White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1859-02-03

] denSely-WoOded background. verify, II
: l were painter, I should desire no love-
. lier scene for my canvas than that on
) which Mark and Mildred looked. Lizzy
walked away. and began hunting check
erberries with an unusual ardor. She did
understand she would not be Mademoi-
selle de TrOp any longer. Kind soul
so unlike young women in general. who
n'tstep aside gracefully, as they should !!
Farther / can vouch, that she neither
hemmed, nor made eyes, nor yet repeated
the well-worn provorb, "Two's company,
but three's none" No, she gathered
berries and sang snatches of songs as
though she were quite alone.
Now those of my readers who have the
good fortune to still lInger in teens are
expecting that shall treat them to a re-
port of this delightful tets-G-tete. But it
must not be told. The older people
would skip It, or say, "Pshaw !" And
besides. if it were set down faithfully, you
would be sadly disappointed the clever
est men, even, are quite sure to appear
silly Ito other people when in love The
speeches Of the Romeos and Claude Mel
NOTES, with which you have been so en-
chanted, would be commonplace enough,
iftranslated into the actual prose in which
they were delivered. When Shakespeare
wooed Anna Hathaway, it might have
been different; but consider, you will
wait some time before you find a lover
like him. No, when your time comes, it
will be soon enough. You will see your
hero in his velver cloak. and plumed hat,
with the splendor of scenery and the in
toxication of the music. l don't choose
to show him to you in morning dress at
rehearsal, under daubed canvas and dang |
ling machinery.
However full of poetry and passion
Marks declaration was for Mildred, to |
him it was tame and hesitating enough. |
1t seemed to him that he could not force
into the cold formula OF words the emotion |
that agitated him. But with quickening
breath he poured out his love, his hopes,
and his fears-the old burden She
trembled, her eyelids fell ;; but at length |
reused by his pleading tones. she looked
up. Their eyes met; one look was enough;
it was reciprocal electric fash. With |
sudden energy he clasped her in his
arms and it was very pretty tableau
they made But in the quick movement
his needless foot CHANGED to touch stone,
which rolled down the bank and fell into
the stream with a splash. The charm
was broken.
Whats that ?" cried Lizzy from
distance, forgetting her discretion. "Did
a pickerel jump"
"No," replied Mark, tho pickerel
know me of old, and don't come about
for fear that have hook and line in
my pocket. 1t was only stone rolling
into the river"
lyon come here moment" continued
the unthoughtful Lizzy; there's beau
tiful sassafrss sapling, and can't pull it
up by the roots alone"
"Send for the dentist, then"
$50 and help her," said Mildred softly.
"Well," said Mark, with a look of
enforced resignation-''if | must"
The sapling grew on the steep bank,
perhaps fifty yards from where he had
been sitting. He did not use sufficient
careto brace himself, as he pulled with all
his might, and in q moment, he knew not
how, he rolled down into the river. The
girls first screamed, and then, as he came
out of the water, shaking himself like a
Newfoundla and dog. they laughed i'm
moderately. The affair did not seem
very funny to Marx, and he joined in the
laugh with no great heartiness. The
shock had dispelled all the romance of
the hour.
"I'm so sorry !" said Lizzy. still laugh
ing at his grotesque and dripping figure.
''You must hurry and get dry clothes
on, Mark" said Mildred. :" Squire
Clamps is the nearest house across the
bridge" .-,..- ..l-.- t
"Hang Squire Clamp! His clothes
wonId poison mel I'd as lief go to a
quarantine hospital to be dressed"
"Don't - said Lizzy.
But he kept on in the same mercurial
strain. "Clamp lives on poison, like
Rappaccini,s daughter, in Hawthorne's
story; only it makes him ugly instead of
fair, as that pretty witch was. His wife
never had any trouble with spiders as
long as she lived he had only to blow
into nest, and the creatures would tum-
Die out, AID give up their venomous
ghosts. No vermin but himself are to
be seen in the neighborhoOd /; tb0 rats
even found they couldn't stand 1t, and
had to emigrate-" sL
1.-THE breath that killed spiders must
have been little too powerful, at times,
for Mrs. Clamp, one would think" said
Mildred.
at was, Z" said Mark. "She died one
day. after Clamp had cheated a widow
out of her dover"
"Don't stop longer for your fun." said
Mildred, you'll surely take rnl''- ~
sides. I eon's baye you making any dIs-
managing remarks upon my guardian, /
s.Bless my soul your guardian how
;mprudent, to be sure i'-with signih-
can't twinkle. "Well. am going. BAN
fields is the nearest house; so we'll part
here. , ~ -.sT $780, e~-r4a.ET
The girls went towards the village;
and Mark, making vigorous strides across
the meadow, took straight line for BAN
fields. Near the house Is piece oil
woods-one corner of the leafy mantle
that covers the hill slipped down its side