The Forrest City times., 1899-12-29

the mail, if there should possibly be
any news.
Dora and / had an unwritten law
that the more downcast we felt the
iollier we should force ourselves to be.
To-day l think we degenerated into
Stiffness in our efforts to be cheer
full. But a lot of smaller troubles
followed each other so persistently-
such as the refusal of the cook stove
to draw, the falling of the light bread
in consequence, a slip in the mud on
Dora's part, ETC., etc.-that when, to
cap the climax that evening. our be-
loved fireplace smoked sulkily and re-
lentlessly, we felt that we might as
well wind up the year by going to bed
at eight o'clock.
When we were all snuggled down
and the lights were out | could have
cried just out of low spirits, but l
wouldn't. l knew God could see far
ther ahead than we could, and | put
everything into His hands and went
to sleep.
1 slept so soundly that l was greet
ed the next morning by a savory,
sagey scent of frying seusages COM
ing up the little back stairs before l
fairly got back from the slumber
world. Dora was down in the kitchen
singing Lightly Row. over the bis
cults, and looking as fresh as peach.
with her rosy cheeks and clear gray
eyeS. And the stove was drawing
beautifully. And Aunt Laura came
down without a speck of neuralgia
and feeling as spry as a girl, to finish
| breakfast, while Dora and / went forth
to do the milking. And behold the
sopping rain had turned into a love-
| ly, soft snow in the night; not a biz
zardy snow like the one before the
rain, that blew in everywhere, but a
gentle. fine, thick powder. 1t had
stopped falling now, and the air felt
crispy and bracing. The sun wasn't
shining yet, but there was a mellow
look in the sky, as if it meant to pop
out any minute.
| New Years calling was not much in
vogue in our rural district: still, it was
Aunt Laura's way to make red-letter
day of the opening one of the year, and
| always to be prepared for any stray
caller who might chance to appear. She
| bad a cheerful fire in the parlor, plen-
| tiful supply of coffee and cake on hand,
and we all put on our pretty house
| dresses and prepared to be happy
whether anyone came or not
AT half past nine pleasant melody
of sleigh bells jingled along, and the
cutest little cutter stopped at our gate,
and here came Rev. Cyrus Melton smil-
! ing up the walk. We were mighty
thankful for the contrast between this
call and his last one; but such is the
/ perversity of man. | imagined he
looked little disappointed at not be-
ing ushered into the cooking regions
again. Still, he smiled very good-na-
turedly. with those jolly brown eyes Of
his, as he fished something out of h:s
pocket and handed it to me.
| Miss Nettie," he said, II felt ii in my
bones that you couldn't get any mail
up here on the hill all yesterday, and |
dropped in at the post office as I came
by this morning, and found you this"
| Maybe l didn't know what it was,
even before saw the handwriting on it,
and perhaps l didn't fly 70 get it and
scamper out to the big fireplace and
curl down beside it on little wooden
stool to read my letter all alone. Frank
hadn't made fortune, he wrote me,
and he didn't know as we could have a
big mansion built. but he had dug
enough gold to repair the old house and
make us all comfortable. and he was on
his way home that blessed minute to
finest little farm in the county, take
care of aunt and Dora and Incidentally
marry me.
When l got back to earth again Mr..
Melton had taken Dora off in his sleigh
for ride, so auntie and had little
| Jollitication of our own, and forgot all
about lunch time. 1t didn't matter,
though, for when the sleighing couple
came back they didn't seem to know
much of anything. l fell on Dora in the
hall and told all about Franks letter,
and she hugged me black in the face
and said she was tremendously pleased,
but he wouldn't have to take care of her,
because that was going to be attended
to by Rev. Cyrus, who was the dearest
man in the world, but crazy as loon,
| because he confessed that he had fallen
more in love with her than ever the day
he came and found her baking hoecake
in the fireplace.
We celebrated that night by having
the biggest fire of the season in the old
fireplace, which behaved splendidly,
and we sat up till all kind of hours,
Aunt Laura, Dora and /, with no light
but the mellow crimson and gold bril-.
lance of that big old black cavern,
roasting nuts and red apples, talking
about the new paths opening before us,
and telling each other how grateful and
thankful we ought to be for this happy
opening day of the new year.-Hattie
Whitney, in Farm ard Fireside.
Ancient Astronomy.