Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-05-30
KATE'S PROPOSAL.
BY MISS MARAH Il. CROSSE.

You don't dare do it, Kate, )" laughed
Mag Reynolds.
81 IL wager my pearl ring that you'll
"back out" of it at the last moment
cried Sue RaliytelliJnl TIE view. or
Done! exclaimed Kate; "and here
is my gold locllet in the balance against
your ring" She unfastened the locket
from the cord around her throat as she
spoke, and the ring and loclet were laid
in The hands of Mag Reynolds, to be
held until claimed by the winner.
ooh of course you say you will, but
then we know you won't' they said in
chorus.
Kate Adams thrust her hands in her
apron pockets, pursed up her mouth in
defiance, and replied
81 dare, and what is more, | aUW ask
him before tomorrow afternoon.
Five young ladies were standing in
vine clad arbor in the garden at Judge
Adams residence. Four of them had
dared the Judges daughter, Kate, the
widest romp that ever wore CATERS
and long dresses, to take the advantage
of the privileges leap-year affords,
to propose to Dick Walton, rather
stately and, as the girls declared, cal
together unapproachable" young gen.
tleman, then visiting, for few weeks,
iISl ]AS VIC llluluICu tilclI
plans, they failed to see pair of gray
eyes looking down upon them, nor did
they hear<he suppressed laugh which
proceeded from behind the tangled
shrubbery.
"But how are we to know?' querled
the girls.
"Meet me here at half past five to-
morrow afternoon" replied Kate and
then, with merry leave-taking, they
separated for their several homes. Kate
walked slowly towards the house, re-
solving in her mind the best mode of
attack. Should she beard the lion in
his den, or should she come upon him
unawares, in some corner? She con-
cluded that the latter was the best PLAN
AS her form disappeared in the distance,
the vines parted, and a young gentle
man stepped through the aperture into
the arbor. His eyes twinllled mischiev-
Ously.
"Aha bonnie Kate, you'll get caught
in trap of your own setting - and he
laughed outright.
Among four children, Kate was the
only girl, and was spoiled in conse~
quence. Not one of her three brothers
could ride, hunt, fish, or achiSHe better
than she. And yet when she was in the
parlor, there was not one of her young
lady friends one whit prettier or more
accomplished than Mistress Kate. She
danced beautifully, had magnificent
voice, and played and sung superbly;
but at the bottom of it all she was II
natural born coquette, and flirted wick
eddy with her male friends. Dick Wal
ton, after three weeks residence UNI
der her fathers roof, had become des-
perately smitten, but knowing her
flirting propensities, declined adding
himself to her already long string of
disconsOlate adOrers.
Once, in particular, when her father
desired her to look uncommOnly well,
because of certain elderly parsonage,
whom he wished to call 'son-in-law,"
she astonished them both by appearing
before them with her arms akimbo, and
a cigar between her lips. The old beau
was so disenchanted that he then and
there declined the honor of an alliance
with Miss Kate, which SO enraged her
father that he ordered the sutton from
the house.
The same day the young lady began
her operations ON Dick, but he eluded
her. If she found him in the parlor, he
made some preteXt to leave the room.
Ifby chance she met him in the gar