Year: 1875

own pretty set, all covered with blue
violets, that she had bought at Pen


dleton, and was just the color Of her


eyes, Eben said.


And Eben came to dinner and tried


to cut the pie, and cut little nicl;


right in,the edge Of the saucer, and


how sorry he was, and went all over


Pendleton to match it, but there wasn't
another sett like it anywhere, they told


him.


And after the dinner was eaten and
the things cleared away, what a beau
tiful time, it was


She remembered how the two chairs
somehow got close together before
the old fire place, and Eben said some
thing about the next Thanksgiving,
that made her cheeks az red as the
Goals on the hearth. And then they
talked of the three little rooms over
the shop that Susan was making pref
ty chntz curtains and chair coverings
for.


For Eben was Il shoemaker, and was
good, Industrious workman, and he
and Susan were engaged, and were to
be married long before another
Thanksgiving day, and there was SO
much to talk about, and plan for, and
be happy over.


But ah me things do get so
strangely awry IN this great world !.
That Thanksgiving day came and
went, and twenty more had come and
gone, and here she was, Miss Susan
Crockett still.


And the pretty chintz curtains had
been folded in tire box up stairs, and
the blue china had lain covered over
with a towel, on the top shelf OF the
cupboard, all these years, and the
three little rooms over the shop were
filled with Irish children, and the
shoemaker had been gone for so long
that few remembered even his name,
and the old house that Susan's father
and mother had left her when they
died, was burned down long ago, and
she he'd taken her money and bought
4 little farm in the great town where
we find her, and where she lived Il
quiet and lonely, but kind and peace
full life.


For Ebenezer Prindle was only al
very human and faulty man, although
he did love Miss Susan dearly; but lie
was suspicious and secretive to fault,
and so when gossipping Jane Buzzell,
who had been in love with him all her
life-as everybody knew-told him
that Susan told her that she loved the
loved the handsome schoolmaster bet
ter than she did him, he never thought
ofdoubting it, but went around glum
and silent and moody for days, and
made Susan miserable, and when later
an anonymous note came, telling him
that the schoolmaster was going a
courting Susan Crockett that evening,
and to watch, and signed only "a
friend, who pities you !" instead Of
throwing it into the fire as he ought
he did 90 20 watch and he looked in
to the window and sure enough the
schoolmaster was there, and it was ten
o'clock before he came out, and Eben,
under the rose bushes, saw him kiss
Susan's hand, and heard him say my
heart is breaking, but / bless you all
the same dear Miss Susan !"


And the next afternoon old Mrs
Peeker came in. and told Susan that
Ebenezer Prindle and Jane Buzzell
were married that morning, and had
gone to Pendieton on "tower,' and
that was the end


And now all this tide of remem
brauce is interrupted by sudden rap
at the door. Now Miss Crockett was
very hospitable, but she had great
horror Of the bad boys in the neigh
borhood, who mad nearly troubled her
life out other by stealing her water
melons, and robbing ner nests, and
desecrating her orchard, and SO the
cordial look quite died out Of her face,
when she opened the door and saw
sly, demure looking boy standing
there, with dirty face and brimless
hat set on one side Of shock of yel-
low hair.


"Please marm, may | come in and
get warm 2 he asked.


81 don't believe you're cold, and
can't you get warm somewhere else p |