THE PATCH-WORK QUILT. BY MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS. That old and knotted apple tree Oh what a dreamy life I led Beneath its old green shade, Where the daisies and the buttercups A pleasant carpet made. I am thinking of the rivulet, With its cool and silvery flow, Of the old gray rock that shadowed it, And the peppermint below. I am not sad, nor sorrowful; But memories will come: So leave me to my solitude, And let me think of home. OUR homestead was an old fashioned house, built | meadows and cornfields that lay beyond, to which the before the Revolution. It had a sharp, narrow roof in Widow Daniels and her three daughters had an unfront, and one that sloped almost to the ground at the doubted claim. back. Its white front and heavy stone chimneys The Widow Daniels had been in a state of forlorn were completely embowered by a clump of superb loneliness some fourteen years, when her youngest maples, whose heavy branches lay woven together, daughter Julia and I became sworn friends. She had and entangling their foliage on the very roof, from the two older daughters, one a confirmed old maid, and first budding time of spring till the leaves fell away in the other just verging to a state of desperate single autumn. A thicket of damask roses, lilac trees and blessedness. It was not their fault, poor things; no snowball bushes luxuriated in their shelter, and a slope girls in the village had made better preparations for of rich, heavy sward-hedged in by a rustic fence- matrimonial felicity. Every spring and autumn this received just enough of the warm sunshine, that lay was manifested by the exhibition of a whole chest load on it in the morning, and of the dews which rained of bed linen and patch-work quilts, of all manner and from the leaves at nightfall, to keep it thicker and description, entirely of their own spinning, weaving more vividly green than any spot in the neighborhood. and quilting, which ought to have been sufficient inThe house occupied a verdant angle, formed by two ducement for any reasonable man to propose; but men roads that intersected each other in the heart of a are not reasonable, they never know exactly what is lovely and secluded little village. Every window of for their own good, or the chests of bed linen, the our dwelling overlooked some pretty spot of scenery. numerous additions of the old red house, the corn fields Here was a white cottage, there a glimpse of the river, and wheat lots which lay in a bend of that beautiful with one end of the wooden bridge that spanned it. river, would never have been left to the care of a lone There was a view down a green vista of the river widow, willing at the shortest notice to divide her vale, farther on a breezy grove, and, on the east and thirds and the north wing of the house for any respectwest, ridges of grassy hills piled upon each other able substitute for the worthy Mr. Daniels who might against the horizon and crested with forest trees. My present himself. That was a united family-united chamber window overlooked a green lane, and at the in their hopes and in their disappointments-all agreed extremity a rambling old farm-house with four clumsy in thinking the house quite too large, and the family stone chimneys, and of a dusty, red color. It had been decidedly too small. There was a cruel want of in the Daniels family for two or three generations, variety in the gender of the household; beside, they and as each had contributed an addition to the main were timid, very; only think of a dwelling inhabited building, which was originally but two stories in front, only by innocent and defenceless females, with five and as no tree or shrub grew near it, save one forlorn outer doors, low windows, no shutters and very imand stunted oak, leafless except on one bough, the perfect bolts! No wonder they were anxious to obview from my window would have been more pic-tain some masculine defence, especially as the girls turesque than agreeable but for a glimpse of the rich were all obliged to sleep in one room, for fear of robbers and ghosts, which rendered the widow's situation one of peculiar peril and loneliness, for she faithful creature-could not be persuaded to leave her room on the ground floor, which had a view of the burying place where poor, dear Mr. Daniels was laid fifteen years before. Still the widow was terrified to death every night, and existed in perpetual fear that some evil disposed person might break in for plunder, or force her daughters to run away and get married before they could scream for help. Now as the widow had kept her five doors hospitably open to every marriageable gentleman in the village for fifteen years-as the girls had hung the table linen and quilts to air temptingly before the whole neighborhood twice a year, till all the young bachelors