News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1896-06-04

when their father had gone down.
town after supper. The visitor was
0zro Martin, from the poorhouse two
miles away, a half-witted fellow,
long and loose jointed with an I'M
kemped mop of read hair and lu-
dicrously twisted face. He came to
the village frequently, begging his
meals from house to house. He had
applied to the Throop girls before
successfully, and he bore them in
mind, for he had some small shrewd-
ness in his witless monde.
Phoebe let him have a chair by the
stove and the remainder of the birds
nest pudding.
"Shtopped in to Mish Chipman's,
neksat housh," said Ozro, in his own
peculiar speech, "n she wouldn't
give a pore fellar nuthin'! She'sh
drefful mean, she ish." He looked
spiteful.
"We know that, said Daisy warm
ly. "She's fearfully stingy."
"Shtingy! that'sh it," Ozro agreed.
"She'd ought to be arreshted N put
in the jailP' Malice cleaned from
his dull eyes.
PLEASANT evening, isn't it?" said
Phoebe, considering that enough had
been said about Miss Chapman.
But Daisy could not forget her.
When Ozro had gobbled the pudding
and departed, and they had spread
their books and states on the table
and plunged into their "home work, :"
Daisy gave signs of a wandering
mind. Now and again she Uttered
spasmodicaIly, and at last she
jumped up and bolted off with a glee-
full and mysterious "Wait minute!"
She came dancing back after a lit
tie. Giggling triumphantly, she set
down before Phoebe a small plate.
On it was half an apple, impaled
upon which, by means of a match,
was a slip of paper, and on the paper
was written:-
"Dear Miss Chipman-W We are
afraid that you gave us half an ap-
pie too much, and we beg to return
it. phoebe and DAISY THROOP."
I'm going over and leave it at her
door," Daisy declared.
"Daisy Throop!" Phoebe gasped,
in shocking remonstrance. But she
hid her laughing face.
Il am" said Daisy, "and you're
going with me. She'll find it in the
morning. Come on"
eve mustn't" Phoebe protested
eyes, we must. She was mean, you
know she was She deserves it. It'll
do her good"
She pulled Phoebe to the door by
main force, They ran out, bare
headed, and climbed the fence in the
darkness and made their way
through Miss Chipman's lawn and
their suppressed giggles trailed be-
hind them.
"We'lI leave it right here at the
kitchen door," Daisy whispered. "She
will find it in the morning"
She crept to the door and set the
plate down softly.
She felt her sisters hand clutching
hers "Look" Phoebe cried.
The woodshed adioined the kitchen
at the rear. Its door stood open
and within they saw a strange
, bright glare.
They rushed to the spot. Some
, thing doomed up blackly before them
a tall figure standing on a barrel.
frightened yell burst from the ap
partition.
"Who'sh that, | shay?" familiar
voice quivered in shrill terror. Th,
! fiery light shone on the red hair anC
the pale, skewed face of Ozro Martin
He stared at them; then with {
choked and stammering word, h,
, clasped his queer face in his leal
= hands, jumped off the barrel an(
! Hoped off into the darkness.
A smell of kerosene filled the shed
and the ratters had caught the blaz
OF burning mass of something
, which Ozro Martin had been stuffine
: in among them. Run, get SOM
water" Phoebe cried, and while DAISY
, ran she mounted the barrel and tor
at the burning mass. 1t was bun
r die of rags soaked with kerosene.
A few minutes later Miss Chapman
l hearing peculiar noises at the back o
) the house, dropped the paper she was
9 reading by her sitting room fire
took the lamp and her pistol out o
the bureau drawer in her bedroom
and marched out to the woodshed
3 If it was burglars Miss Chapman fell
= equal to them.
She threw open the shed door
! "For the-land's-sake' she uttered
| The Throop girls stood there to
gether. Their hands and their faces
t were strangely blackened, water
7 dripped from their hair and from
3 their clothes. All around them lay 6
little of charred fragments. The
air reeked with the odor of kerosene
at was Ozro Martin. He was try
ing to set your house afre. W.
came over for-for something, anC
we caught him doing it," sale
Phoebe, facing Miss Chapman with 6
tremulous smile; she was holding one
hand in pail of water.
"He'd got those old rags anG
dipped them in your oil can anC
crammed them up there among the
beams and set them afre," sale
Daisy.
cts all out" said Phoebe, reassur
ingly, for Miss Chapman had grown
very pale.
every smitchP said Daisy. 81
- IL