Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-03-02

Mistake.

ttmptation-at least it was to Mis-.
Cornelia.
1t was night-half-past -, at least
the hour when "churchyards yawr
and graves give up their dead. >
Ghosts might pop in upon hel
at any moment, but such deed could
only be done at such an hour Miss
Cornelia arose. She stood before the
fire with her back toward it and took
the candlestick in her hand. The room
was clean and orderly. The green
shades were down. The chairs stood
in row against the walls. The little
marble-top table held its wax water
lily under glass shade. Photographs
OF the good old parents, with more
cord than frame and more frame than
picture, hung in the recesses on either
side of the mantel. She did not dare
to glance toward them. Two gilt
vases and match safe adorned the
mantel. Two feather fans stood be-
hind the vases. In the middle of the
room were Cousin Betsy's rocking
chair, candlestand and the big
Bible, white tidy beneath it, big,
fringed bookmark hanging over its
gilt edge.
1t was simple, cosy little interior"
enough, but it became at this moment t
as awesome to Miss Cornelia as a
churchyard might have been.
She had 'creeps" up her back. Her
hair felt considerably like rising on
end. Then she put her hand in her
pocket and drew forth knife. The
light from the candle fell upon her
face. 1t was CHASTITY. She took one
step forward and paused; another, and
paused again.
Anyone who had observed her would
certainly have believed that she was
going straight to poor Cousin Betsy s
room to end tiIat iadys life 10y iaD of
the sharp little Knife blade, but she
paused at the candlestand, set down the
candlestick, knelt down, opened the
family Bible at the fy-leaf and slowly,
cautiously, began to scrape, scrape,
scrape at the two last figures of the
record of her birth. Then she crossed
the room, took from q fireside cup
board pen and inkstand, wrote two
other figures in the place of those she
had erased, blew upon the leaf until
it was dry, carefully touched up the
rest of the record to match in bright
ness and drew back to read the
amended lines, which now plainly
stated to all beholders that she had
entered this world 80 years before in
stead of 40.
Nobody would guess that it had
been meddled with, gasped Miss Cor
nelia, Historically. "Nobody--oh,
graciousl Now 1 lay me- Oh, if L
could only remember my prayers! I
didn't do it-oh!" for an awful voice
at that moment uttered her name in
her very ear:
"Cornelia.
1t was repeated. 1t seemed to come
from above. Cornelia looked up, eX-
pecting to see something dreadful. It
was repeated:
"Cornelia, amt you coming to bed?"
1t was only Cousin Betsy speaking
through disused register, which had
once conveyed heat from stove in
the sitting room to the chamber above.
All in a cold perspiration, Cornelia
managed to reply that she would come
in moment, and then closing the
Bible and putting away the writing
materials she crept upstairs, a world
of horrible unseen things close after
her. She felt very sure a spectral
clutch at her chignon, a cold palm on
her arm, would not have surprised
her. She had committed crime wol sc
than that of robbing church, she
feared. She had meddled with the
solemn record made by hands long
since moldering in the grave, upon the
pages of the Holy Book, and she had
won ten imaginary years by it.
Very pale was Miss Cornelia Lunt
next morning. Cousin Betsy predicted
'fever- -nager" and advised quinine.
Mr.. Dumsday, when he called, hoped
Miss Corneia was not ill. Aunty
Pring, who took tea with them that af
ternoon, suggested that she looked
"sort O. skeered, as if she'd seen
suthin'," and Miss Cornelia felt as
though her guilt was branded on hel
brow. However, she recovered hei
peace of mind in time and was, as a
general thing, herself again, though
there were times when she felt thai
ga Judgment" might be expected a.
any moment.
Mr.. Dumsday regularly "came
courting'' now. And he was ricl
widower, whose married daughter pro
fessed herself anxious that pa
should have some one to take care O
him. Miss Cornelia had quite made
up her mind that lavender should b'
the color of her wedding dress-a cop
per. colcrad bride-expectant Away