The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-11-26
TWO md A TURKEY.

lie was sweet tempered IellOW, anu
It disturbed him nightly when his eff
forts at sociability were ignored. How
can | help it that there was trouble at
the works and that my predecessor
was fred?' he exclaimed ruefully to
Maria 81 didn't know it when l ac-
cepted the position of superintendent"
Maria shifted. She had her opinion
of people who failed in appreciation of
her young master. Had she not come
all these weary hundred miles for the
sake of his sunny smile?
But Maria did not know that most of
Jasper's irritation was caused by the
house next door. No. not the house. 1t
was pretty little frame dwelling, en-
powered in vines and banked in scarlet
sage. 1t was the girl. She had a 'scorn-
full mouth, an aggravatingly tilted nose
and pair of dark eyes.
He found out that her mouth was
scornful when he met her outside the
gate on the second day after his ar
rival. She was so undoubtedly pretty
that his neighborly good morning" had
unusual fervor
And the girl-there was a contemptu-
Gus curl on her lip, and her eyes flash
ed before she lowered her long lashes.
She passed on without word.
Jasper stared after her in astonish-
ment and then cursed the custom that
some small towns have of aping city
conventionalties. Later he found out
his mistake. The girls name was Carl
ton, and her father was the man whose
dismissal had made room for Jasper
There was a flush ON the young mans
cheek as he realized that the girl held
him accountable for the change of fam
lily fortunes.
BY dint of carefully yelled inquiry
he found out much more. Mr.. Carl
ton, it seemed, had obtained an in.
ferior position in a town fifty miles
farther south. But as he hoped for a
better opening in the near future he
had delayed moving the family goods
and chattels. There was much not
often included in the latter terms
rosebushes coaXed to splendid size and
bloom through untoward frosts and
protracted drought, turtledoves that
selves on the fiat roof of the lean-to,
and the fine flock of turkeys. Marion
Carlton refused to part with one of
these. Had she not triumphantly
reared the entire Matching when the
spring winds, pip, rats and other enc
mics of turkeykind had dashed the
hopes of neighboring raisers? If any
90. fnt plr lr,irn
peacefully on snowy pillows of mashed
potatoes with garlands of parsley
round their necks, it should be the
Carlton family. And as the Carlton
family had but two members, Marions
will was generally law.
The frost had turned the scarlet sage
to black, and the vines no longer
screened the house next door. But
every falling leaf seemed only to add
to the rampant that the girls pride had
raised. She was evidently a favorite
In the town, for in the evening the
young folks trooped to her door, and
through the partition walls came
bursts of laughter and snatches of mu-
sic That they all followed Marion's
example in leaving him strictly alone
was partly Jasper's fault. After the
first few rebuffs his free and easy
manner changed to one of aloofness.
Maria sighed as she noted the
change. "And it's the hard hearts
you're all after havin'," she said as she
sat in her kitchen and listened to the
laughter from the house next door.
MI "a
room, crying joyfully: "Hurrah, Maria!
We're in luck! Here's Aunt Jane writ
ing that she wants to be sure that we
have fine Thanksgiving turkey, and
SO she is sending US live one. l can
just fancy how good he will taste with
some Of your prime dressing"
Maria beamed. She was proud of
her cooking.
Jasper went to the freight office the
next evening and escorted the turkey
home in person. When it was tcthered
to a stake In the back yard Maria
could not but declare that it was the
finest turkey she had ever seen, inf
nitely finer than any belonging to the
house next door,
But, alas, there was no chance for
comparison. Others besides Marion had
evidently watched the growth of her
turkeys and took an interest, proprie-
tary interest, In them. The next morn
Ing her turkey house was empty.
Marion cried. Here 1t was only two
days to Thanksgiving dinner and her
fathers long expected visit, and there
was dearth Of turkeys In Oreville
She was at an upper window gazing
disconsolately toward the empty poul
try house when her glance happened
to stray to the yard of her neighbOr
She saw the turkey tethered to the
post. Instantly she thought she recOg
nized it as her favorite gobbler. 1t was
a case Of mistaken identity, but there
Is much Of a sameness In turkeys.
All, so he was the thief! But where
were the others? Doubtless he had
made way with them. Here her tears
flowed again. 1t was melancholy sat
isfactiOn to think how perfectly she
had diagnosed the strangers character
at that chance meeting SO many weeks
before, but 1t was not a material com