Year: 1877




with apples, nor with locks of hair :" he
did not know the meaning of sercnade,'
nor did he ever in all his life write a love
verse. do not know that he thought
Sarah's eyebrows any more beautiful be-
cause they were dark and finely arched,
than Il they had been light and crooked
and thin and yet, truer lover, more
chivalrous soul, than John Slocum never
lived. All day in the field, blowing or
sowing or reaping, his thoughts were Of
the happiness Of the fair, pale woman at
home, who sat in the inglo nook mending
the family linen, or walked painfully about
on crutches attending to the duties allotted
to her, and patiently bearing the tempers
of Johns mother, in whose house she had
lived since she was II child.


Sarah Stenhouse was twenty-five years
old, and ten years before, while yet the
bound servant OF Mrs. Slocum, had met
the fate that had made her lame, and so
shaken the foundations of life that she
could never know rugged health again.
She had been wonderfully sunny ele-
who was five years older than she, had
never known, since the first night she
came, when he cracked hickory nuts for
her by the kitchen fire. what it was not to
love her. In harvest dances no one trip
ped so lightly over the old barn floor as
Sarah. She rippled over with mirth and
never was so happy as when making Others
so. Not a girl of her age in all the county
spun as many knots of yarn in n day as
she and her double and twisted was
finer and evener and more in demand at
the stores where such home products wero
'dickered,' than any other offered.


Whoever got Sarah Stenhouse for
wife," the old women said, would geta
prize :" and moro than one young man
asked her, before her fifteenth birthday,
if she would marry him when she should
be of age and free to leave Mrs. Slocum.


But Sarah always said, "There's time
enough to think of that when | am of
age :" and notwithstanding Ma'am Slo-
Gums uneven temper and occasional in
justice, she had no idea Of going away
when she was free of her bondage. She
knew well how good home she had, take
it all in all, and she loved the Slocums as
if they had been her mother and brother.


The Summer Sarah was fifteen years
years old yielded n noble harvest, and
great rejoicing was had among the farm
ers. Thanks were given in the churches,
merry makings held at the farm houses
and finally harvest home" was held ut
the Slocum barn because it was tho larg-
est in the township. When the gayety
was Mt its hight, Sarah received the hurt
that made hera life long invalid. For
weeks she lay lowering between life and
death, and finally life overcame death by
such small odds that for long time it
seemed but poor boon.


The neighbor people said, =" Now, of
course, Sarah II have to go on the county.
Ma'om Slocum' $ queer, anyhow, and at
best it couldn't be expected that II widow
woman like her should 20 burdened with
a helpless thing like Sarah"


But when the matter was broached to
the widow, she answered tartly enough,
but with tears in her eyes, DO you take
me for a heather Saraa's my daughter
from this out. There wasn't such girl
in the county as she, and I'd look well
/ putting her in the poor-house because it
had seemed good to the Lord to lay his
heavy hand on her. His hands heavy
enough on the child without any Of my
help. Folks ARE mighty ready with that
sort of assistance"


SO Sarah staId at the farm house, aud
I learned every day to know better tho
sweet heart that lay beneath the rough
exterior of her adopted mother, and had
her never failing patience with her fret
tings and scoldings and manifold queer
ways.


When some one spoke to Sarah Of it,
she said, why shouldn't be patient
with her queer ways? ? Wasn't it one Of
her queer ways to keep me and love mo
and make me her child when ! could be
little better than n clog and a burden ?''


So the two grew together, II great ten
derneas fostered in the woman's heart,
and gratitude in the girls. John was al
ways n good son, but from the date Of
Sarahs misfortune he seemed TO develop
new excellences. He neglected no duty
about the farm, but at the same time he
made his presense felt in hundred new
ways in the house.


lie is as deft as woman" his moth
er said, "and sometimes seem scarcely
to miss Sarah's help. | don't know how
he finds time to do it, but John just takes
the helt of from me-"


And so he did, and this is the way he
showed his love. When the women arose
in the norning, the fire was made and the
kettle singing wood enough for the day
was at the door the COWS were milked
and the table lifted out Of its place ~ be
set for breakfast. And SO ten years have
passed, and Sarah's health slowly came
back TO her, bat the crutches could never
be laid aside. Mrs. Slocum thought, and
not wrongly, that there wasn't such'an-
other pair as her children TO be found in
the parish. John at thirty was a splen
did man, and Sarah at twenty-five, albeit
her infrmity had somewhat tempered her
mirthluness, was a noble woman. In
Johns clear gray eyes there was a wistful
look that seemed to be pleading for some
thing-a look that one seldom sees in any
but the eyes of women and children.
One night the meaning Of the look was