Year: 1867

she might take cold III the unaccustOme(
air.


oh, how good you arc cries Lamsie
seizing aud kissing the hand that offered
the shawl. and then she says she will come
and spin for her every day, and help hel
with the milking. AMI that IN the evenings
Nat shall let them ride the horses. and they
will have such fun


She tossed the shawl about her sloul-
ders with an airy grace that Matilda could
never have counterfcited and then she
put it over her head and made it into a
hood. and crossing her hands dcmurcly
called herself nun. stringing her roses
into rosary the while. Matilda could not
relax much, howcver-sle could not,
say she saw that Nathan was charmed.
and she found it difficult to accord the
charmer simple justice.


There was an0tlle: who found it difficult
too, and that was Natl,an's mother. She
had already accepted Matilda as n daugh-
cept no other. The foolish boy > she
said to Mrs. Hastings. as they talked apart.
Il feel like boxing his ears and shutting
him up in the closet A pretty wife that
chit would make him, to be sure!'
| Aud then she told Mrs. Hastings conf
dentialiy that her brother Tom was trying
to coax Nathan of to town that he had
offered him fine salary and that she was
very much afraid the hoy would take up
with it. Adding .And if he does who
knows what will come Of it > And by
this Mrs. Hastings understood that she
feared he would marry L;.nlsie. And she
limited as much.


'Ah. that is Just it = says Mrs. Arm
strong; the boy doesn't know his own
heart nor his own head, as it seems: and
what will be the worst of it. he will find
them out when it is too latc-mark my
words And then she saws. spitefully.
that the girls name is not Lamsie at all,
but Eunice instead. That is what she
was named. ANYHOW, she goes on, .and
what they always called her while they
lived over the store on Fifth Street but
| since Tom has made money, and they have
gone down onto Fonrth Street, and got
stone front, plain Euniee has got convcr-
ted into Lamsie somehow She didn't
see. for her part, what pretsnce they had
furit she was sure the names were not
mnch alike. And then she said she
would give Nat a talking to. and see if
that would bring him to his senses; and
dir, CITY after they all went away, Lanlsie
looking back and laughing and kissing her
hand to Matilda again and again. And
with her hanging ON his arm, Matilda
watched Nathan pass out of sight. Only
once during the evening had he spoken
apart with her, and then he said with an
offensive anxiety Of tone, .How do you
like her. Till p


She's pleasant little thing enough
saws, Mrs. Hastings. ms she locked the J0or.
but she never did DAYS work in her life,
reckon, and Nathan has got too much
sense to be carried away with the like Of
herr


There was no futter in Matida's heart
when she slipped the blue lawn from her
shoulders, as there had been when she put
it on all there was heayiness. and to say
the hest of it, suspense. And this, then,
had been the evening to which she had
looked forward with such eager delightful
ness of anticipation


She did not sing at her spinning the next
day. nor the next; and all the week went
by and still she had not repeated the song
that she had joined in her thoughts to Ma
than. Lamise had been to call upon her
two or three times but she hadnot returned
the calls. she mad not time, she said and
she tcaared, no doubt, that Nathan would
think she was seeking to see him, and this
she would not do' however much she de-
sired 1t. Matilda knew by this time that
Nathan had chance OF going to town, and
she almost knew that he would go; still,
she thought he would come and talk with
her about it before he quite decided.


FROM tnc WINDOW OF the chamber where
she spun she could see him at work in the
hay fields that adj"ired her mothers ground
every day and often her wheel stopped,
and she stood with the wool in her hand quite
still, as she saw l-amsle come into the field
with pitcher OF water in her hand or with
rake across her shoulder. Sometimes,
when Nathan stopped t" drink, they would
remain apparently chatting together good
while and sometimes they would sit down
together IN the shade. nearer each other
than she liked to see them sit.


She could facy the girls ringing laugh
as she tossed the hay over Nathan while he
stopped before her swinging the scythe !;
and once she saw him chase and catch her.
and put his face very close-close enough
to have kissed her. All this made her We
nv uneasy, and was enough to keep her from
singing, as it did.


.What is the matter, nv child! Do
,heer NM Mrs. Hastings said, time after
time. But she knew well enough what
was the matter. only she had not the heart
to acknowledge it openly, and almost
thought by ignoring it she could make it
1 u