The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-10-20
AN ACT UAL CT
BY DAVID A. BROWN.

used TO be a boarding school for girls, and was
doing well, until a body of wild students man.
aged 10 get thick with the girls, and went sc
far one night as to put ladder against the
walls right under the girls bedroom, and
paint there, in great big letters a foot high,
NUNNERY. 1t was very TO dish, because mp
to that time the teacher-a kind. hearted, SIM
pie old preacher-had put no faith in the sto-
ries about the fellows knowing the giTis 80
we'll. Now, hswever, he was driven 10 pc
lieye there was something in IT, Tor surrey the
boys, frolicsome as they were, Wou'S ne ,,>,
have dared TO do such thing If they had not
been erged on by the wild girls. The end OF
the business was that the schooi got Dad
name and in about years ime was smut up
for lack of scholars.
was sorry 10 hear this, because, in the first
nlaee. the empty house looked so forioru, and,
in the next place, we couldn't help feeling how
fine i, would be 10 have the green shutters
thrown back once more, and to see the open
windows filled with merry, pretty faces. 1t
would be some fun then for n fellow to walk
In the front campus. Now, it was none at all.
The winter passed, and in the spring came
an Episcopal clergyman to the village OF Old
ark, which had grown up around Xenophon
College and started a school away at the up
per end of the only street we had, and far
out of the reach of mischief on the part of the
boys. There being no Commons" the fell
lows boarded here aud there in the village.
i boarded at Mrs. McCharming's, the best
house by long odds OF all Mrs. MCC. was 4
widow. some thirty years old, not very pretty
In the face, but the owner of the most graceful
form in the world full of fun, and always
ready and willing for n romp with the boys.
Alex. Mckay and myself were great pets with
her. We used to go 10 the house an hour or so
before meals ard worry her almost out of her
life. She had great deal TO do 10 supply tae
wants of her boarders and keep her house in
trim. but she bore our worrying with the
utmost forbearance and sweetness of temper.
Sometimes when l look back to those old
days, think them the happiest of my life.
agl lad hnr I've lac -
Macs daughter Mary, a gentle little thing as
you would see in a summers day, went to the
Episcopal school. Some of the girls would
now and then come TO see her, in the morning,
when none OF the students were about. Among
them was Miss ia dashing girl, whose
naughty airs brought her anything but love
from those who knew her. The students, l
believe, hated her. Duncan Chester was the
only fellow who dared to pay court TO her
so high did she hold her head. lie liked her
right well. As for myself can't now be GER
tain what were my feelings towards her, bat
i think l cared little or nothing about her, one
way or the other-my mind at that time beiue
wholly taken up with Annie l.. am sure
though. that bore her no malice. say this
10 guard the reader agalns: the belief that What
/ am now about TO tell was done out OF
any spite 10 Miss j., or any wish TO harm the
Episcopal school.
One day, coming into Mrs. Macs, as usual
about half an hour or SO before dinner, and
finding the old lady, as we called her, busy in
Y.
not there 10 help me tease her, was at loss
what to do till dinner time. After a while il
struck me II would be good plan to upsei
things IN the sltting-room. So l upset the
chairs, the tables, the sofa, everything, in fact
that was movable, not leaving out even the
big looking glass over the ma ei-piece. Hav.
ing put them all in a pile i'll the middle of the
room, and dragged in the horse-hair rocking.
chairs from the parior TO place on top of them
j opened the windows wide, that any bod =
going along the street might enjoy the show
/ then got behind door, 10 treat myself TO the
shock Mrs. Mac would have when she came
in. But she didn't come. And, somehow, the
boys were very late coming TO dinner. And
nobody passed the window. 1 got tired OF
chuckling over the great tumble l had built
and set my wits to work to find some new
mischief TO do. My eyes fell on Mary Macs
school book, lying on the table in the passage
Enough a fresh plan rose in my wicked head
In moment.