considered them much in the light of an auctioneer's flag, holding forth a sign that the property within doors was up for sale to the highest bidder; inasmuch as this had been done year after year, till the good lady was fifty, and her two eldest daughters of a very uncertain age indeed, it might have been supposed that the danger of their being married by force would be somewhat diminished by time, but the older these exemplary females grew, their objections to living alone became the more desperate, and the more urgent was their desire for protection from a calamity so appalling. About the time that we took possession of the homestead, two rather important changes happened in the village. The minister lost his wife, and a young physician, in the first gloss of his Latin, hung out a sign from a boarding-house near the bridge. It was not astonishing that the loss of our good pastor's helpmate should have occasioned much spiritual meditation, and that a solemn revival should have been the result of her bereavement, nor was it perhaps very marvelous that an unusual degree of illness existed among us soon after the young doctor's arrival; but what was a little strange, the religious excitement all prevailed among the unregenerated widows and maiden ladies, ranging in their ages any where from thirty-five to fifty, while the coughs and colds and other lady-like diseases ran like wild fire among the girls that did not happen to be engaged. Abut this particular time Widow Daniels became exceedingly pensive. She found two or three private interviews with the minister essential to a proper understanding of her degenerate condition by nature. She betook herself diligently to the Seabrook Platform and Westminster Confession, and exercised her broken voice in singing Old Hundred over her spinningwheel, whenever Minister Brooks made his morning walk down the lane. She attended all the anxious meetings, and it must be admitted that among all the antiquated penitents gathered at these assemblies none could have been more decidedly anxious than the widow. ment of meetings, anxiety of mind, and a cough which always presented itself before company, there seemed little chance that Narissa would recover until the young doctor had devoted some considerable time to the study of her complaint. There was Elizabeth, too, she had been threatened several times with a disease of the heart, and all at once the symptoms became very alarming. But she was a generous sister, and her most violent attacks only came on every third day, when Narissa did not require attendance, so the expense was divided between them-excellent creatures-and no day passed for three weeks which did not see our new physician tie his horse, burdened with well stuffed saddlebags, particularly new, to the broken door-yard fence which ran in front of the red farm-house. I could see it all from my chamber window, and what was not to be seen my friend Julia told me in perfect confidence, for have I not said that we were sworn friends? In the course of two months there was a pretty general admission of elderly ladies into the church; all hopeful members, particularly the widow. There was also a gradual recovery of the very young ladies when our new doctor began to appear at church every Sabbath, and to mingle socially with the inhabitants. Still the Miss Daniels sent for him as often as they could afford the luxury. Narissa seemed subsiding into an affection of the heart as well as her sister; and Elizabeth, who had a fine arm, found bleeding necessary on more than one occasion. They recovered at last, and appeared at church in new Leghorn flats, with a wreath of roses twisted girlishly round the crown, Canton crape dresses, cut remarkably low at the neck, and parasols with fringe four inches deep. That spring they stretched five new pieces of linen to bleach on the grass slope back of the house, and manufactured a roll of home-made carpeting, which the doctor was more than once called upon to admire as it passed through the loom. Of course all this commotion among the sage elderly people left Julia Daniels and myself at liberty to follow our own propensities, which led us half the time into the open air. But the widow was a thrifty housewife and a careful mother-that is, she never allowed Julia to go "out to play" without plenty of sewing or knitting work, and was careful that her sunbonnet was always tied on and her neck muffled up before she braved the air; she had imbued the young girl too with her own ideas of a girl's duty, and even at sixteen Julia had achieved three or four patch-work quilts, and was beginning to pack away home-made table-cloths against the time that she should get married. A thrifty, prudent and womanly young creature was Julia; she was never impulsive or generous or petulant, like the rest of