Year: 1870

''You must have one exception to your
rule, mother. 1t is impossible that any one
should ever held out the ghost of a chance
to Miss Althea. She was an old maid in
her cradlo.'


"My dear Sylvic, it was Althoa Pratt,
and no other, whose unlucky rubbers made
your Unclo Shubael an old bachelor. Her
checks were as pink, and her tongue no
sharper than yours, in those old times
when We were girls together.


Come Steven, take the eggs and go your
way, don't entice mo TO be telling love sto-
ries at this time in the morning"
Mother went into the pantry, and that
same little buff of wind, or one like unto
II, shut her in.


1 felt stevens eyes like hot sunlight on
my face, but his voice was steady as possi-
-, ~ kspl I remember asking you
SucStRon half an hour ago, Sylvie."


"And have you forgotten my answerT


1t would have been an immense relief
just then to have twisted the corner of my
apron, but l meant to be composed and la
dyliko, if porishcd in the attempt; so l
kept my hands clasped on the table, and
held hard.


"You cannot have meant that we have
had no wooing. / saw long ago that you
possessed every quality that I desire in
wife"


The boldness of this speech-so cold, so
impassioned-was more than l could en-
durc.


"You should look longer still before you
leap. There may be others who have every
quality that you desire in wife. Olivia
Primrose is the very pattern of a farmers
helpmate. / may have a streak of senti-
msnt that would not do credit to the choice
ofl Frazar.'


lhad meantto be sarcastic in the extreme,
and Steven only threw back his head and
laughed


"I don't take your words to heart Sylvie,
| because the trail of Miss Althea is over
them all. She has been telling you that
proposed to Miss Primrose, and she rcfus-
ed me, purposing to give her life wholly to
the making of butter"


"I know better. Olivia would never re-
fuse YOU"


"Ah, that puts me in hope again; if you
think other women would be willing to
take me, with the Frazar farm thrown in,
you cannot have cast me out of your own
synagogue"


My lips began to trcmble. l could not
command them long enough to speak the
words that came in torrent.


The garish daylight, my calico gown,
ani Stevens thick boots-all these COM
mon things nipped any romance there
might be about the subject of our talk, and
wove a spell of silence about me. If he
had so much as offered to touch my hand,
or even my dress, I could perhaps have
probed his seeming carelessness, and, by
some lucky circumlocution, OWNED
whether he was choosing me for house
keeper, or as that other part of himself,
without which his life would ever. be lame
,s;M iicorhplete.


The clock licked great many times as l
sat motionless under his eyes, inwardly
torn with ycarnings for that one word of
love which never came.


"You have nothing to say to me just
now?" he asked, at last.


shook my head. He made one step
forward, and it seemed to me that he half
put out his arms, then suddenly turned
on his heel, and went away.
You'd better stop here to tea on your
way home called my mother from the
pantry window, but she got no answer that
was audible to mt.


What did 1 care for the Frazar farm or
my doing better than my sisters? What |
| hungered and thirsted for was love in such
measure as would bring Steven to my side
and make him blind TO the existence of all
other women, though were the veriest in
capable that ever man bound like mill
stone about his neck. l would have taken
him as cheerfully, and worked for him all
my days, if he had been helpless cripple.


lie knew that loved him; he must Of
ten have read the dreadful fact in: every
line of my face when he gave mo one of
his unexpected up-looks.


Steven and Lad fallen into dangerous
habit Of Watching each other very carly in
life. lie was my balance by which to
weigh other men. When he went away to
school and college, gave him up for lost.
Then his father died, and he came homo to
spend his life on the old farm. Many peo-
| IL
have never had any other intention. a lit
tie learning did not prove dangerous
thing when applied to crops.


1t was pleasant thought, after all, when
| came to digest it, that have overy quail
ty which he desired in wife but if had
lacked one or two of The useful ones, would
he have love in his heart to supply their
place? This was the rub


Mother look ed in and found me sitting
as Steven had left me. | started up with a
blush worthy of Uncle Shubael.


"There are the early apples to sort" she
said suggestvely.


"To be sure" said 1, "and I'm the wo-
mai sbTrthem 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 tho apples
but l kept up a terrible thinking withal-
how Steven Frazar had walked homo witt
me from singing school, about month be-
fore this time, in the most delicious moon
light, without so much as offering his arm
or pausing moment under the apple-tre'
to lengthen his goodbye. If he had sucl
a thing as a wedding on his mind, then wa:
the time of all others to mention it.


And week later, when there was NJ
moon but one could see the Pleiades


"Gltter like a swarm Of hre-hies tangled in
silver BRAID"


he had taken me in his beach wagon to
party at distant farm house, going in tn
afternoon and returning in the most porioc
of mellow evenings.
lie had seemed so much more consciou
of my existence than usual on that after
noon, that hope dawnod in my heart that h
would speak that night if ho ever meant /
do so.


: Gus pine we5ds, talking with Clashes {


silence" when we overlook a woman driv
ing aggard horse, and working her pas
, sage with her whip. She spoke to Steven
and il proved to be ono of his noighbor
, going to watch with a sick sister.
| arm take van tbora i'm half tho fine