Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-11-11

| r6aIltlCo VI lie. 1t was SC1CCu, SGlOcu,
with poor Polly from morning to night
with no one to love her or care for
her as she merited. So she sat down
with her back TO the bushes, and
when Eoenezer knew by the low sobs
that reached him that she was crying,
he let go the bushes carefully, so as
not to disturb her, and walked off
home
He lay awake until long after mid
night. His thumb panied him a little,
but his sleeplessness was not caused
wholly by that. He was thinking of
the time, many years back, when Pol
ly Virgins, then rosy girl Of Is, was
very dear to him. He RENE mbered
how she had gone to Dame Chad
wick's "apple cut'' one night W tn Jim
Winters and that she fiirted with hi n
all the evening. He remembered, too,
how angry and jealous he was about
it, and that he treated her coldlv and
never sought to WOO her after thai.
He made resolve at last, aud then
he closed his eyes in slice p-5o dream
of tables, with sofas, pictures, blue
dishes, rolls of carpet and poppy and
marigold seed by the bushel piled in
his front yard, and that he was going
to give the house a coat of white
paint. Then he was stretching and
lacking down carpet in the garrett,
and-he aWoke with a groan. He must
have been hammering away at his
sore thumb, for it was aching terribly.
Sleep was out of the question, SO Eb-
enezer got up, lighted a candle, and
walked the bare floor till daylight, and
thought that bachelors life was
wretched one.
A few days after her walk on the
beach Polly sat knitting in her sisters
best room when that lady came in
from the store, whittier she had gone
for butter.
"Sakes alive, Polly, you will never
believe it, Ebenezer Stickney is turn
ing everything upside down at his
house, painting outside, and papering
and whitewashing inside, and Jim
Browns clearing out the yard. And
stop in front of the miller's gate but
two loads of new furniture. l spoke
to Sally Brown about it, and we both
say there's a wedding ahead"
Mrs. Betsy Carver was SO excited
over this bit of news that she didn't
notice how pale Polly had grown. She
ratified on:
81 reckon [ know whom he'll marry
that brazen faced Murray girl that
sits in front of him every time he goes
to Victoria church. She's had her cap
set for him these two years, Sally says
and she's trapped him"
Polly's face blushed, but she bent
over her knitting and made no reply.
If she loved the miller her sister did
not suspect it.
Just then Katie Rice, Ebenezer's
little niece, came in.
"Please, Miss Polly, Uncle Eben
sent me here after the seeds you said
he could have"
"Let me see,' said Polly, musingly.
''Oh, yes; he wanted me to save him
some of my cucumber seed"
OTIS flower seeds he Whatsoever so
many of 'em,'' said Katy.
never promised him any-did not
suppose he cared for such things,''
said Polly, spitefully, as she thought
Of Lucy Murray in connection with
Eben's flower garden. Then she add
I'd meekly, 'your uncle is welcome
10 what we have left"
The child took the seeds and bound
I'd away, saying:
'The beds are ready, and Pm to
show uncle how to SOW them. And
oh, forgot! [ was to ask which were
5he morning glory Seeds" she said,
coming back. He said you told him
hey must go by the window"
l never told him any such thing;
out there they are.
"Don't be in hurry, Katy" said
Mrs. Carver, persuasively. $50 your
Uncle Eben is going to get married, is
hep"
eyes, mann"
''Who is he going to marry? Now,
there's good girl"
'sDon't know, but I guess mother
does. She told him she wouldn't make
5he carpets unless he told her ever SO
much. How funny it will seem to have
Uncle Eben married!''
''There's your mother coming now
with her bonnet to be trimmed, and
she don't leave this house till she tells
ne,' said Mrs. Carver.