Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/102

 94

��REV. ELIJAH FLETCHER.

��demnation roused Louisa's resentment. "I can not think John is slovenly," she said.

"Well, you can judge for yourself," re- turned her mother, indifferently, "I told him you were coming home, and of course, he'll call."

But three weeks passed and he did not call. He had stayed away from church Sundays and from the weekly prayer meetings since her return. Could it he that he would not open his wounds afresh by the sight of his old love, or was he avoiding her because his heart had turned traitor to the old time?

At last, she proposed to accompany her mother on her weekly trip to his store. There she would be sure to see him and she would learn the truth. As they drove through the familiar woods, Lou- isa was unusually silent, she was think- ing of her boy lover, and plainly there arose a sad, handsome face, with large honest eyes full of love for her. She should soon see him and her heart beat fast at the thought.

He stood outside the door lifting a huge sack from the farm wagon that stood there. "A modern Samson," she thought sadly, noting his great strength.

"John," she called softly.

He stopped short, his face flushing scarlet at sight of her, and, looking more inclined to run, he came forward with a slow, heavy gait, holding out his hand.

Poor Louisa ! The handsome, boyish face had grown stolid and fleshy, the good humored, happy look had subsided into an expression of contented dullness.

��There was no sentiment there, no linger- ing thought of the old time ; she knew that before one word had been spoken.

They conversed on orthodox subjects a few moments, Louisa realizing all the time that the John of her memory and of her hopes was forever dead to her, and then with more alacrity than he had yet shown, he turned to help a new comer from her wagon.

It was Emily Jones, who, casting a sus- picious look at Louisa, and determined to show her "'twas too late for her now," forthwith proceeded to whisper long and lovingly with John, according to local custom among young people who "were paying attention" to each other.

Pitying his embarrassment, Louisa hur- ried her mother in her bargaining and "beating down," and they soon took their leave, to the evident relief of the tri- umphant Emily.

"Now, don't he look slack?" her moth- er asked. "He always has that old Car- digan jacket on, and he never wears a collar from one year's end to another."

"I did not notice his clothes, but he has changed a great deal," was the sad reply.

When Howard Endicott visited her in June, she told him of the delusion she had been under.

"1 knew it all the time," he said quiet- ly, "but I wished you to find it out for yourself."

But Louisa wished she had said yes, to him at first, and lived under the delusion all her life, for if the dream was foolish, the awakening was cruel.

��BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE REV. ELIJAH FLETCHER.

��BY ALONZO J. FOGG.

��The Rev. Elijah Fletcher,the second set- tled minister of the Orthodox Church in Hopkinton,wasborninWestford,Mass.,in 1748. He was a son of Timothy Fletcher, a descendant of William Fletcher, who

��settled in Chlemsford, Mass., in 1653, one of the first settlers of that town. The mother of the Rev. Elijah Fletcher was Bridget Richardson, who was born in Chlemsford in 1726. Her father was Capt.

�� �