Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1867-06-14
A MAIDEN LADIE' g HEART RO.
NANCE.

=
saved his miniature so careful lly for ever 50
many years. And | declare here's lock
, Of his dark hair on the back, braided in with
a strand of somebody's white " hose was it,
Aunt Clara?'
1t was shame in US to tease her. There
was q shake in her voice as she spoke, and a
| suspicion of tears in her eyes, and her dear
old face was white with suppressed feeling
Aunt Clara had custom, common 10 every
person whose life is in the pas,, aud who lives
in the present only in memory; shc would
steal away from us all, and spend hours over
her souvenirs--yellow letters, we'll worn rings
old fashioned bro aches, and The like. We
had come upon our dear old aunty unawares
this afternoon. Jerushia said, LET us slip
In upon her unbcknownst," aud so we did
| Ordinarily when we went to her room we
were in time only to hear he click of the lock
Of her bureau drawer, and 10 see her pretend
ing to smooth her hair. But this day'she had
the miniture in her hand. Tie picture of a
chila was upon the bureau, with rings, pin.
bracelets, and the dea- knows what! We had
crept up the stairs like "a couple of mischiev-
Gus kittens" MS Aunt Clara called US, and
caught the old lady in the midst Of her treas
ures. , - ~
I got possession Of the miniature Over the
rest Of her valuables size lowered Ike hen
over her brood. | drew away, and sitting on
low stool, studied the picture, while Jerushia
dropped down on her knees and looked over
my shoulder. Aunt Clara eyed me uneasily
as mother bird robbed Of her young. The
miniature was not very wonderful work Of
art, certainly. The artist was, in the true
sense of the term, "a pre-. Raphaeliie,' with
suit knowing il. Every fold in tie shirt bo-
som was marked IS sharply as the lines on
third quality commercial note paper. The
coat collar, six inches deep, and pushing the
head vel up, was perfectly defined. You
could see the button hole stitches. The black
neck stock was so high us to force dimple in
the chin. Each particular hair of the lead
and whiskers was 50 painfully elaborated IS
almost to suggest Q suspicion Of the river Nj
ger or the Gold Coast. Nevertheless it was a
genuine painting on actual ivory; no photo
graph fifteen for dollar. And yeu could see
by the light of the eyes, that the artist, poor
though he might have been, had some idea Of
soul and expression
'lle was a proper, nice man." Aunt Clara
resumed, reaching out her hand for tile pic
ture 'and this is ths only likeness of him
that ever was painted. His mother wanted IL
dreadfully"
Sand why didn't you lei her have ii, aun>
typ"
Oh did. And when she died it came back
to me again, with a lock of her hair. had
some Of Eis already ana got them braided to-
gether. Ii. was dreadful scare crow of a.
thing that made her give me before would
give up my picture. And l had to make be.
liese that it was so pretty, aud so like him z
"Why, what was it she had =
s'She ran Of q notion that she could cut pro-
files. So she made a great thing more than
two feet square, which she said was his like
ness. It was cut out of black clo,h and PIN
ned up on the wall Of her settin-room So
told her she might have this as long as she
lived, if she'd only give me that and flat
tered her up and pretended the black thing
WAS his very image"
'sI'd like to see it,
"Mortal eyss will never see that again.
said Aunt Clara. Il burned it the same night
she died; and would have burned it before
only was afraid she would up and cut out
another by guess. 1t was dreadful girls. You
haven't an idea ~
That was Aunt Clara's climax--idea in
three distinct syllabes, with the is in pay
And when she said that word our immagina-
t'on exalted what she described to the highest
.. lowest, as the case might be.
"Proiiles," Aunt Clara half sollequized--
"prefeels-there was Frenchman along tax.
ing them, and he called them profeels. lie
used to have machine, aud wire went
along over your nose and your chin, antls,he
other end traced an outline Of your face on
paper. But the domestic ones used to be ,rac.
ed by the shadow of your face on the wall. II
was real fun to do it; bat awful .Lngs some
Of them were, and his was one of the worst:
for he had u master large nose &s
"Tell us all about him aunty. He looks we'll
enough in the miniature
sYcs indeed. And that was the beauty Of
pictures. They could give yeu n bodys best
looks and kind Of shade the plain features out
But those pr,,feels and these nhotorrn nhs -
Dear me The profeels were as like the real
thing as crow s skin stretched on a barn il
like crow; and as to these photographs, look
in a polished door knob, and you see what
some of them are They are like, certainly
but there's no aattery in them. Why your
hand is always as big as all out doors.
Aunt Clara has real pretty hand Of her
own, and minded that she had slipped on to-
day one Of the rings out Of her treasure
She does that on high days, afte, dinner.
when did he dic?" asked sister Jerushia.
"Years ago-ever so many years ago-be-
fore you were born
"And you never thought of marrying AFTER
watd?" So = 81
"Never; and I'd given it up before. That
was his daughter, that child you saw on the
bureau. ! tell you girls, was very much
taken with TINT young man."
:Why did'nt you marry him 7" .s
II did s,4
We both jumped to our feet.
"By prory"