Hunting about, l soon found pen, ink and
paper, SAL down 10 the table in the passage,
and wrote this note 10 Miss J.:
Mrs. McCharming is panied to have to tell
Miss j. that the young gentlemen boarding with
her have urged her not to Miss J. at her house
sgaln Some scIupie is made on the ground OF
MISS Is family not being what IL should be-
These were not the words of the note-ot
course l cannot bring back them, fifteen years
after they were written-but the meaning was
about the same. l had not the first thought
that Miss }. would ever see or hear of this
note. But / got Mrs. Macs writing desk
picked out the incest envelope, put the note
inside sealed it with blue sealing wax, wrote
Miss j. IS name the back in the same female
hand I had aped, and very we'll, too, in the
note itself, and put it in one of Mary Macs
books-thinking she would find it there and,
knowing il was not her mothers hand writ
ing, would ask her mother about it. and so the
whole plot would be found out without harm
10 a living soul.
But, as bad luck would have it, that very
afternoon, for the first time, Mary Mac had 10
say lesson oct of the very book in which l
had pat the note. She took it 10 school with
her, put it in her desk, and began to write in
her copy-book. When her writing task was
over, she took the book out of the desk opened
right upon the note, and, as she said after
wards, without thinking or caring what it
washer mind being busy about her lesson
handed IL to Miss j. who sat near her, hard
ly looking at her when she handed ii, and for
getting the next moment that there was such
thing a note in the world. What was her
amaZement when Miss j. in loud, angry
voice, that was heard over the whole school
room, burst out
My family is as good as yours, any day,
Miss, and better too, long sight. My father
Is gentleman. Your neither is no lady and
never was. She's nothing but "a boarding
house keeper a pretty woman TO set herself
mp above other people! AND nice set OF
rowdies she's got boarding with her. The
meanest, most good for- no thing no-mannered
students in College, as everybody knows
shed better qui, flirting with boys she's old
enough TO be The mother of before she talks TO
a My about going TO her house. wouldn't
PAL my foot in il again to save her nfe-no,
not 10 save her life 70
Poor Mary was altogether in the dark as to
The why and wherefore OF ms torrent OF
abuse. Thinking her mother had fallen out
with Miss j. about something, she looked
at the black eyes flashing fire upon her, rose
from her seat took her bonnet and books and
went home, there to pour into her mothers
bewildered ear the wondrous tale. The school
master, after reading the note, and hnding
himself unable TO soothe Miss j., sent his
scholars off, closed his school, and marched
off to see what Mrs. Mac meant by her strange
and uncalIed for behavior. OF course Mrs
Mac could tell him nothing about it. She
vowed she had not written the note, had never
seen it had no idea who wrote il. He took il
into his head that she was afraid to own the
truth, seeing what a fuss il had raised. ana
went of In high dudgeon, leaving her to un-
ders land that he would make il his business
TO bring the matter before the Faculty, who,
he doubted not, would make her pay high
price tor her low trick on Miss J., by taking
every one of her boarders away from her and
driving her out OF the village"
This kindied the good lady's wrath. She
gave the preacher as good as he sent, and
posted off in hot haste TO Professor A.-one OF
Ae Faculty, and warm friend of her's-tc
get him to take her side and 70 save her from
The shame OF being driven out Of Oidark
Meantime / had gone off bathing Came
back TO supper, hungry and in high spirits
i saw that something had gone wrong. Meek
as lamb, asked Mrs. Mac to tell me what
mad happened. Not trace of my mornings
Work remained In my thoughtless soul. Guess
now leit when she told me what rum pus
my ioiiy had kicked up! Twas thundersrait-
ten and at once made a clean breast Of =,
Inc good woman owned that she almost kuau,
mat either mckay or myself had W ritten the
note, put mad given the enraged preacher ne
hint thereof Noble Old lady! OF conrsa
wanted TO go straightway and acknowisSoa
my guilt, but she wouldn't hear of IL Ssid
she would fix il. And she did After .
great deal OF fuss and trouble this way and
that the matter was dropped-Miss j. and
her teacher were uieted, and things seemingly
went on as smoothly as before. Every day
looked for the Faculty TO haul me up, and, In
deed, was anxious they should but they let
me 60 scot tree.