Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1913-12-03
THE CRAYON
PORTRAIT
A Person Is Just as
Old as He Feels
BY CLARISSA MACKIE

+ BY CLARIssA MAcKIE +
/ + +
"For the lands sakev' shrilled Miss
Louisa Null. peering from the window
at a passing form. LOOK at what
! Emma Binns has got on her foolish
! head
The Ladies'. Aid society arose in
body and lowered behind the Noting
ham lace curtains of the parsonage sit
ting room.
| A woman was coming toward the
house "a slender, middle aged woman.
with bright brown hair.
"She's coming here" remarked Lou.
lisa Null disapprovingly as the gate
creaked warningly.
''She looks like sixteen" giggled Fan
ny Banks from her corner by the win
dow.
Dresses like sixteen and looks six.
IT," corrected Mrs. Banks severely.
mot sixty" admonished Mrs. Nor
ris from the sewing machine. 81
think Mrs. Binns looks about-well,
about forty, and she does take lot
Of comfort in wearing pretty clothes"
She sighed and fastened her thread
with impatient jerks of her thin fin
gers. She looked tired and tagged.
Before any one could think Of
suitable retort to the remark of the
minister's wife the door opened and
Emma Binns glided into the room.
| Her bright eyes darted a quick glance
| around, and she gave animated greet
! ings in different directions. ignoring the
rather grim salutations she received in
return.
Any one else in Little River might
have noticed that the Ladies' Aid So
ciety strongly disapproved of Emma
Binns and her youthful style Of dress
ing, except Emma Binns herself If
she suspected it she gave no sign of
her knowledge. She placed her white
parasol on the square piano, calmly
busted her nose with a bit of powder
produced from tiny vanity box, fluff
| ed up her hair, sat down near Louisa
Null and opened her silk workbag.
she inquired of Mrs. Morris.
"Buttonholes," suggested Mrs. Nor
ris, tossing over a number Of white
garments.
"Such elegance could not attempt
anything so coarse as hemming flannel
petticoats," murmured Mrs. Banks to
her daughter.
| (rio cd In, nd
her needle. Emma Binns was sewing
nimbly with swift motions of hand
and elbow. There was a contented
smile on her face. and her lips relaxed
INTO pleasant lines of repose.
There was less chatter than usual
as the members of the Ladies' Aid so
ciety partook of the refreshments pass
ed by angular Louisa Null in her mus
tard colored cashmere and Emma
Binns in her girlish white That the
two women had little to say to each
other was unnoticed. for the many
pairs of eyes were watching the bright
brown Psyche knot and the twist of
blue ribbon and strongly disappearing
Of both on the head of Emma Binns,
widow of Simeon Binns, who had been
dead scarcely two years.
Mrs. Binns was the first to leave.
AS she unfurled her white parasol and
tossed it over her shoulder she knew
that the women she had left behind
were busy with her name Her thin
cheeks flushed holly, but her eyes
maintained their brightness until she
arrived at her own square white
painted house and closed the door on
the outside world.
She hurried upstairs to her own
room and faced her reflection in the
old fashioned mirror. In the dim aft
ernoon light the sight was a very
pleasant one to Emma Binns, who
thought she had said goodby to youth
twenty years ago, when she married
Simeon and settled down to life OF
drudgery. She had shaved for Simeon
and helped him pile up his dollars only
to find that he had left her a meager
pittance out of the whole amount and
willed the rest to brother in dis
tant state. Simeon had always been
mean and grasping and small natured
and he had so i'll treated Emma that
she felt sense of relief when he re-
luctantly babe goodby to his dollars
and went to greater reward.
Little River never understood why
Emma Binns wore black for a brief
year and then returned to colored gar
ments It threw up its hands when
Simeon's widow openly confessed to
dyeing her gray hair until it shone
more lustrously brown than in her girl
hood days. They scoffed at her modish
gowns, her girlish hats and her love
for bright colors. They did not know
that her girlhood had been starved OF
all finery. To escape poverty she had
become Simeon's second wife. and she
I | had maid tho nrico Of marrvino for