he died, he left it to brother James
and mo, after mother. James, he thought
be would move right down here, and he
wanted mother and me to live in with them,
and have a chamber finished off to sleep
in; but we didn't want to-we didn't like
his wife over and above-and so we divid-
ed the house. Afterwards, James built
on a porch on his part. They've got
dinng-room and everything.
"And mother and lived in here for
good many years. We got along real com
Portable She had her pension, and | sewed
braid but after a while they stopped bring
ing braid arounG. 1t was all sewed on
machines in the straw shop. And then
mother died"
saw her lip culver.
"She died, and was all alone. James
wanted me to break up and live i'm with
them-hs wife wanted this room for
parlor-but | could not; it was home and
| knew it wouldn't be in the other part.
1.-The children were sarsy, too; they had
MT used mother well, and one of them
called me an old maid. His mother heard
him, and looked at her, for | thought
she would take him to due; but she didn't,
she only laughed. And she knew" con-
tinued Martha, ''all about my dsappoint-
ment, too. | was going to marry Hiram
Parker, and had all my sheets and pillow
cases made, and mother and We're Just
going to quilt. had five bed.quilts all
ready for the bars. He wasn't sick but
two weeks; it was the typhus fever.
am sure | feel just like wilder, and |
went to his funeral as chief mourner. 1t
| was real cruel for James wife to let her
| boy twit me so. as if | never had a chance
! to be married, like old Liddy Wilbur
| And Marthas knitting-needes flashed
| brightly in the sun, and her gray eyes
were almost black with the remembrance
| of her wrongs. Marcia murmured sympa-
! thizingly, and presently Martha went on.
ITS eight years now" she said, "since
/
! give them this part of the house. | can't
bear to. Eve got along in spite of them,
till now"
"Bu, how could you?" said Marcia.
"What did you do to get something to
! eat?n
The other woman looked at her a mo-
ment. 81 suppose" she said, ''you'll de-
spise me, but I've worked just like man.
| That field over there is mine. | planted
| it myself, and raised a good many things
to sell. | went huckleberrying, and sold
my grass standing, for fifteen dollars, every
year, and year before last | sold potatoes
enough to buy me barrel of flour and an
alpaca dress. | got man to plough the
field and | planted the potatoes myself,
and hoed them, and dug them. I've got
along all right till last year; it was SO dry
everything dried up. There wasn't any
huckleberries, and my potatoes We're too
little TO sell James used to put hose in
the pond and get water to water his q. -
den, but he never put a drop on N.Y., ~,
They wanted me to give ur 'nu 'N'
thought | would have to. n,
81 came pretty short i 81 winter MAJ
ha ulme ,G GlI not naVtd could not buy al
FOO nsad % q, ; smell 1t from the other pa
of tbo boIe, sc, and | wanted it so bad.
ct w ~ say l don't think James kne
| bou, ,OOr | was; he has always been pre-
~ :, good to me. And the neighbors used
i;3lhvite me out to spend the afternoon.
I used to be afraid, sometimes, they mi
t, trusted how poor | was.
IS "Pve get splendid garden this yea
but | know we may have dry seasc
c. again, and | made up my mind l mu
III have a little money to fall back on. la
awake night after night, thinking of evel
I'd way folks took to earn money, and final
a | thought if | could only take a lac
a boarder | could save most of her board
lg the summer; for most of folks Ie garde
I'd sauce and so forth, and I've got most ever
as thing planted, and they are doing well.
it tried to get the schoolmarm. | went
1t see her, and when she heard what accor
m modations | could give her, she laughed
me; but she promised she would not It
IS anybody | asked her.
Il composed that advertisement mysel
at and sent it to a Boston paper, because
W didn't know anybody around here tn
IN took a paper from there, and | could n
Sc bear to have anybody know | had tried
get boarder, if | did not get one. | ne
t. er saw how it looked in print" and 81
De looked appealingly at Marcia, who told h
IN kindly that it was very much to the poll
and all right.
ar Then they sat in silence for while, al
Marcia thought how she had read the a
1t vertisement in her city home, and laughC
Il. at it, and then suddenly determined
~ answer it, and find out what manner
W woman Martha BascOm was. She thOug
n over the words she had read:
| "Wanted, a lady boarder, by pla
1t country woman, who will do the best 81
er can. The view from the piazza is beaul
in full, and you will be sure TO like it. A
dress Miss Martha Bascom, Littlefel
n Mass"
he And here she was, seated on the piazz
he She let her eyes wander over the scene b
fore her.
n, eyes. it is beautiful" she though
a The house was on a HILL and she cOu
a look a long way down the valley at h
ne feet Field after field was outlined Their
e. the stone walls that marked their bound
I'd ries seemed like children's wOrk-like IL
IN play-houses her brothers used to NAL
10 years ago, marking out the rooms with
a row of stones. A thick growth of bush
and trees told where a river crept, and 81
I'd could see the glitter of the water, here al
or there, between the trees.
it 81 don't WONDER" she said to hersel
to "that the poor woman wanted to keep h
10 home. | will help her all | can"
70 One day they were in the parlOr, as Ma
o. cha called the piazza. She had hung
#, around with pretty shawls, and had
a bright cushion in the hammock; vii
an shaded one side, and Martha's thrush saI
"a in his cage among the leaves.
re "There is one thing l want to tell you
of ! said Martha HIt don't seem RIGHT tn tal