Year: 1874

'Tenty said she thought the benches
were all full! Truth, stern tutor:: ::of
the historian, compels me to confess
that 'Tenty and Ned Parker were sit
ting on the Westinghouse steps most
Of that evening, i'll a touching atti-
tl1de for Ned was telling her how
his ship had come into port and was
going to sail again for South America,
and he had an offer to join. her as
second mate so he had got to say
goodbye to his kind little nurse, and
so forth and SO on, with admon-
itions never to forget him, and how
he never should forget her, and here
was a little locket; and finally, sober
ed by her stifed sobs, Ned bent
down his handsome head, and said
softly


"Won't you kiss me for goodbye,
'Tenty?'


Dear me! Of course she kissed him,
and thought how good he'was to kiss
her, and told him so. nWhereupon he
got better and better and when the
sexton came to ring the bell for nine
o'clock, they only just heard his steps
in time to steal away unobserved
through the starry darkness, and go
round past the pine-grove. So reach
ing home at the aforesaid late hour,
where Mr.. Ned became good again
when he stopped to unlatch the gate,
'Tenty looked so fresh and rosy and
sweet when she came in, that Aunt
Why growled to herself; found fault
with her Cruel, .colded at The blank
ct, tipped over the teacup, and wor-
ried 'Tenty back intosternreality, till
the girl stole off to her bed. Not to
sleep,-oh, no! Waste such sweet
ness on sleep? Never! She lay there,
broad awake, and thought it all over,
and how very nice it was to have any
body love her so much, and how she
should like to be handsome and
smart and worthy so much honor, till
the cock crowed for dawn, and then
she fell asleep, nowise daunted by the
recollection that Ned had said moth
ing to her except that she was as
sweet as a ripe blackberry and as
pretty as daisy; for to her innocent
logic actions spoke louder than words,
and she knew that anybody who did
so(O must love her enough to marry
her.


So Ned sailed for Valparaiso, and
'Tenty stayed at home. Aunt Why
got no better in all those winter-snows
and blows; they are not favorable to
rheumatism, these New England airs
SO 'Tenty had enough to do; but she
was happy and contented. And win
ter crept by and merged into spring,
and spring into autumn, before Deer
field heard any news of Ned Parker
though, in the mean time, one report
after another Of his being engaged te
various girls, at length settling with
marked weight on Hannah-Ann Hall
spread over the village and was the
theme of Sunday-noon gossips and
sewingsociety meetings, greatly te
'Tenty's contempt and amusement,- =
though the contempt was too bitte1
and the amusement too tremulous tt
be pleasant. For did not she know
better? People don't kiss people wher
they don't like them; a selfeviden1


proposition, but one that required
some assertion and repetition *
weigh its right weight in her mind.


Poor little 'Tenty! In that colo
November there came a letter *


Doctor Parker just as he was getting


out of his gig, after a round Of visits


The postmaster, going home to dinner


handed it to him, and, going bacl
| from dinner, was called in to lift hin
| upstairs to his bed. Ned Parke


had been wrecked off the Horn, tn


crew took to their boats, and only on


boat, with one surviving man to tel


the tale, was picked up by a whale


coming back to New Bedford from


the Pacific; the rest were gone. Doc


tor Parker was old and feeble; thi


only child was all he had paralysi


smote his body when the smitten min'


bowed before that dire knowledge


and he never looked up again. Cor


tent would have given anything to g


and nurse him; but she, too, was stur


ned. and in the whirl of that grea


grief even Aunt Why's demands wer


no more to her than dull mechani


routine that she could hardly fore


her trembling steps to carry through
So she stayed at home, sewing all da


and crying all night, and lookin


generally miserable, though she sal
nothing; for whom could she spea
to? Aunt Why had resolutely kel
her suspicious about Ned Parker
herself though well she knew wi
had walked home from meeting wit
'Tenty in those pleasant autumn su