Year: 1871

two Of the useful ones, would he have
enough in his heart to supply their place.
There was the rub


Mother looked in and found me sitting
as Steven had left me. l started up
with blush worthy of Uncle Shubael


There are the early apples to sort
she said, suggestively.


TO be sure, said |, sand Pm the
woman to sort them so thoroughly that
there won't be one left for seed


1t was just like her to send me and
my perturbation to have it out together
in some shady corner of the yard


did my duty vigorously by the APP
Piles, but l kept up a terrible thinking
withai-how Steven Frazer had walked
home with me from singing school, about
month before this time, in the most
delicious moonlight, without so much as
offering his arm, or pausing moment
under the appIe-tree TO lcngthen his
good bye, If he had such tn ug as a
wedding on his mind, then was the time
of all others to mention it.


And a week later, when there was no
moon, but one could see the Pleades
"Glittcr like a swarm of frehics tangled in a


silver BRAID


he had taken me in'his beach wagon to
a party at n distant farmhouse, going
in the afternoon and returning in the
most perfect of mellow evenings.


He had seemed so much more con-
scious of my existence than usual on that
afternoon, that hope dawncd in my heart
that he would speak that night if he
ever meant to do so.


We were driving through belt OF
odorous pine woods, talking with flashes
of silence, when we overlook a woman
driving alaggard horse, and working her
passage with q whip. She spoke to
Steven, and proved to be one of his
neighbors going to watch with sick
sister.


I'll take you there in half the time,
if you'll get in and ride with US, and
send your boy back with the team said
Steven, almost eagerly.


The woman (could it he that she was
really n woman, so to dash my cup Of
happiness from my lips p accepted the
offer readily.


Her sister might have been as sick as
Simon Peters wife's MOTHER but if
she had ever known


"a dearer one


S.ill and a nea;er one


Yet than all other"
she would have clung to her own wagon,
and lei us GO on our way a'onc.


1 realized, however, before l had
poured out all my vials of wrath
upon her, that it was Steven who had
made the offer and betrayed his total
indifference to the sweet loneliness which
had been gathering round us among the
pines,


l am glad had the grace to make
talk with the troublesome old woman,
and 10 listen with interest to the whole
course Of her sisters illness, from the
very first symptom.


l had my reward when Steven lifted
me down at our gate, and she said:


You're your mothers own gal! You
hain't never let me feel that two's a
company and three's crowd !!


Steven had walked up the long path
with me to carry my shawl, and might
have said just word theu--a woman
can live long on only a word, if it be
loving enough--but he almost threw the
shawl across my arm, and ran down the
path as it he were glad to be well rid OF
me.


AS piled Ossa on Pelion,' in my
thoughts against the possibility of his
loving me as l desired to be loved, the
forenoon wore away, and the apples
were sorted.


Mother racked her brains after dinner
to keep me busy. One would have
thought her step-mother Of the most
grinning type; but thanked her in my
heart.


There comes Steven again, she said,
as the sound of approaching wagon
wheels came in at the open window
'and brother Shubael with him. You
had better set the table now, Sylrie


Come in, Steven, come in, said Uncle
Shubacl, in that high raspiug tone that
one gets living alone. you can have
little peace in this house, now Lucretla
has married off three of EN-; Sylvic's
quiet enough if you let her alone, but If
you 90 to stir her up too much she's as
peppery as any of the lot.


why, Sylvicp said mother, when we
sat down to The table where were your
wits? You've put on white cups and
gilt saucers.


'Her ribbons will always match,
whether the dishes do or not, may de-
pend ont, said Uncle Shubael.


1t promised TO be the whitest OF moon
lit evenings, when Uncle Shubael pushed
back his chair and declared his intention
of going home without loss of time.


Il always 90 to bed early when there's
moon,' he said, SOS to be out of temp
tatiou. If a man ever makes fool of
himself, you may be sure that he will
do it by moonlight


And how is it with women? said
mother.


'Humph Moonlight or sunlight's all
one to them, reckon


Mrs. Poyser said she would never