us. From her very cradle she had been drilled into a certain routine of feeling The daughters, too, were taken with a complication and thought, till all the warm gushing sympathies of of mental and physical diseases quite appalling. Na- childhood seemed educated out of her nature. She was rissa, the eldest, vibrated like a pendulum between not really beautiful; all the attractions she possessed the clergyman's study and the doctor's office. She became evident at first sight; the repose which nature caught cold at a prayer meeting over night and went had fixed upon her face always marked it, whatever to the doctor for a remedy in the morning, but her emotions lay beneath. But Julia was a pleasant comcold was an obstinate cold, and what with the excite-panion, faithful to her word, and firm if not ardent in her attachments-even the coldness of her disposition | movements. We opened another gate which led into gave a quiet dignity to her manner which was certain the garden, turned down a walk bordered with curto ensure respect. rant and raspberry bushes, and let ourselves into one of the most beautiful meadows that eyes ever dwelt upon. A footpath ran across this meadow to the bottom of a hill which rolled from a pile of picturesque rocks gently down to its green bosom. This hill was unwooded and covered with a short thick sward which became greener and richer as it was lost in the long meadow-grass, and on the last swell of the hill side stood an old apple tree, probably a chance seedling some fifty years before, and one of the most thrifty, magnificent trees ever burthened with fruit. Now it was ever my foible to catch the whim, manner and faults of any person whom I loved sufficiently for intimacy, so when Julia became absorbed in the idea of a piece of needle work more elaborate and difficult than any thing that had been accomplished in the village-something that required art and genius, a good eye for form and colors, to execute well-I became fascinated with the idea of piecing a quilt, known by the old ladies, who are connoisseurs in such matters, as a“ rising sun." Now this title when applied to a counterpane consists of red, green, yellow, blue and white calico, cut into infinitesimal atoms, sewed together and forming a star-like centre which radiates over a white ground in rays of purple, azure, pink, and every variation of rainbow colors. short, it is a sort of homeopathia principle scientifically imbodied in a patch-work quilt. I cannot assert that this idea of a "rising sun" was a direct emanation of genius either in Julia or myself; we got a rough pattern from an old English woman in the neighborhood, who had seen such things in her own country, but who considered our determination to attempt any thing of the kind as an instance of Yankee enterprise perfectly astounding, though she had lived for years in the very region of wooden nutmegs and white-oak cheeses. In Well, while the widow was absorbed in church meetings and her thoughts agitated with hopes and fears regarding the doctor, Julia and I could think of nothing but diamond shaped bits of calico, embossing a groundwork of white cambric quilted with a feather border and a centre of fine shell work. Every morning when the dew began to rise a red merino shawl hung out from my bed chamber window was answered by a white apron streaming from the gable end casement of the red farm-house, and in a few minutes Julia might be seen coming demurely up the lane, with her pink, gingham sun-bonnet neatly starched and folded back from her face, a black silk apron on, and a willow work-basket crowded with calicoes resting in the curve of her right arm. Then there arose a commotion in my chamber. Drawers were searched in breathless haste for calicoes and patterns; work-boxes were turned topsy turvy in quest of scissors, thimble and strawberry-red emery cushions. There was a running to and fro in search of heart-shaped needle books, hasty inquiries after a mislaid sun-bonnet which had the moment before been tied on my head, and handkerchiefs which always had a habit of stealing off the particular moment that I wanted one. All this ended with my appearance at the door-yard gate, breathless and with my work crowded promiscuously into a painted basket where a corner of the missing handkerchief might have been usually detected peeping through a pile of calicoes, and half a dozen thimbles-which of course the whole household would be searching for-were found at last huddled together in the bottom. When Julia and I met at the door-yard gate there was no necessity for consultation regarding our future Our path led directly under the old apple tree-gave a sudden bend up the hill a few paces and was lost in a ravine, luxuriant with dogwood trees, wild spicebushes, ash saplings, and plenty of wild grape vines. When Julia and I