Year: 1869

1t was not that was afraid OF being
alone, but my spirits had sunk little
below the mark that night, and there
was nothing to fetch them up again


And it was very lonely. There are not
many women or girls would choose to
be the only living creature in toll-gate
house on a very lonesome road, with
the village nigh upon a mile off, and no
such thing as keeping the house door
barred and locked Not that there was
very much driving along our road after
nightfall, but there was always the
chance of traveller on horseback or in
some conveyance wanting the gate
opened in a hurry; so that it would
not do to put up the shutters and fasten
the door when ones spirits fell low, as
one might do in private little cottage
which had nothing to do with the
public. sa ID es s


1t was the last night of the old year,
and that was how it came to pass / was
alone. Father and l had been keeping
the toll-gates, that at Hopwood first,
and now this one on the Ludford-road -
for the last three years or more, while
mother and John took care Of our little
farm about eight miles away. What
money father had made he had made at
toll-gates; and when be had lost in a
very pleasant way at farming,he turned
to toll-gates again, and again managed
to make a tolerably good thing of it
though times were very different to what
they had been in his younger days, what
with coaches, and private carriages and
horsemen, and traffic along. the high
roads, and many traveller in his hurry
finging down shilling and not waiting
for the change. Butstill while mother
and John barely made their living and
paid the rent by the farm, father and l
did something more than that by the
gate. !.


Father was gone to watch the New
Year in with mother, and John, and
Nelly, Nelly, you must know, was
our youngest girl; eight years younger
than, |, and she had been to good
national school, first as a scholar and
then as pupil teacher; and now she
was known as Miss Burgess, the gov
erness of the school at Ludford, which
was a little over seven miles away upon
our own road. For one reason or an
other, we had not seen her since har-
vest; and the wears lady had kept her
through Christmas week to help in the
school treats, but she had hoped to get
home on New Years Eve, and father
had asked me a score of times should I
be timid at staying in the house alone
all night, all of which times ] answered
with q laugh. "What should woman
seven,apd-twenty years old be timid at2"
But | did not laugh to myself some
hours after nightfall. Our house, as
pretty toll gate house as there could
be, was full Of windows, looking every
way of course, and / knew the light in
them must be shining along the road
on each side for travellers to see at a
distance. g sa4iv. l.rat.r @gyas f


j felt as if was sitting in blaze of
light, while all about me was deep
darkness and though / had drawn
the blinds down close, 80 that not a
chnk was left for anybody to peep
through, it seemed as if our house.
place, with the red fire burning
brightly in the chimney corner, and the
white face of the eighA-day clock which
had idst been cleaned at the clock
makers, and the row of pewter dishes
on the shelf that l had polished up with


my own hands, and stuck holly berries
among them,--it seemed as if they
were all lying open to the night, without
any roof or walls to hide then; !; and me
sitting in the midst with my feet on
the fender, and lighted candle ON the
table by myside. Now and then got
up and looked out at the night, and
saw the gray sky, which was nos quite
as dark as / fancied it, hanging sol
emnly over the hills to the north, with
here and there pale star shining
amongst the clouds for minute; but