Year: 1873

more and more striking az time went on


IL was not that you could not tell wha


she might do or say under painful cir


cumstances-that would have left he


very commonplace indeed. The yer,


peculiarity was that at those times yoI


might be sure Of her always doing ant


saying the very same thing. Miss Plum


tree was one Of those gentle souls II


whom the lookers-on can discern noneec


Of discipline, and yet to whom afflictior


mysteriously takes the form OF a trip


hammer, sure to fall at regular intervals


and with relentless weight. Or perhaps


to Miss Plumtree, 1t came rather like


some grim guardian of the night, patrol


ling, at stated intervals, with the sterr


fiat, 'Iights out" and so throwing all hel


peaceful arrangements into sudden


eclipse. But no sooner did some new


grief or some fresh reverse swoop all hel


former Joys under its dreary shadow


than Miss Plumtree Immediately pro


duced from under her meek little heart 3


sort of psychological magic lantern, H.


Illuminated it with one of the most beauti.
full smiles, and suddenly a view of some


thing new and delightful, that nobody
else had ever thought of, was thrown upon
the great darkness, brilliant and magni
fed manifold.


II was with one of those Illuminating
smiles, enough to make rainbow of the
tear she was wiping at the moment, that
she turned upon the friends who left her
on the threshold Of her echoing house,
after the last sad ceremonies had been
rendered to the last remaining member oi
her family.


"I'm sure don't know what I ever
aEns Il -
been for the old house falling to my lot.


So kindly ordered l don't know how !
could have borne it TO go anywhere elser


And with this quiet transfer of her af.
fections, Miss Plumtree set herself brisk.
ly about the care of their new object, un.
til she seemed to make it shine brighter
and brighter every day. She could not
lack for occupation with all the cares that
come where there is no man about the
house; and as for loneliness, there was no
chance for that while there were so many
travelling clergymeu to be "put up, and
neighbors going away and wanting to
leave the children few days and distant
relatives needing home little while. So
Miss Plumtree's days glided swiftly and
happily by-very happily she thought
and she used to have a little season of
thinking about it every evening, as the
twilight gathered, sitting alone In her
own room, with her face pressed close
against the window that looked out upon
the lawn. Some maiden sisters, left with
such store of silver and household valua-
bles as Miss Plumtree, would have
shrunk with horror from a room on the
first. floor, with a door opening directly
out upon the gladiolus bed; but it was
beautiful to Miss Plumtree, since an acci-
dent she had met with, few years be-
fore, though it had left her as good as
new in all other respects, had made going
up and down stairs troublesome affair.


81 don't know what ever should have
done If it hadn't been for this room living
just So" she said one evening, as the hour
came and she drew her little arm chair to
the window and took her seat; and then
from thinking about the room, she fell
slowly into a reverie, until as the gladio-
us bed grew more and more indistinct
outside, the ghosts of times and things
that had been stepped slowly out of the
twilight of the past, aud ranged them
selves one by one before her. How hap
py they had all been together in those
days gone by ! And then when her
mother was taken away, how the rest
clung together, she and her father and
Jack! How proud she was of Jack, and
how satisfied that the will left everything
to him, with the understanding that he
was always to take care of her, as her
father had. And then Jack began to go
wrong, dreadfully wrong, the neighbors
said, and when her father threatened to
disinherit him, he got possession of the
will and ran away. She did not know
what sne should have done then, if 1t had
not been for her father. So kindly order
ed that they were left to each other!
There might have been one more. one
handsomer and dearer even than Jack,
but her father, so kind to her and so hard
to others, had driven him away too; had
believed something false of him, and
sworn that never so long as he lived
should he see his daughters face with his
consent. So he had gone away too, not
like Jack in a passion, but sorroWful
enough, and Miss Plumtree did not sup.
pose he would ever come back. And now
even her father was taken, but she
had the home with plenty of means to
keep it up, and cousin Perwinkle spend.
ing the winter with her, that had all
been arranged Except cousin Perwinkle)
by the new will made after poor dear
Jack ran away-and she thought-very
likely by next summer-hark What
football was that on the dry grass, and
what form moving stealthily over the
lawn in the starlight


Miss Plumtree pressed her face closer
to the pane-the figure passed out of
sight, then turned and came slowly down
the path again. She sprang to the door
and opened 1t.


Jack Dear Jackl" But the figure was
Ynnn and fhara uyad M q IT,
moment she had mounted the stairs
without thinking whether it was long or
not, and stood in the passage-way that
divided cousin Periwinkle's room from
the spare chamber, with pair of the best
linen sheets in her hand Dear cousin
Periwinkle," she exclaimed, as well as
she could, with the great humping at
her heart, Jack has come home! Don't
tell me / am mistakenl l should know
him If l only saw his shadowl He would
not come when called him, but that was
only one of his odd ways. So am Just
going to get his room ready, without say
ing anything to the servants, for know
he'll be coming pretty soon, to say he
forgives me for everything, and will let
me share with him just as if nothing had
ever happened, and Miss Plumtree dis
into the spare room. In few
moments she was back again to say that
cousin Periwinkle was to go to sleep
without minding her, for she should sit
up awhile to listen for Jack.


81 do feel little nervous, though" she
added, lighting up into one of her smiles.
81 don't know what l should do, if you
weren't spending little time with me,
cousin Periwinkle."


Miss Plumtree listened in vain no
knock was heard at the door, not another
rustling of the grass outside the window.
But the next day all the town was astir
with news. Jack Plumtree had come
back, with the old will in his possession,
and was trying to prove a flaw in the sec
ond, and eject his sister from the Plum
tree estate. Unfortunately ii is easier to
prove evil than good, and Miss Plumtree
was very soon notified that she had one
weeks grace in which to resign all claims
and vacate the ancestral halls. AT the
end Of that time, the friends who had ac-
companled her home on the day of the
funeral wended their way to little cot
tage which had come to Miss Plumtree
from her mothers side, to see where she
l..