Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-03-24

MISS PRECIOsA'S PRINCIPLES.
or How SHE Xuunery'' was Broken Up.


bniIt. dwelt the most precise maiden
ever born, Miss PreciOsa Lockwood.
Even in that precise town, where laugh
Tor vyas reckOned one of the smaller SINS,
and tine family IN whose dwelling the
Ii0hfs were seOn burning after ten o.
clock were considered diSSipated. there
was a current joke regarding Lockwood
Cottage, which giddy girls dubbed "the
nunnery," aud some even went SO far as
to call Miss PreciOsa the Lady Supe-
riOr."
Certainly never convent walls closed
themselves more grimly against man
kind, gentle and simple, old and young.
What in many an excellent spinster has
been an affectatiOn, was genuine with
PreciOsa.
Long ago, pretty little cousin, who
had been her cOnfidante and companion
had become acquainted with a rascal
with handsome face and serpent's soul
and had eloped with him. They heard
of her wearing velvets and diamonds,
but no welding ring, and driving about
ia New Orleans in handsome carriage
wondered at and admired for her
beauty, and summed for her sin. And
at last, after long silence about her
dOings,a faded thing in rags came creep
iug at night to Miss Preciosa's cottage,
begging for Gods sake that she would
LET her in to die. Miss PrecioSa did the
reverse of what most women would do.
She gave the sisters hand 70 the poor
victim. nursed her until she died, and
buried her decently, and thenceforward
shut her spinster home to man. She
was barely twenty-seven and far from
plain. and she argued thus: something
in a stove-pipe hat land boots has
wrought this ill-all who wear those ha-
biliments must be tabooed-
She kept her resolution. From the
poor house she selected small servant
maid. not yet old enough to think of
fellows As cook she kept bideous
old female, too far advanced in years to
think of them. The milk was brought
by German woman. The butchers
wife, by request, brought the joints
Even the grass IN the garden, when it
was too long was cnt by woman, and
If a man approached the gates, ancient
Deborah, the cook. was sent forth to
parlev with him, aud to ObstTuct his APP
proach.
Having thus made things safe. Miss
Preci0sa went to New York, and brought
home a dead sisters daughter, who had
hitherto been immured in a boarding
school, and the arrangementsw were COM
plete.
Miss Lockwood took her niece to
church; also to weekly meeting. They
spent afternoons out with widow ladies
with no grOwn-up sons, or with spinsters
who resided IL a solitary state
The elder lady, kept an argus-eye
upon her blooming niece and bold In
deed would have been the man who dar-
ed to address her.
For her part, Hiss Bella Bloom was
an arch hyprOcrite. She had learned
that at bOarding-school, where ingen-
nifty Is exhausted in deceiving the au-
thOrities, aud doing always exactly what
Is most forbidden. Bella Bloom came
TO Lockwood cottage perfectly compe-
tent to hOodwink hel aunt.
She did it. Preciosa blessed her stars
that her niece was well principled. She
hated men. She wondered how any
young lady could walk, talk, be sOciable,
and marry with them. And when she
thought she lived IN home where they
could not intrude how thankful she was
Aunt Preciosa could never guess.
And all the while Bella was chatting
inwardly at the restraint, anything girls
who had pleasant little hrtations at
will, and keeping nd a secret correspon-
dence with one "Dear George" who
sent letters, under cover, to the butch
er's wife. who brought them in with the
beef and mutton, and said, 'Bless We,
M ~ no al IL Il
was a gal onst-befOre Cleaver courted
me-"
Dear George was desperate. He
cOuld not live without seeing his Bella
He wrote bitter things about spinster
aunts He alluded feelingly to those
in the garden of the ,emina.
nv, with Miss Glover standing sentry at
the gate, n the lookout for governess
and enemy. The first opportunity he
was coming to PlOinacres, and intended
to see his Bella or die Was he not
twenty-three, and she seventeen? Were
they to waste their lives at a spinster's
bidding? MOI
Miss Preciosa, with her argus-eyed
watchfulness, sat calmly, hour by hour,
two inches from the locked door of the
cabinet which contained the gentle
mans letters; and dined from the meats
that had aided In bringing them across
the threshold, intoxicating her princi-
pies into the minds of her niece and
nd-maiden, the latter of whom grin
ned behind the lady's chair, without re-
serve. Charity Pratt, having grown to
be sixteen, also had her secret. 1t was
the apothecary's boy, who, In his own
peculiar fashion, had expressed admira-
ton at church by staring.
A few days after, DIR. Green, the bach
elor minister, called at the cottage
Deborah went to huff and snap, aud was
subdued by big eyes. She came in.
Miss. said she, ''the clergyman is
ont here"
'Where?@ gasped Preciosa.
I'm the garden, wantin' you"
"8Ie?"
''Yes, Miss
'Yon said, Of course, 1 was out?" III
pastor"
80 the pastor was ushered in. He
eonversed of church affairs. Miss Pre-
closa answered by polite monosyllsbles.
Bella smiled and stitched. Deborah sat
IN hall chair on guard. Finally, the
pest specimen of that bad creature,
man, was got ont of the house safely,
and the ladies looked at each other as
those might who have been closeted
with polar bear and escaped unhurt.
Hes gone, aunty," said the hypO-
Thank goodnessl'' said sincere Pre-
ciOsa SsT tbouUhf II obo,,Id baxa faint