Year: 1876

wa ai, IL b mean KIM OF 1un, ana
it'd sarve her right if she came out the
little end O. the horn yet. But we'll
take keer o the cream, won't we, Sally2"


That we will, ma'am," said Sally,
warmly.


"Jest turn and turn, you know" said
the poor woman, and went up the cellar
steps, not knowing that destiny had
some work Of her own to do that night,
and had ruthlegsly chosen the farmers
wife for the agent of her own discomfi-
ture. At the top of the steps she met
the young squire. He said that, like
the young woman in the ballad, he was
weary of dancing, and proposed to have
she old game of copenhagen-and could
she tell him where he could get a rope?
there's one right down here in the
cellar. I'll git it, Will-that's right
hev all the fun you kin you can't be
young but once !" and down she went
into the cellar again.


Now if she had only contented herself
with getting the rope and handing it to
the young squire, who stood waiting at
the top of the steps, all would have been
well. He had scarcely left Angelica's
side the whole evening he had whis-
pered lots of pretty things in her ears
he determined to tap no hand but hers
in the ring. If Mrs. Crane had only
handed him the rope without word
but she couldn't help it, poor woman
it was the fault of destiny, as said be
fore. Something compelled her to stand
right at the foot of the stairs and whis.
per:


keep right on. Sally dear-t IN and
turn. like 81 OOOd little laos -


And she might better have spoken
aloud. Her whisper was of that stentor-
ian description that it cut the air it
fell swoop upon the ear of the young
squire, and presently he heard a sweet
low voice in reply:


Yes, ma'am, I'll attend to it nicely"


He went back with the rope, in a
daze. What was to be turned and
turned, and who was the turner? What
Sally was it that owned that sweet low
voice? and what sweet low voice owned
that dear name of Sally Will Randall
had been famous at school and college
for solving Problems; he never would,
In fact, leave one unsolved and present
ly he slipped away from the rope. ont of
the room, and made his way direct to
the cellar door. He opened it softly,
closed it carefully behind him, and went
slowly down the steps. The bull'seye
of the furnace glared at him as if the
genius of fire within was bent upon some
spree of his own one of these days; he
heard squeak, squeak, squeak, little
off in the dim distance, AMI followed
the mysterious noise, confident it had
something to do with that problem he
was bent upon solving. He walked on
tiptoe, passing many ceal bin heaped
to the top with coal; his locks brushed
many ham and tongue and juicy bit of
bacon; he saw many hanging shelf
filled with Christmas cheer; it was fit to
soften the heart of this young scion of
noble but impoverished house. The
squeaking noise became more and more
distinct. He turned the corner of a
preserve closet, and suddenly he stood
still, because he couldn't go on; his feet
stopped; his pulse almost ceased to beat;
he saw something that sent the blood
hy1nS to his heart-that perfdiously
false yet faithful heart. He saw the SLIM
little figure OF woman perched upon an
old broken hen-coop, her black dress
tucked up out OF the water that escaped
from half dozen freezers around her:
her little right hand turning one freezer,
her little left hand turning another; her
soft silky yellow hair all fuffed about
her pretty head-that yellow hair that
would match exactly with the exquisite
color cf the one holding the place of
honor among all his locks of hair; her
sweet lips parted with anxiety for the
fate of the cream, as they had parted
long ago with a far deeper and warmer
anxiety-those sweet, sweet lips Could
it oes Oh, was it his own littly Sally
his one, only Sally, the pure idol of his
boyish love9 Oh, what divine, rapturous
problem was this given him to solver


That pumping apparatus about his
heart began to work again with a will.
He crept around the preserve chest, be-
tween the freezers, and putting one hand
upon Sally's lips, with the other drew
her close upon his heart.


"Hush, darling," he whispered; it
is 1-Will-your own faithful WILL
Oh, Sally Sally -


Her little falling head he caught in
time, and kissed her fainting lips to life
He said more in a minute to Sally than
he had whispered all the night above.
He decided her fate and his own in the
twinkling of an eye, and unblushingly
believed he was but fulfilling all the
vows of long ago under the walnut tree
As for Sally-shy, trembling Sally-she
was in rapture of bewilderment, of Joy
and bliss, that is seldom reached by NOR.
tails, until suddenly the cellar door
opened; then, indeed, the crimson in
Sally's cheeks paled, the stentorian
whisper of Mrs. Crane was heard upon
the steps:


1t must be jest right now. It's bin
turnin', you know, long enough now;
it kin set by, and Sally might Jest as
we'll as not hev little fun. I lay
anything it's jest the primest stuff You
ever see."