took our seats on a root of the old tree which forced back the earth till it formed a grassy little terrace just large enough to accommodate us and our work-baskets, we could hear the soft, cool trickling of a spring which gushed from a huge gray rock almost choking up the mouth of the ravine, and it was pleasant to mark how the hidden waters freshened the grass in its progress toward the homestead, and how beautifully their windings were revealed by an azure tinge shed from the violets and blue flags that drank life from their moisture. It was pleasant to sit and look at all these calm, lovely objects from our shaded seat beneath the old apple tree with the air around us fragrant with wild blossoms, and the summer insects darting to and fro like jewels in the warm sunshine all around! How was it possible that two young girls so situated should not become dreamy, romantic, and confidential. The minister's house was in view, and, of course, we must talk about him. The doctor rode along the distant highway every morning, and when we caught the gleam of his new saddlebags nothing was more natural than our conversation regarding his scientific flirtation with Julia's two sisters. Sometimes Ebenezer Smith, the son of a rich farmer back of the hill, took a short road across the meadow on his way home at the dinner hour, and when the great ungainly fellow stopped to ask after our health and stammered out some awkward compliment on our industry, or Julia's black eyes-she had fine eyes, and hair like the wing of a raven-it was very natural that we should feel the mischievous smiles struggling to our lips and that we should laugh in spite of ourselves when he leaped the fence and disappeared around a shoulder of the hill. Then amid our merriment we would break off and declare it "too bad"-poor fellow, he could not help it if his limbs did all seem linked together with hinge joints very much out of order. It was not his fault that his hands were so large, his eyes so small-but then who could look on that drooping double ear of his, and the great mouth slanting obliquely across his face, without laughing? It was very cruel to ridicule any personal deformity, we knew that well enough, but what was the harm of a little fun all alone by ourselves? Ebenezer Smith was such a comical looking creature! So we glanced at each other's faces, and another peal of mischievous merriment rang up through the green foliage of the old apple tree. spring out, take his valise and walk down the lane. He was a fine, spirited looking youth, dressed remarkably well, and one that you could not have passed without turning for a second look, even in the thoroughfare of a city. There was a great commotion at the farm-house when Rufus Crofts approached the gate; the prim and perpendicular form of Widow Daniels appeared on the door-step at the north wing of the house with a gorgeous silk handkerchief tied over her cap, and her right hand held encouragingly toward the handsome stranger. Narissa and Elizabeth stood in graceful attitudes on the threshold, and I could see Julia peeping down from the attic window, where she had a bird's-eye view of the hospitable scene. There was a vigorous shaking of hands at the door-step, then the valise, its owner and the three ladies fell back into the north wing and disappeared. Julia withdrew her head from the attic window, and in its place a white streamer floated in the air. This was my invitation, and accepted with promptitude. In one hour from that time we were rambling on the river brink arm in arm with Cousin Rufus, smiling at each other furtively from beneath our cottage bonnets, and holding up our Besides all these sources of amusement we were just verging on what gentlemen call "sweet sixteen," and had little confidential things that were very interesting and personal indeed to converse about. I told Julia of a certain black-eyed boy who sat opposite me in the academy, who contrived to borrow my school books and conceal pretty little billet-deux in the pages, when he returned them, written in Latin, which were doubtless full of poetry and love-but I could not read them myself and had not sufficient courage to beg the assistance of any one who could. I moreover told her, under promise of strict secrecy, how I had returned answers to the billets-not in English, I scorned the idea-but in French, which, according to my present opinion, must have been as difficult for him or any one else to understand as his Latin was to me. I gave out mysterious hints of a time when he had made a path for me in deep snow as we were returning from school one day, and described the manner with which he took off his mittens and drew them over my gloves, as perfectly fascinating. She was given to understand that this same remarkably hand-white dresses daintily from the dew which was