The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1898-06-25


meath all the boxes, bales and barrels
he could lay his hands upon. 1t seemed
to yield him a grim satisfaction to
serve it so. 1t was like a retaliation.
The key was in his fingers now and, as
he gazed out into the vivid world, they
fumbled at it neryously. He had meant
TO drop it in the well as he came back
from the barn, but somehow he had not
done SO. His fine alert eyes moved rest
lessly from one object to another that
came within his field of vision; his
clearly chiseled lips twitched nervously
and lock of his white hair fell forward
over his brow when, in his strenuous
thinking, he uneonsciously shook his
head.
"No, | won't drop it in," he said,
within himself. u won't drop it in. But
III lose it somewhere about the house
SOS I'll never find 1t again. | never
want to see the drafted machine again!
l never want to hear i'll I'll never
touch it to sew another stitch, not for
love or money, so help me"
A gentle hand was laid on his shout
der. He started guilty.
"Oh, Fannyl" he said, with a sort of
nervous laugh, that you, dear?
didn't hear you come in. Twas just sit
ting here resting for a minute and
thinking about" his voice faltered.
81 know it, Uncle Tom," interposed
the girl, softly, stroking his hair back
from his temples; well both miss her.
But we must try to bear up, dear, and
not let ourselves give way. She-she
was very good to me-"
Fanny was a slender slip of thing,
just turned IS. Youth was in every
curve of her figure, in every line of her
face She knew just enough of life to
think death its one SCATTERING force. 1t
seemed to her that as long as there was
life there must be hope, and as long as
there was hope one must be happy. She
felt deeply sorry for her uncle-she
tried to comfort him.
The weeks slipped away, and the
months. The autumn came and the
winter followed. Then spring arrived,
and the tulips in Amelia S garden began
to blossom. Thomas watched them ex-
ultantly. He seemed to see them for
the first time in his life growing calmly
and silently and not from over a mist
of iigging machinery and amidst tit
ter of winking wheels.
Fanny bowed the shutters of the liz
ing-room as her aunt had been wont to
do, but Thomas no longer sat within
them bending laboriously over his
loathsome task. a byword and q hiss
ing, as he thought, for all the world.
The machine had never been brought
back from the barn, and no one but
Thomas knew where it was. Fanny
wished she dared ask. II would have
been worth worlds to her to discover il
just now, for then she could have run
up" her graduation dress in a twink
ling, which now she was trying to sew
by hand, stitch for stitch, in the
meager hours after school and house,
hold tasks were done. 1t was all cut
out and basted, but the time flew fast
er than her needle could, and at length
Che week fairly arrived and still the
frock was scarcely more than begun.
In spite of herself the tears would rise
and fall as she sat trying to finish off
the last yard of dainty hem before the
twilight fell.
Come, Fanny, child! You'll prick
your eyes out sewing there without q
light. Tut away your work and sit
here alongside of me. It's kind of lone
some all alone these long evenin's."
She obeyed him silently and Thomas
took the little hand in both his own and
began to pat it fondly. But in a second
he had dropped it, and with a hasty
glance at her had risen and wandered
away to the other side of the room.
$50 to-morrow's your last day at
school?" he asked from out of the
shadow of his retreat, in a sharp, awak-
ening sort of voice.
"Yes, sir" said Fanny.
didn't I hear you and-and-your
Aunt Amelia talking last year, just be-
fore she had the stroke, of something
about a graduation dress?"
"Yes, sir"
"Where is it?"
THE stuff's up in my room. The dress
amt more than cut out an basted. l
won't have time to finish it. I've
worked real hard, too-but there's been
examinations and-and-other things,
and I haven't got along very fast.
Auntie had planned it all out for me. If
she'd been here"
Thomas wandered back again toward
her out of the gloom. He placed his
hand on her head.
"Good little Fanny!" he said, and his
voice trembled as he spoke.
Mother" cried Elizabeth Field, hur-
rying into the house in a flutter of ex-
element; what do you suppose has
happened?" and then, in answer to her
mothers look of inquiry: "As came
along past Thomas Thacker's Just now
I saw the strangest thingl Thomas
himself sitting in his old place and run
ming the machine full tilt, just exactly
as he used to do when Amelia was alive
and standing over him. He was stitch
ing up some white goods, seam after
seam, as hard as he could put, and he
must have gone perfectly crazy, for the
wind blew the shutters open and he
didn't even as much as raise his head
or stretch out a hand to draw them in,
so as no one could see him; and a scrap
of the stuff flew out and came tapping
right into my way. 1t was a piece of
the dimity Fanny said her graduation
dress was going to be made Of"