The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-07-28
Blue HOUSE LOCK-,

Al BLUE HOUSE LOCK-,
The life of Dorcas Heaven, who keeps
the Blue House lock, Is somewhat lonely
and monotoaeus. Her post is more OF
less Of sinecure. for but few barges
pass along that bit of the canal. Indeed,
the canal itself, though winding through
the prettiest bit Of country in the neigh
borhood, is only navigable during wet
season. After drouth it grOws~sO shall
low that cows are wont to stand derisive-
~ i'll the very middle of it, cooling their
legs.
Elijah, husband of Dorcas, is u laborer
on farm some two miles off.
AS the path alongside the canal leads
to nowhere in particular. there is not
much traffic; but when barge does come
Dorcas 'bustles her about sharpish,' and
herself as more or less the hostess Of the
occupants of the barge. "They chaAge
the weather and pass the time Of day."
their destination and their business are
eXhaustively discussed, and when at
length Stiffness settles down over the
Blue House, when there is no sound but
the cry of peewit or the rustic of a
water rat in the rushes, Dorcas fetches a
chair into the doorway and sinks upon
IT, exclalming: Law! what palladium
1t have been, to be sure!'
On Sunday mornings Dorcas does not
go to church, for Elijah do like bit O
meat of Sunday and Dorcas is good
wife first and a good churchwoman sec
ond. She therefore defers her attend
ance until evening, when Elijah accom-
panles her. While the bit O. meat is in
course of preparation he strolls round
for IA bit of talk with one "Ethni
Hartman, licensed to sell beer and tobac-
co. whose house of cheer lies on the out
skirts of the town, and where the very
latest electioneering news is to be had,
Elijah has been heard to express an opin-
ion to the effect that there amt no arm
III going to church twice, for them as il
suits, but once, along of my missus, be
enough for L.
Had it been in Elijah's nature to be
a asst. at anything, he would have
which Dorcas had lately speeded him on
his way to The Cat and Compasses" Oh,
Sunday mornings. She had at one time
been rather given to ihconveniently sig
gesting~ that them peas want sticking,
and the salery be ready for banking
when Elijah would fam have been sun
ming himself upon the bench outside
Ethni Hartman $ hospitable door, mug
OF cider and like-minded friend beside
him. He usually fell in with his wife's
suggestions, for he was a man who loved
quiet life, and Dorcas-when annoyed
on Sunday--was apt to carry on her do.
nestle duties with unnecessary vivor far
into the night on Monday.
The fact was that of late Sunday
mornings had become for Dorcas the cor
nerstone of her week, and in this wise;
It It! dld not, as rule, take her long to get
Elijah's dinner under way; this done,
Dorcas would take her chair into tie
doorway and read her Bible. She gener-
ally chose the Book of Revelation, care.
fully forming the words with her lips and
following each with gnarled and work.
worn forefnger. With Dorcas, as with
many people whose lives are somewhat
hard and manotonous, the prospect of a
suite of rooms in one of the many man
er, the Cotteswold peasant dearly loves
any form of spectacle, and, although Dor
cas- could not pronounce, far less under
stand, many OF the words she met with,
there was sense of pageant all around
her as she read; while her appreciation,
of the city which has no need of the
sun, neither Of the moon to shine III it,
was as purely sensuous as that of any
disciple of Wagner himself.
And now little wind and shy seat.
tered the apple blossoms over the path,
and the Sunday silence was broken by a
clear child voice. TO Dorcas such sound
was; as the skirl of the pipes to a High
lander In n far country; her heart beat
quick and her cheeks grew redder, and
she rushed out to see who was a-cem-
ing; for Dorcas had put away four" in
the cemetrary' on the Peterborough
Road and one had lived to be 4 years
- lot A.
Hlue e, house without ''givin' Of EN- good
day::' was thing she had never done
not once IN twenty years." So she laid
her Bible on the chair, covering it with a
Clean white handkerchief. and crossed
the few feet Of garcen wnic lay between
her cottage and the towing path.
"A sturdy little boy, in REFER coat and
mufhn cap, with round, fresh little face,
and cheeks pink as the petals of the
with excitement on the bank as he
wat watc ne his father gathering some yell
low nagS which grew at the water s
edge. The attendant father-narents
ana such were always a secondary con
SHERATON with Dorcas-was not very
successful, as the ground was soft and
rs it wet down there, dad? Can T
t come; Oh, get that big one just over
5nere: Won't muth be pleased? What
dirty boots you'll havel Shall I hold
your }n1 stick for you to cling on top
Ihen he noticed Dorcas. "Good MORN
im IN said he, with gay courtesy. Isn't
IL a: hne May morning?'
N De that surely, little masterr' an
s :.tha al D1orcas, in high delight. Then
III? lt5ie gentleman's dada''-he never
~ Dorcas-scra mbled up from the swami
III wnlch ne had been standing. He, too.
proved most approachable, and she
learned that the youthful potentate in The
ree1er Jacket had never walked 80 far
before, that the ''scroped out old quar-
ly just beyond the Blue house was his
destination, and that he would probably
come again next Sunday.
ne came every Sunday morning all
through the summer, and always with
MS aad: Sometimes they went tapping
Tor fossils in the disused quarry, some,
times they came with butterfly nets and
caught 'Tortoiseshells' and WALL
Browns, and upon one great occasion a
Fritlllary.' But whatever they sought
OF whatever they caught, Dorcas was al
ways, as who should say, "in at the
death,' and shared the excitement and
the triumph with them.
Inc little gentleman was very friendly
"a child is quick to recognize an admir-
er as any pretty wOman-and it is Dossi-
bic that the attendant father understood
and INDUCED the childless woman's cray-
ing for child's affection. Sometimes
Dorcas felt a qualm Of conscience, and
wondered whether her adored young gen
tieman ought not rather to be in church
these sunny Sunday mornings; though
had he been in church he certainly could
have been nowhere in the neighborhood
Of the Blue House. But she was com
forted when she heard that he went with
his mother to children's service in the
afternoon. Henceforth she gave herself
up to the study of natural history and the
worship Of her dear little gentleman
with light heart
Even in winter he sometimes came "of
a fine Sunday" and Dorcas would spend
many hours Of the following week vainly,
trying to determine whether she admired
him most in sailor suit or in the breech
es and CATERS Of which he was 80 proud:
One ver-to-be-forgotten day the rain
came down in torrents just as her sui
tan and his grand vizier reached the Blue
house: They took shelter with Dorcas,
and the sultan was graciously pleased to
be lifted up that he might reach Ger
tain mug from the top shelf of the dress
era mug which had belonged to "'im