Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-05-25
Sg)gtt Gale,
MISS PRECIOSA'S PRINCIPLES.

IN the most precise Of country villages
in lhc primmcst mansion ever built, dwelt
the most precise maiden ever born, Miss
Prcciosa Lockwood. Even in that serious
town, where laughter was reckOned one of
the smaller sins, and the family in whose
IwcIlmg lights were seen burning after ten
o'clock were considered dissapated, there
was a current joke regarding Lockwood
Cottage, which giddy girls had dubbed
The Nunnery" and some even went so
far as to call Miss Preciosa the " Lady Su-
pcrior'
Certainly convent walls never closed
themselves more grimly against mankind,
gentle and simple, old and young What
in many an excellent spinster has been an
afecJation was genuine with Miss Pre-
ci0sa
Long ago pretty little cousin who had
been her confident and companion, had be-
come acquainted with a rascal with a hand
some face and a serpent's soul, and had
eloped with him. They heard of her wear
ng velvet and diamonds, but no wedding
ring and driving about New Orleans in a
handsome carriage, wondered at and ad-
mlred for her beauty and summed for her
SIN, And, at last, after a long silence
] about her dongs, a faded thing in rags
came creeping at night to Miss Preciosa's
cottage, begging for Gods sake that she
. would let her in to die Miss Preciosa did
. tle reverse of what most women do. She
gave sisters hand to the poor victim
| nurscd her until she died, and buried her
lecently, and thenceforth shut her spins ter
home TO man. She was barely twenty
seven, and far from plain, but she argued
thus: Something in a stove-pipe hat and
BOOTS has wrought this ill-all who wear
those hablilments must be tabooed
She kept her resolution. From the moor.
house she selected small servant-maid,
not yet old enough to think of followers"
Us cook she kept a hideous old female, too
far advanced in years to remember them.
The milk was brought by a German wo-
man. The butchers wife, by request,
brought Ill the joints Even a woman cut
the grass in the garden when it was too
long, and if man approached the gates an
Gent Deborah, the cook was sent forth to
party with and obstruct his approach
havlng thus made things safe, Miss Pre-
eosa went to New York and brought home
dead sisters daughter, who had hitherto
been lmmurred in boarding-school, and
HE arrangements were complete.
Miss Lockwood took her niece to church,
also to weekly meetings. They spent after
Moons out with widow ladies with no grown
oP-sons, or with spinsters who resided in
solitary state.
j., The old lady kept an Argus eye nponher
booming niece and bold indeed would
nave been the man who dared to address
acr
For her part Miss Bella Bloom was an
aEcA-lypocrite She had learned that at
.oYSt.dmS-school, Y here ingenuity is exhaus-
[u Ia deceiving the authorities, and doing
Sg.TTays exactly what is most forbidden
's'ia Bloom came to Lockwood Cottage
I'LItHectly competent to hoodwink her aunt.
i SAe did it. Preciosa blessed her stars
Ia, 'a%' Aer niece was well principled. She
ioT ,"ieo men. She wondered how any young
.rr.y could walk and talk and be sociable
G''n and marry them And when she
Iousht that she lived in home where
S "o could not mtrude, how thankful she
Aunt Preclosa could never guess.