The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-08-26

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joyful occasions, giving them the two
chairs near the fire, fetching footstools,
begging them to remove and dry their
wraps, for the night was damp.
{" Her face shone," said one of them
afterward. eve couldn't speak of the
dead but she did. Tears came when
she asked us to take her dear thanks to
the people who had been kind to her.
She had not expected such things.
She said Heaven had always been
rather lonesome spot to her There
seemed to be 80 little to do there, ac-
cording to all she had heard and read.
But now that Amy was there, she had
hoped, twas good deal TO look for
ward to. Other people had more ideas
about it, she supposed. A good many
of her babies had gone before when
they were little things, but Amy"
| Not word of her own sore grief, of
her utter loneliness.
In straits of unexpected guests, in
house. cleanings, weddings, funerals,
nothing was ever quite orthodox with
out Aunt Lois, who lived on alone in
her desolate house. Her husband had
died years ago, 80 little missed that the
neighbors soon forgot him; her one
remaining child had married, hun
dreds of miles away, into poverty more
dreary than any she had ever known at
home, and her going was to the mother
like going out of the world. The SON.
in-law was undesirable in various ways;
but Aunt Lois, when questioned, said
serenely, "Susan likes him, and
she's the one that's got him to live
| mil oh IA
ways it isn't for me to complain. 1t
doesn't become me to talk about their
affairs. Most children marry away
from their home, and why should be
treated different from other folks?"
Mother-co nfessor was Aunt Lois to
half the village, but never did anointed
priest guard more sacredly the secrets
of the confessional than she. No en-
gagements, however unsuitable, how
ever queer, could surprise her-for had
she not stood sponsor to the fancy in
its callow infancy, long before it har-
dened into fact, and attended the
shrinking victim through the long
course of chills and fever preceding the
consummation? All heart-aches and
back-aches and finger-aches went to
Aunt Lois for consolation, and the least
of them never went in vain. She knew
the hidden virtues of all simples, and
her head carried an endless-chain pro-
cession of recipes of all sorts, from wine,
making to root-beer, and from rasp-
berry shrub to catnip tea. Measles and
chicken-poX, mumps and whooping-
cough lost their terrors when Aunt
Lois appeared, confident and CHEEKY,
to charm away crossness and fidgets
with stories of when she was little
girl. A plain and homely enough little
girlhood, but one that made the utmost
of everything, and saw more POSSIBLE
tiles in a sand-heap than modern chill
dren find in a fully. equipped doll
house.
The rockingham creaked content
edly as she crooned tired baby to
sleep, her own calmness going out to
the rasped nerves and setting them in
order and harmony. All night long
che could watch with the sick without
wink of sleep, and no one could per-
suade her to 30 interfere with the or
der of nature as to rest by day. Work
was her panacea; dash of cold water
outside, cup of weak hot tea for re.
freshment, and her day was well be-
gun. She took no sugar in her tea MOI
butter on her bread, because these lux.
uries were not afforded al home, and
she could not be persuaded to pampel
herself elsewhere.
At spring cleanings she could take
down sooty stove-pipe tidily and sci
its perverse joints together again witt
an unruf1led spirit. She could make
wedding-cake or clean cellar, scrut
, kitchen floors, or do up laces as if sht
, had been the proverbial angel called
} from governing kingdom TO sweep 6
street-crossing.
Gentle, refined in thought ant
: speech, with low voice, quiet step
comfortable presence, heart tina
held no suggestion of wrong, natur,
of utmost charity which believed nc
, feeting gossip, Aunt Lois saw deep be
meath the surface to the honest heart o
, things, but could never recognize an,
faults but her own.
, Hating sin, she loved the sorry sin
ner, and could find a ready excuse 70
J any fault or incompetency outside he
A own door. From the very slenderes
: store she gave so graciously that tn
3 gift itself seemed great, whatever
might De-a marlEOlu growing ny ue
r door step, plump head of fennel o
e dill, root of sweet cicely, handful @
8 checkerberries or wild strawberries il
their season, few radishes from he
garden-bed, stick of candy, perhaps
e to child-the saved-up gift of som
= lover of her own among the children
It or bits of silk to make little girls eye
q shine, bright fragments treasured fror
a some wedding trousseau of the past.
The world was poorer when she wer
' out OF it, to meet her Amy, we trust;
Il sit resting in the heavenly place wit
o folded hands, perhaps, and spotles
8 kerchief-for we can only think of he
k Observation-Disclosures unto at last, BIT
It with the bright hope shining in ht
clear eyes of ministering in turn, aftC
i earth's ninety years Of tiredness We
: past.-New York Evening Post.
i H .er1N'S