The Republican journal., 1870-01-27

|
anemones, syringas and lupines; but OF
questioning them they one and all, professe(
ignorance of the azaleas. A few days later
Master Johnny tinger-whose desk was near
est the window-was suddenly taken will
spasms of apparently gratuitous laughter
that threatened the discipline Of the schoo
school. All that Miss Mary could get from
him was, that some one had been ''lookine
, in the winder." Irate and indignant, she
sailed from her hive to do battle with the
intruder As she turned the corner of the
school house, she came plump upon the quon
dam drunkard-now perfectly sober and very
| sheepish and guilty-looking.
These facts Miss Marywa not slow to take
a feminine advantage Of, in her present hui
NOR. But it was somewhat confusing to OBJ
serve, also, that the beast-despite some
faint signs of the past dissipation-was
amable- -looking-in fact, kind Of blonde
Sampson, whose corn-colored, silken beard
apparently had never yet known the touch
! of barber's razor or Delilah's shears. Sc
that the cutting speech which quivered or
her tongue died upon her lips, and she con-
tented herself with receiving his stammering 9
apology with supercilious eyelids and gather
ed skirts of uncontamination. 'Nhen she re-
entered the school room her eyes fell upon
And then she laughed, and the little people
all laughed, and they We're all unconsciously
very happy.
1t was on q hot day-and not long after
this-that two short legged boys came to
grief on the threshold of the the school with
a pail Of water, which they had laboriously
brought from the spring, and that Miss Mary
compassionately seized the pail and started
for the spring herself. At the foot of the hill
a shadow crossed her path and u blue -shirted
arm dexterously, but gently, relieved her of
her burden. Miss Mary was both cmbarrass-
ed and angry. 'If You carried more of that
for yourself" she said, spitefully, to the blue
arm, without designing to raise her lashes to
its owner, you'd do better" In the sub
missive silence that followed, she regretted
the speech, and thanked him SO sweety at
the door that he stumbled. Which caused
the children to laugh again--in which Miss
Mary joined until the color came family into
her pale cheek. The next day a barrel was
mysteriously placed beside the door and as
mysteriously filled with fresh spring water
every morning.
Nor was this superior young person with
out other quiet attentions. ''Profane Bill
driver of the slumgullion stage widely
known in the newspapers for his 'sgallantry''
sex had excepted Miss Mary from this atten-
ton. on the ground that he had habit of
'scussing" on up grade, and gave her half
the coach, to herself Jack IamEn, gam
bier, having once silently ridden with her in
the same coach, afterward threw decanter at
the head of a confederate for mentioning her
name in a bar-room. The overdressed mother
OF pupil whose paternity was doubtful, had
often fingered near this astute yestaFs tenn
pie, never daring to enter its sacred dprecincts,
but content to worship the priestess from
afar
With such unconscious intervals, the mo-
notonous procession Of blue skies, glittering
sunshine, brief twilghts, and star-lit nights
passed over Red Gulch Miss Mary grew
fond of walking in the sedatc and proper
woods. Perhaps she believed, with Mrs Std
ger, that the balsamic odors of the frs ..did
herchest good,' for certainly her slight cough
was less frequent and her step firmer. Per-
haps she had learned the amending lesson
which the patient pines are never weary of
repeating to heedful or listless ears. And
so, one day, she planned a picnic on Buckeye
Hill, and took the children with her. Away
from the dusty road, the struggling shanties,
the yellow bitches, the clamor of restless en-
gines, the cheap finery of shop windows, the
=
the thin veneering which barbarism takes up
on itself in such localities-what infinite re-
lief was theirs The last heap of ragged
rock and clay passed-the last unsightly
chasm crossed-how the waiting woods
opened their long files to receive them. How
the children-perhaps because they had not
yet grown quite away from the breast of the
bounteous mother threw themselves face
downward on her brown bosom, with I'M
couth caresses, filling the air with their laugh
ter: and how Miss Mary hcrselt-ieincly
fastidious and entrenched as she was in the
purity of spotless skirts, collar and cuffs
forgot all, and ran like a crested quail at the
head Of her brood, until, romping, laughing
and painting, with a loosened braid Of brown
hair hat hanging by knotted ribbon from
her throat, she came suddenly and violently
in the heart Of the forest, upon-the luclless
Sandy!
The explanations, apologies and not over
wise conversation that ensued need not be
indicated here. 1t would seem, however, that
Miss Mary had already established some ac-
qualntance with this ex-drunkard Enough
that he was soon accepted as one Of the
party; that the children with that quick in
telligence which Providence gives the help
less, recognized a friend, and played with
his blonde beard, and long silken moustache,
and took other liberties, as the helpless arc
apt to do. And when he had built a fire
against tree, and had shown them other
mysteries of wood-craft their admiration
knew no bounds. At the close of two such
foolish, idle, happy hours, he found himself
lying at the feet of the school-mistress, gaz-
ing dreamily in her face-as she sat upon the
sloping hillside, weaving wreaths Of laurel
! and syringa-in very much the same attitude
as he had lain when first they met. Nor
was the similitude greatly forced. The weak
ness OF an easy, seDsuous nature, tkat had
found a dreamy exaltation in liquor, it is to
be feared was now finding an equal intoxica-
ton in love.
think that Sandy was dimly conscious OF
this himself, l know that he longed to be do
ing something Staying a grizzly, scalping a
savage, or sacrificing himself in some way
for the sake of this sallowfaced, gray-eyed
school-mistress. AS should like to present
him in an heroic attitude, | stay my hand
with great difficulty at this moment, ben 9
| only withheld from introducing such an cpl
sode by strong conviction that it does not
usually occur at such times. And [ trust
that my fair reader, who remembers that, in
real crisis, it is always some uninteresting
stranger or unromantic policcman-and not
Adolphus-who rescues they will forgive the
omission.
So they sat there undisturbed-the wood
peckerS chattinp overhead and the voices nj