falling some and interesting young gentleman had just been entered at Yale College, and that it was more than probable his next letter would be written in Greek, with a Hebrew postscript. All of which she promised never to divulge to any human being in the whole course of her life. I cannot say that Julia was equally frank with me, as she really never had received love letters in Latin, or enjoyed the felicity of having yarn mittens drawn over her hands by a handsome lad on a freezing cold day, but her sympathy was very gratifying, and she observed that my description of the young gentleman put her in mind of Lord Mortimer in the Children of the Abbey, a book that we had studied with great diligence and profit. While we were thus enjoying the sweets of rural life under the old apple tree, our patch-work quilts gradually expanded in size and beauty. One day Julia came up the lane very early, and hurried me away with a little excitement of manner, as if she had something to communicate. What could it be? Had the minister proposed, or was our new doctor caught at last by the lovely sisters-which would he take? I might have spared these conjectures; the doctor and Parson Brooks had nothing to do with the matter. Julia had something better than all this to communicate. Her cousin was coming to live with them. Her Cousin Rufus, one of the handsomest, best hearted young fellows in the world, just twenty, and with eyes like an eagle; he had been intended for a physician, and had just commenced his studies when his father died insolvent. Rufus had struggled on with his profession manfully, and now, in order to raise funds for his first course of lectures, hired himself out to work Widow Daniels' farm, like a brave hearted youth as he was. Rufus Crofts arrived that very afternoon. I was accidentally seated at the window when the stage came in, and saw him thick and bright on the grass. We sauntered up and down the stream beneath the tall elms and the drooping willows, introducing our companion to all the violet hollows and peppermint banks, pointed out the tiny marsh where cranberries and sweet-flag were to be found in abundance, and, when the sunset came on, stood beneath our old apple tree, chatting merrily in the golden haze that lay trembling among its thick leaves and opening blossoms. We found Cousin Rufus a frank, warm-hearted and witty young fellow, fond of fun and frolic as ourselves, and when the moon rose above the trees we were still sitting in the apple shade, unmindful of the nighttime, and making the blossoms overhead tremble again with our shouts of laughter as Rufus entertained us with an account of his school-boy pranks. While we were in the height of our glee the figure of a man coming up the footpath interrupted us; it moved on in the moonlight heavily and with a dull swinging motion. The figure was followed by a shadow which swung its long arms to and fro, and seemed defying its principal from the grass with great pugnacity. "Dear me, it's Ebenezer Smith," said Julia, in a whisper intended for my ear alone; "do keep still or he may insist on walking home with one of us." "Who is it?" inquired Rufus, in a voice still rich with laughter. "Hush!" said Julia, "keep in the shadow-he is coming close by us." Sure enough, it was friend Ebenezer swinging up the footpath in great haste, as if trying to escape the grotesque shadow that followed every step with amazing fidelity, considering the ungainly subject it was condemned to copy. Ebenezer had almost reached the place where we were standing when he stopped suddenly, called out "Who's there?" with a loud voice, then stood upright and still, gazing intently on the apple tree. Our white dresses had evidently frightened him, and we knew that he was trembling with the idea of ghosts, and took us for murdered twins perhaps about to call on him to redress our wrongs. The idea was so very ridiculous that we could not suppress a slight titter. Ebenezer crouched down, placed a hand on each knee, and peered under the thick branches, with his double ear bent to listen, his mouth slanting in the most determined manner across his face, and that grew whiter and whiter till it gleamed out perfectly ghastly in the soft moonbeams. We held our breath, and, though choking with suppressed laughter, avoided the slightest noise. Ebenezer slowly arose to an upright position, glanced down the path and then at his shadow, as if doubtful if it had not been slyly laughing at him from the grass. His path led directly beneath the huge branches of the apple tree, and through the rich foliage our dresses gleamed out cold and ghost-like to his half averted eyes. The gurgle of the rivulet too seemed like the whispering of spirit voices high up the gorge of the hill. Ebenezer crept forward a pace or two, turning his head timidly from side to