Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-03-29
abe qailpl SPY,
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 90, 1854.
DON'T PROPOSE IN THE DARK.
BY MISS MIrroRD

The pretty farm house standing at the cor
ner where Kibes lane crosses the brook or
the brook crosses Kibes' lane, Cfor the first
phrase, altho' giving by far the closest picture
/ of the place, does, it must be confessed, look
rather Irish,) and where the aforesaid brook
winds away by the side of another lane, until
it spreads into riyer-lille dignity, as it mean
ders through the sunny plain of Hartly Com
mon, and finally disappears amid the green
/ recesses of Perge Wood--that pretty, square
farm house, halfhidden by the tail elms in the
flower court before t, which with the spacious
garden and orchard behind and the extensive
barns, yards, and out-buildings, so complete
ly occupies one of the angles formed by the
crossing of the lane and the stream-that pref
ty farmhouse contains one of the happiest and
most prosperous families in Aberleigh -the
large and thriving family of farmer Evans.
Whether from skill or good fortune-or, as
is most probable, from lucky mixture Of
both-everything goes right in his great farm.
! His crops are the best in the parish his hay
| is never spoiled; his cattle never die; his SER
wants never thieve; his children are never i'll.
He buys cheap, and sells dear; money gathers
about him like snow ball; and yet, in spite
| of all this provoking and intolerable prosperi-
ty, everybody loves farmer Evans. He is so
| hospitable, so good-natured, so generous, so
homely! There, after all, lies the charm
Riches have not only not spoiled the man, but
they have not altered him. He is just the
same in look, in word, and way that he was
thirty years ago, when he and his wife with
two sorry horses, one COW, and three pigs, be-
! gan the world at Dead Gate, a little bargain
| of twenty acres, two miles off. Ay, and his
| wife is the same woman the same frugal,
| tidy, industrious, good-natured Mrs. Evans
| so noted for activity of tongue and limb her
| good looks, and her plain dressing as frugal,
as good-natured, as active, and as plain-d dress
| ing Mrs Evans at forty five, as she was at
| nineteen, and, in a different way, almost as
| good looking.
Their ehildren-six boys as farmer Evans
promiscuously calls them, whose ages vary
from eight to twenty, aud three girls, two
grown up, and one, the youngest Of the fami-
ly-are Just what might be expected from pa
rents SO simple and so good. The young man,
intelligent and well-conducted the boys do
Gle and promising; and the little girl, as pretty
a curly-head, rosy-cheeked poppet, ever
was the pet and plaything of large family.
1t is, however, with the eldest daughters that
we have to do.
Jane and Patty Evans were as much alike
as hath often befallen any two sisters not
bonn at one time; for, in the matter of twin
children, there has been series of puzzles
ever since the days Of the Dromios. Nearly
at an age q believe that at this moment both
are turned nineteen and neither has reached
| twenty)-exactly of a stature, so high that
Frederick the Great would have coveted them
| for his tall regiment, with hazel eyes, large
mouths, full lips, white teeth, brown hair,
| and that sort of nose which is not Grecian, or
Roman, nor aquiline, nor le petit nez retrousse
that some persons prefer to them all; but a
nose which, moderately prominent, and sufi-
ciently well-shaped, is yet, as far as | know,
anonymous, although it be perhaps as common
and as well looking feature as is to be seen
on an English face.
Although they were a pair of tall and
comelv maidens, and being constantly attired
in garments of the same color and fashion,
looked at all times SO much alike, that no
stranger ever dreamed of knowing them apart;
even their acquaintance were rather az
customed to think and speak of them generally.
as the "Evanses,' than as the separate indi-
yiduals Jane and Patty. Even those who did
/ pretend to distinguish the one from the other,
! were not exempt from mistakes which the
sisters-Patty especially, who delighted in the
| fun so often produced by the unusual Tesem-
blanee-were apt to favor by changing places
in a walk, or slipping from one side to the
other at country tea party, orplaying a. hun
bred little innocent tricks, to occasion at once
grave blunder and merry laugh.
Old Dinah Goodwin, for instance-who
being rather purblind, was jealous of being
suspected of seeing less clearly than her neigh
bors, and had defed even the Evanses to puz-
zle her communicating in vain on Pat
tvs hand the cut finger which she had dressed
on James, ascribed the incredible cure to the
merits Of her own incompatible salye; and
could be hardly undeceiyed, even by the pull
lug off of James glove, and the exhibition of
the .acerated digital, sowed round by her own
Damage. Young George Kally, the greatest
beau in the parish, having betted at a Christ
mas party that he would dance with every
pretty girl in the room, lost his wager, (Which
Patty had oyerheerd) by that sauey dansels
slipping into her sister place, aud persuading
her to join her own unconscious partner; SO
that George danced twice with Patty, and not
at all with Jane-a bantering piece of malice
which proved, as the young gentleman Ga rus
tic exquisiteof the first water,) was pleased to
assert, that Miss Patty was not displeased
with her partner. How little does vain man
know of woman kind If she had liked him,
she would not have played the trick for the
mines of Golconda.
In short, from their school days, when Jane
was chidden for Patty's bad work, and Patty
slapped for James bad spinning, down to this,
their prime of womanhood, there had been no
enu 10 the CONFUSION produced Dy LnlS remark
able instance of family likeness.
And yet, Nature-who sets some mark of
individuality upon even her meanest produc-
tons, making some unnoted difference between
the lambs dropped from one eve, the robins
bred in one nest, the flowers growing on one
stalk, and the leaves hanging from one tree
had not left these young maidens without one
great and permanent distinction natural dis
similarity oftemper. Equally industrious, af-
fectonate, happy, and kind, each was kind,
happy, affectonate, and industrious in diff
ferent way. Jane was grave, Patty was gay.
If you heard a laugh or a song, be sure it was
Patty; she who jumped the stile when her
sister opened the gate, was Patty she who
chased the pigs from the garden, as merrily as
if she was running arace, SO that the pigs did
not mind her was Patty.
On the other hand, she that so carefully
was making with her own raveled threads,
an invisible darn in her mothers handker-
chief, and hearing her little sister read the
while; she that was SO patiently feeding, one
by one, two broods Of young turkeys; she
that so pensiyely watered her own bed of rare
flowers-the pale hues of the Alpine pink, or
the alabaster blossoms of the white eve
ming primrose, whose modest flowers, dying
- Il IL