The Lewiston teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1905, 1902-03-13

& Cornelia's Do
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SNf77 ISIS CORNELIA LUNT Wa
lMl the only child Of two good PEG
sSs pie who had not married until
hey reached the years which ind most
welded pairs with their children well
grown up shout them. They had been
happy. however, and when they died
left their daughter . little income.
which, By close pinching. she could
manage to live upon.
Cornelia was not . pretty girl but
thousands Of palmer girls had married
and settled while she remained q
spinster. Perhaps the fact that she
was By no means . good-natured per
son had something to do with It.
In her youth she had comported her
self scornfully to well-dispossd young
men who belonged to the mechanic
claases and had declared that she would
only give her hand and heart to . mer~
chant Z physician, or = Clergyman.
Merchants were rare In Bottlehole, the
only specimens Of that order being two
old bachelors still connected with Z
New York 6rm- The two doctors were
both married and the clergymen ~
ways had large familieA
Miss Cornelia's ambitious hopes were
never realized, and her fathers appren-
tice, Tim Cornell, who had admired her,
and had been quite Z believer IN her a.
m elegant and genteel person." anal
y pronounced her mighty proud and
naughty" and abandoned hi suit. Miss
Cornelia ut last awoke to the knowl-
edge that she was getting on In life. and
that 4 che was not careful people
would md 1t out.
But Tor that dreadful family Bible In
which the record Of her birth was writ
tan down, she would have felt safs In
slicing OF ten years Of her life-8 pro
cesding which she fancisd would in-
crease her value in the eyes Of I certain
Mr.. Dumsday, who had recently paid
her few solemn calls. He was really
IN old man himself, but the older the
man tho youngsf. generally. one finds
his choice Of wife to Be.
Poor Miss Cornslial She eysd that
wsll-thumbed Bibls which hsr compan-
Ion and assistant Cousin Betsy Baker,
always would have upon : stand n the
parlos. with absolute horror.
She sat over her grats ars late ons
Night thinking over the matter.
Who knew her exact aSs1 Cousin
Betsy. But Cousin Betsy would not
wish to quarrel with her, and vas too
old woman to think her anything but
younS. The clergyman who bapttsed
her. But be was superannuats6 and
lived with his son-in-law In another
etata The family doctor was dad,
and the dear old gentleman who had
boarded with them from her babyhood
went to Europe years before, and was
probably dead. Good Mr.. Noirel But
che should never hear a. him again.
Yss, It was safe. She would do It.
It was night-hals-past IL 1t least
the hour when ''churchyards yawn and
graves give up their dead" Miss Cor
nelia arose. She stood before to are
with her back toward Il, and tool the
<andlestick In her hand.
Any one who had observed her would
certainly have I xeyed that she was
going straight to poor Cousin Betsy's
room to end that lady's life by jab of
the sharp little knife blade, aut she
paused at the candlestick, knelt down,
opened the family Bible 1T the fiyleaf,
and slowly, cautiously began "a scrape,
scrase, scrape at the last two figures Of
the record of her birth.
Then she crossed the rooaD, took from
. dreside cupboard pen and inkstand,
wrote two other figures In the place OF
those she had erased. blew upon the
leaf until 1t was dry, carefully touched
mp the rest Of the record to match in
brightness, and drew back to read the
amended lines, which now plainly
stated to all beholders that she had en-
tered this world thirty years before in
stead Of forty.
"Cornelia."
1t seemed to come from above. Cor
uelia looked up expecting to see some
thing dreadful. 1t was repeated:
"Cornelia. amt you coming to bed7'
1t was only Cousin Betsy speaking
through . disused register. which had
once conveyed heat from q stove In the
sitting-ro0m to the chamber above.
All In cold Precipitation, Cornelia
managed to reply that she would come
In moment, and then closing the Bible
and putting away the writing materials
she crept upstairs, world Of horrible