side, and trembling till we heard his teeth chatter when he came within the shadow flung by the masses of foliage, where his own seemed all at once to have deserted him to his fate. Just then Julia moved from under a gleam of the moonlight that threatened to betray her, and glided behind Rufus. Ebenezer saw the motion, uttered a dismal noise, and fell upon his knees beseeching the unknown spirit to spare him for his mother's sake, who, he asserted with trembling limbs and chattering teeth, was a pious woman, a member of the church, and had always tried to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It might have been a bird in the branches, or a rabbit startled from his nest of fern on the hill side. We were perfectly motionless, but a rustling of leaves and the sound of something forcing its way through tangled foliage followed close on Ebenezer's appeal. He started up with another cry, plunged madly round the hill and disappeared over the stone wall head foremost, and with such impetuosity that we heard the sound of his fall-a groan and a struggle among the loose stones with a distinctness that frightened us. "I have come to assist you," said Rufus, still very earnestly, for he could not believe the man uninjured. "It aint of the least use, I tell you. I do n't mean to sell myself body and soul to any spirit, black or white, so get behind me, get behind me!" and we could hear broken fragments of the Lord's Prayer issuing through the long fingers which Ebenezer still clenched over his face. "Do get up and try if you can move," persisted the young man, laying his hand kindly on the shoulder which formed the most convenient angle of Mr. Smith's body. Ebenezer shrunk closer to the stones and shuddered. "Lead me not into temptation," broke through his shaking hands. Rufus could hardly speak for laughing, but attempted to lift the prostrate man by the arm. "Deliver me from evil!" gasped Ebenezer, shaking off his hold. Rufus bent down and using both hands half raised the prostrate man from his groveling place in the stones, but the frightened creature struggled manfully with his spirit-foe, and now in the extremity of terror a whole torrent of words came pouring through his fingers. "Give me this day my daily bread-forgive me my trespasses-now I lay me down to sleepamen, amen-a-oh!" Ebenezer Smith uttered the last exclamation just as Cousin Rufus forced back his hands and left his unshackled eyes free to gaze on the form of Julia Daniels, who stood before him in the moonlight laughing till the bright tears sparkled down her cheeks. In the amazement that fell upon him Ebenezer's mouth almost drew a parallel line with his nose. thick hair that had bristled up with terror fell down to his temples again, and shaking terribly between delight at seeing a familiar face and recent terror, he faltered out, "Miss Julia, is that you?" The "I believe it is," said Julia, brushing the tears from her face, making a strong effort to speak serious, and bursting into another fit of merriment. "You saw me fall, then?" said Ebenezer, evidently determined to make the best of his position. "The stones gave way as I attempted to climb by the bars. The man that builds such fences ought to be prosecuted. It came near being the end of me, Miss Daniels, I can tell you." "Poor fellow!" exclaimed Rufus, "he is hurt or frightened to death at his own shadow." “And such a shadow-who could blame him?" quer our laughter for any reply. said Julia, demurely. We were all too earnest in a vain attempt to con But Rufus was beyond hearing-we gathered our shawls around us and followed him out into the moonlight just in time to see him clear the stone wall somewhat more gracefully than his illustrious predecessor. We found a way for ourselves through a set of bars and joined him as he was stooping to the fallen Ebenezer. "You heard the racket, I suppose, and came up," continued Ebenezer, looking at us rather anxiously. "I am sure it was kind of you. There isn't much harm done, though—" "Then you are not hurt?" said Rufus politely. Ebenezer turned abruptly, looked Mr. Crofts hard in the face, and perpetrated a smile that sent one corner of that restless mouth into the neighborhood of his "Are you hurt, sir?" inquired the young man, right eye, while the other pointed precisely to a coranxiously. ner of his neatly starched dickey. "Oh, get away, get away," said Ebenezer, gathering his shaking limbs still more closely to the stones, and hiding his face between his huge hands. "I shall be well enough if you'll only get on t' other side of the wall, and clear out altogether." "A relation of ours, Mr. Crofts," said Julia, conquering her unusual merriment, and introducing the young men in form. "He heard the noise of your accident, and came to offer assistance." Ebenezer took Mr. Crofts by the hand, expressed |